Devlog: Enter the Tower - Risk, Reward, and Ruin
The Tower has finally opened.
We're excited to finally pull back the curtain on The King's Tower, our core rogue-lite experience. It's a labyrinth of procedural rooms, surreal architecture, and escalating danger.
What Is the Tower?
The Tower is our take on a rogue-lite experience, while still allowing the player to make meaningful decisions along the way. To progress, the tower requires blood to climb to the next floor, but you can choose how to collect the blood.
Entering any chamber requires payment, in gold or blood.
Each floor offers two types of chambers:
- Standard Chambers: Inexpensive and plentiful. Face single enemies in a duel, take on strategic enemy compositions, or run in and open enough chests to escape the chamber. The symbols on each door tell you just enough to get a sense of what lies ahead.
- Strongholds: A larger, more open chamber with different objectives and significantly more expensive. These are arenas filled with multiple paths, elite enemies, and completing the objective will clear the entire floor, no additional chambers required.
Death Isn’t the End, But It Is Expensive
- Items are now lost on death.
- But there’s hope: Items can be recovered, if you can fight your way back to the spot where you fell.
Gold Is Eternal
While your body is breakable, your wallet is not.
- Gold persists between runs.
- Use it to craft new or lost items, or open strongholds right away.
Language of The Tower
Doors are etched with a three-layer symbol system
- Outer Ring: Chamber Type (Standard Chamber or Stronghold)
- Middle Ring: Indicates enemy count
- Center Icon: Encounter type (combat trial, treasure room, duel, etc.)
Learning the language of the Tower is essential.
The Tower Locks in Place
Once you enter, the Tower stays static. Room layouts, enemy placements, mission types—they're locked in until you leave to the hub. Exit, and it all reshuffles.
This means:
- You can learn the layout across a single run.
- You can plan your return to your corpse.
- You can prepare for known threats.
New Tools: The Grappling Hook
You now enter the Tower with a grappling hook, capable of pulling you toward new heights.
- Upgradeable Charges: Want more flexibility? Invest your gold wisely.
- Grappling changes how you move, fight, and explore.
What’s Next?
- New mission types to expand variety.
- New items to help each climb feel more unique.
- More environmental hazards and trap interactions.
- A final fight with the king at the top.
catch y’all next time.
~Round Toast Studios