Idle Rogue Like - Endless Tower - Prototype
A B O U T T H E G A M E
Idle Rogue Like - Endless Tower - Prototype
This game is a prototype. Yep, you read that right. It’s in early alpha, so don’t expect miracles, just chaos and pixels. I love idle & roguelike games, and as most of you know, I’m a passionate pixel artist. This little project is my attempt to marry both passions in one game. Spoiler: things explode.
You get a tower that has to defend itself against waves of enemies. The tower earns XP for kills (it’s a hard worker). Every level-up, you get to choose one of three randomly rolled upgrades from a pool of 11. Just like a roguelike: make choices, pray it doesn’t end badly.
The tower shoots automatically because, let’s be honest, being lazy is fun. But you can also take control if you think you aim better than a pixelated tower. (Disable Auto Mode and use the left mouse click for the main shot, and the right mouse click for rockets.) Oh, and bosses? They show up every 5th wave, because regular enemies are boring.
At the end of a round, your tower level and upgrades reset, like any proper roguelike. But hey, you keep 50% of the XP toward your master level, so at least it feels like progress. Plus, you earn credits to unlock permanent upgrades under “Upgrades,” helping you climb higher in wave mode.
Of course, there’s a highscore to track your best rounds and an achievements system that rewards extra XP and credits. Because everyone likes a little bragging rights.
I hope you have fun testing and shooting everything that moves. I’ll keep improving and tweaking the game, and I’m grateful for all tips, tricks, or even angry comments you throw my way.
Ahoj, Arijkx!
I M P O R T A N T I N F O R M A T I O N
All pixel art assets and character sprites, as well as animation spritesheets, effects, and details, were handmade by me using Aseprite. The base game was developed by myself in JavaScript. For some of the more complex gameplay mechanics, I used Cursor (an AI-assisted coding tool) as support.
This means that parts of the game were programmed with AI assistance. Since I consider myself an amateur developer, I welcome these tools in small doses. However, I clearly reject the use of AI in the field of art.
I N G A M E U P G R A D E S
- Basis Shield Regeneration +1/sec
- + 1/sec Shield Regeneration per Upgrade
- Available as PERMANENT UPGRADE
- Basis Tower Regeneration +1/5sec
- + 1/5sec Tower Regeneration per Upgrade
- Available as PERMANENT UPGRADE
- Basis Tower Shield 100
- + 25 Shield per Upgrade
- Available as PERMANENT UPGRADE
- Basis Tower Life 100
- + 50 Life per Upgrade
- Available as PERMANENT UPGRADE
- Basis Tower Rotation Speed 1%
- + 1% per Upgrade
- Not Available as PERMANENT UPGRADE
- Basis Attack Speed +1/sec
- + 0.2/sec Per Upgrade
- Available as PERMANENT UPGRADE
- Basis XP Bonus 0%
- + 10% per Upgrade
- Available as PERMANENT UPGRADE
- Basis Tower Attack Damage +1
- + 0.5 Attack Damage per Upgrade
- Available as PERMANENT UPGRADE
- Basis (not active)
- + 1 Rocket per Upgrade (+0.5sec cooldown) max Level 5
- Available as PERMANENT UPGRADE max Level 5
- Basis Rocket Damage +3
- + 1 Damage per Upgrade
- Not Available as PERMANENT UPGRADE
- Basis 0 Drones
- +1 Drone (Defend against enemy projectiles) Max Level 8
- Not Available as PERMANENT UPGRADE
E N E M I E S
Normal Enemy:
- Movement Speed ~ normal
- Life in Wave 1 ~ 2.0 HP +0.5 HP per Wave
- Shield in Wave 1 ~ No Shield
- Damage ~ No Projectiles (+10 Damage by ship vs. shield or tower collision )
Elite Enemy:
- Movement Speed ~ normal
- Life in Wave 1 ~ 3.0 HP +0.5 HP per Wave
- Shield in Wave 1 ~ 4.0 Shield 0.1 Shield per Wave
- Damage ~ Projectile ~ +1 DMG (+10 Damage by ship vs. shield or tower collision )
Kamikaze Enemy:
- Movement Speed ~ x3
- Life in Wave 1 ~ 2.0 HP +0.5 HP per Wave
- Shield in Wave 1 ~ No Shield
- Damage ~ No Projectiles (+10 Damage by ship vs. shield or tower collision )
Special Force Enemy:
- Movement Speed ~ normal
- Life in Wave 1 ~ 2.0 HP +0.5 HP per Wave
- Shield in Wave 1 ~ No Shield
- Damage ~ Projectile ~ +1 DMG (Projectiles ignore tower shield, +10 Damage by ship vs. shield or tower collision )
Frigate Enemy:
- Movement Speed ~ normal
- Life in Wave 1 ~ 3.0 HP +0.5 HP per Wave
- Shield in Wave 1 ~ 4.0 Shield + 0.1 Shield per Wave
- Damage ~ 2 Projectile ~ +1 DMG
- +10 Damage by ship vs. shield or tower collision
Boss Escort Ship Enemy:
- (Only in Boss Wave - Spawn after every 5th wave)
- (Fires 2 projectiles with a 0.5 sec delay. 1 hits the shield, 1 hits the tower directly. The tower projectile ignores the shield if active.)
- Movement Speed ~ normal
- Life in Wave 1 ~ 20 HP +5 HP per Boss Wave
- Shield in Wave 1 ~ No Shield
- Damage ~ 2 Projectile ~ +1 DMG + 0.5
Boss Enemy:
- (Spawn after every 5th wave)
- Movement Speed ~ normal
- Life in Wave 1 ~ 100.0 HP +50 HP per Boss Wave
- Shield in Wave 1 ~ No Shield
- Damage ~ Projectile ~ +3 DMG +3 per Boss Wave
- + 2 Escort Ships
F E E D B A C K & B U G R E P O R T
This is an early alpha version for testing. Balancing and the game loop are still work in progress and need a lot more testing. I update this version regularly based on your feedback.
That’s why I really appreciate any feedback you have! All alpha testers will, of course, be credited by name later on.
Thanks so much for playing my game and helping me make it better step by step! ❤️
Share your feedback on Discord:
https://discord.gg/bwdKzauM83
C O N N E C T W I T H M E
Comments
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Really cool for an "alpha" version! (Already more polished than quite a few games on Steam...)
I'm sure you have plenty of your own ideas on where to take this, but here are some of my ideas:