Tower57 - AlienBreed/ChaosEngine-inspired co-op shooter Amiga4life

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Any possibility to back with Paypal now, since it's funded ?

Apparently yes.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/514621648/tower-57/posts/1338932

Paypal:
This is the first thing I would like to address. I got a lot of PMs and comments during the campaign asking if we had a Paypal / why not.

I didn't feel right about taking money through Paypal until we were funded because of the implications (and possible complications) with refunds in case we didn't make it.

Now that we are funded however, it's a different story

So if you wanted to support us through Paypal but couldn't, you can now do so right over here (click the Paypal button at the top of the page and enter an amount equivalent to the tier you wish to pledge for + add ons if any).

 

[DwarvenFood]

In that case, pledged / pre-ordered !

 

[Weirdstuffinspace]

Well done guys. Your research and hard work paid off into a well thought out campaign. You didnt drown in cash but set realistic goals and you got your passion and capability to pull it off across to your backers. Don't forget to take week or 2 off so you don't burn out

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

They are going wild with all that money
http://pixwerk.net/home/news/15-rewards-and-project-update

Rewards and project update

Details
Written by benitosub
Category: News
Published: 14 October 2015
Hits: 737
Hello everybody!

We've slowed the pace down a bit on the updates since the end of the campaign (to the delight of at least one backer :D if you see this, and you will definitely know who you are, sorry again for the "spam" ^_^#), but that's no reason to keep you all in the dark about what we've been up to, so ... here we go!



First and foremost:

The Rewards
We have currently completed 11 out of 20 pixel avatars! If you backed for the "Pixel Avatar" and haven't received yours, please post in this thread and I will get in touch asap.

The digital postcard and desktop wallpaper are still being worked on, and the "pixel artist" and "code guru" backers will hear from us at the end of the month.

Regarding content-rewards (such as npc design, easter eggs, etc.) we will contact respective backers towards the end of the year, once tilesets / levels are fleshed out and we can provide reference material as well as design specifics.

Soundtrack production starts in November, and we are collecting potential material for the art-book on a daily basis (most of which won't make the cut, but better have a lot to pick from ^_^).

We also started getting in touch with manufacturers regarding the Collector's Edition (the box sample feels *exactly* like the boxes used for Amiga / PC games in the 90s! I think I'll keep a few for myself...).

The Finances
Sadly there have been some .... hmmm ... "misguided" gaming projects on Kickstarter lately. So I wanted to take this opportunity to update all our backers on how your money is being spent!

For starters, Kickstarter took its rightfully earned cut: including dropped pledges, we received just short of €46K / $52.7K.

Out of that, we have currently purchased a laptop that doesn't randomly reboot, a monitor, a cheap hdmi cable, a Trello business account (so we can share our boards with our Alpha backers - hang in there you guys, coming soon!), and an $80 plugin for the website.

All in all we are out just over €2.3K / $2.65K so far (we're still living on our previous jobs' last salaries so no "living expenses" have been collected yet). As you can see we are not exactly going crazy with the money (especially since it will eventually get plundered by the tax office ^_^#)

The Project
And finally the most important part... the game!

On the art side, things are proceeding as planned, and Thomas has been hard at work on the tilesets for the various floors. We should start releasing sneak-peeks around late November

On the code side, I've been refactoring and overhauling the existing systems to support the "modding tools" stretching goal, and generally cleaning up the existing code-base.

Our goal remains to provide an Alpha by the start of the holidays (including an Amiga "engine-test"), and kick off the new year with a late-January beta.

Once I'm done with the tools and we're back into game-content production, we'll start again with the weekly gifs and such as we did back on IndieDB.

Until then I hope you will forgive our relative silence as we are working hard on bringing you the game you all backed - with hopefully a few surprises on the side

Cheers,

Marco / benitosub

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

http://pixwerk.net/home/news/19-enemies-ecs-and-modding

Spoiler

Enemies, ECS, and Modding

Details
Written by benitosub
Category: News
Published: 09 December 2015
Hits: 818
Hello everyone!

As we continue to work towards our Alpha build, I am also overhauling the existing systems from the prototype to allow for all the cool stuff we talked about during the campaign - mostly with respect to the modding stretch goal, since a lot of this stuff was “hidden under the hood” in the prototype and thus not easily modifiable from the outside.


More specifically, I am currently focusing on enemies and the systems that govern their behaviour. As I briefly mentioned during the campaign, I am taking a “composition” approach to everything, which means enemies (and by extent their behaviour) are defined by which components are applied to them.

So putting a “flocking component” on an enemy makes it congregate towards its peers and behave like a flock, whereas a “path component” will make the enemy pick a target location and use the pathfinding system to figure out how to get there. A “shooter component" will give it the ability to discharge its gun on its current target, whereas a “melee component" will enable it to use a melee attack when applicable.

And so on…

This design also applies to how enemies are built, namely out of “body parts” just like every other character / NPC in the game.

And here is where the “entity / component / systems” approach really shines:

Since enemies, NPCs, and characters all share the same systems, enemies and NPCs instantly gain every “ability” that was created for player characters.

For example enemies / NPCs with a “legs” body part will seamlessly adapt their leg movement when strafing or walking backwards, or when locked onto a target - such as a guard shooting at you, or a companion following you around.

Taking this one step further, since weapons are technically body parts, and again there is a single system that handles entities with a “weapon component” - no matter whether this entity is a player or an enemy - this means enemies and NPCs can equip and fire the same weapons as the player! (remember that bit in the campaign about enemy guards picking up discarded weapons if they run out of ammo?)

Of course the opposite holds true as well, any weapon created for enemies (this might sound odd at first, but under the hood a mutant spitting fire at you still technically has a flamethrower equipped, even if it's invisible) can also be picked up and used by the player!

Not that it would always make sense - see the aforementioned invisible weapon - but things like a NPC with a unique weapon which you can only obtain by killing him and prying it from his cold, dead, hands is definitely a possibility

And this is how we end up with missile-launcher-wielding-slimes (mind you this will not necessarily be in the final game, but hey I had to test with *something* ^_^)

All of this is “free”, in the sense that it doesn’t require any additional code: all these systems work on literally any entity with the right components - and all of these components are available through the editor for you to use and abuse!

So anybody who wants to mod the final game should be able to create his / her own enemies, complete with custom weapons and behaviour - to the extent of mixing and matching existing options.

Or, you know, grab a toilet, attach a tommy-gun to it, slap the right components on, and create a flock of sentient bullet-spewing-crappers-from-hell that chase you down the levels.

Whatever tickles your fancy ^_^

Cheers!

BTW did they release a demo?

 

[Cyangmou]

Hey There, THomas from the team here,

So far there is no publicly available demo.

Marco is working on all systems & code we need to get an Alpha level going. I am doing all the graphics needed for that and designing the level, the combat encounters and doing all related graphics.
For now we are at least making good progress and also update our page from time.

http://pixwerk.net/home/news

http://pixwerk.net/home/news/19-enemies-ecs-and-modding

Spoiler

Enemies, ECS, and Modding

Details
Written by benitosub
Category: News
Published: 09 December 2015
Hits: 818
Hello everyone!

As we continue to work towards our Alpha build, I am also overhauling the existing systems from the prototype to allow for all the cool stuff we talked about during the campaign - mostly with respect to the modding stretch goal, since a lot of this stuff was “hidden under the hood” in the prototype and thus not easily modifiable from the outside.


More specifically, I am currently focusing on enemies and the systems that govern their behaviour. As I briefly mentioned during the campaign, I am taking a “composition” approach to everything, which means enemies (and by extent their behaviour) are defined by which components are applied to them.

So putting a “flocking component” on an enemy makes it congregate towards its peers and behave like a flock, whereas a “path component” will make the enemy pick a target location and use the pathfinding system to figure out how to get there. A “shooter component" will give it the ability to discharge its gun on its current target, whereas a “melee component" will enable it to use a melee attack when applicable.

And so on…

This design also applies to how enemies are built, namely out of “body parts” just like every other character / NPC in the game.

And here is where the “entity / component / systems” approach really shines:

Since enemies, NPCs, and characters all share the same systems, enemies and NPCs instantly gain every “ability” that was created for player characters.

For example enemies / NPCs with a “legs” body part will seamlessly adapt their leg movement when strafing or walking backwards, or when locked onto a target - such as a guard shooting at you, or a companion following you around.

Taking this one step further, since weapons are technically body parts, and again there is a single system that handles entities with a “weapon component” - no matter whether this entity is a player or an enemy - this means enemies and NPCs can equip and fire the same weapons as the player! (remember that bit in the campaign about enemy guards picking up discarded weapons if they run out of ammo?)

Of course the opposite holds true as well, any weapon created for enemies (this might sound odd at first, but under the hood a mutant spitting fire at you still technically has a flamethrower equipped, even if it's invisible) can also be picked up and used by the player!

Not that it would always make sense - see the aforementioned invisible weapon - but things like a NPC with a unique weapon which you can only obtain by killing him and prying it from his cold, dead, hands is definitely a possibility

And this is how we end up with missile-launcher-wielding-slimes (mind you this will not necessarily be in the final game, but hey I had to test with *something* ^_^)

All of this is “free”, in the sense that it doesn’t require any additional code: all these systems work on literally any entity with the right components - and all of these components are available through the editor for you to use and abuse!

So anybody who wants to mod the final game should be able to create his / her own enemies, complete with custom weapons and behaviour - to the extent of mixing and matching existing options.

Or, you know, grab a toilet, attach a tommy-gun to it, slap the right components on, and create a flock of sentient bullet-spewing-crappers-from-hell that chase you down the levels.

Whatever tickles your fancy ^_^

Cheers!

BTW did they release a demo?

 

[Outlander]

Juicy update today, lots of new content:

http://pixwerk.net/home/news/33-the-research-center

Next build will be focused on bug fixing.

Looking really good, great attention to detail.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[kazgar]

Bubbles they're at gamescom, want to use up some of now freed up time having a look?

 

[Bubbles]

I got a list of invitations that included this game on the 29th (I checked the e-mail before revealing this; there is no mention of a confidentiality agreement), but I didn't know it had any fans here. We don't actually have that much free time, but we can try to do a public hands-on at the Indie Arena Booth.

 

[Bubbles]

I got a list of invitations that included this game on the 29th (I checked the e-mail before revealing this; there is no mention of a confidentiality agreement), but I didn't know it had any fans here. We don't actually have that much free time, but we can try to do a public hands-on at the Indie Arena Booth.

Played it for 20 minutes; had fun. I've never played a twin stick shooter before, so I can't really offer any sort of in-depth analysis; maybe JarlFrank can say more.

 

[JarlFrank]

I got a list of invitations that included this game on the 29th (I checked the e-mail before revealing this; there is no mention of a confidentiality agreement), but I didn't know it had any fans here. We don't actually have that much free time, but we can try to do a public hands-on at the Indie Arena Booth.

Played it for 20 minutes; had fun. I've never played a twin stick shooter before, so I can't really offer any sort of in-depth analysis; maybe JarlFrank can say more.

I played games like that before but with a mouse and keyboard of course, so playing with a controller was pretty awkward.

Those 20 minutes of co-op play were pretty fun, but of course 20 minutes is not a long time especially when you have to familiarize yourself with the controls first.

What I noticed:
- there's a shitload of stuff in the environment that you can shoot at until it breaks, and you get coins for that
- coins can buy you some upgrades, I think... the only upgrade I bought was a replacement arm because there's one monster type that can rip your arm off. You can't use any rifles until you get a new arm.
- there's a variety of weapons, like shotguns which have a spread and machine guns which are fast, and I also found an explosive barrel thrower once that let me throw explosive barrels, the accuracy was horrible and I managed to kill myself with it by walking into my own explosion
- there are a few secrets to be discovered by exploring the level and by shooting at everything (there was one breakable wall we found), and you get more coins from them

That's pretty much what I noticed about the game.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/530950/

Available: 2017

 

[Excidium II]

2017 is the year of games.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

2017 is the year of games.

At least it can't be worse than 2016.
Thank gods for this autumn rush of mini sequels. (Dungeon Rats, Legend of Eisenwald: Blood November something.)

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Outlander]

benitosub yo, get us up to speed with the game's development. Release date?

 

[Modron]

They don't really have a release date :http://steamcommunity.com/app/530950/discussions/0/1326718197215038452/

Rufus Blackwood [developer] May 18 @ 5:36am
Hi,

it's going to be released this year. Sooner rather than later. But we're not sharing official release date, yet.

Cheers!

According to the kickstarter update in April they seem feature complete and are mainly polishing off content so it's probably at the it's done when it's done stage.

 

[Haba]

Itz finally cumming'



#metoo

 

[CryptRat]

wishing Amiga was still a thing

Looks great.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Release should happen tomorrow.

 

[CryptRat]

It's out and it's cheap.
https://af.gog.com/game/tower_57?as=1649904300

 

[Haba]

It is pretty gud. Very Chaos Engine.

Harder than I expected, you can die from two shots and once you are out of lives that's it. And reviving dead characters can only be done at specific locations.

 

[Kitchen Utensil]

Looks nice.

However, after watching some gameplay on youtube I think I'll pass. Everything else but the attention to detail graphics-wise seems to be sub-par (compared to Chaos Engine), music and sound, pacing, difficulty (looks way too easy for a game this short), level-layout and some design decisions like too much boring dialog, a map, a hub-place (why would you need a hub in a 2 hour game) and retarded mini-games.

The game would have benefitted from a bit more focus. It seems to be short enough as is, why waste your (and our) time with dialog, a map, a hub and minigames instead of adding a couple cool levels and investing some time or money in bad-ass music. But it's 2017, so I don't know why I'd expect a good game.

Well, still looks nice I guess.

Edit: Just realised that sounds more negative than intended. It's 10 bucks or so after all, looks good and is probably worth the money. Still think it's a missed opportunity.

 

[Haba]

I'll just leave this one here...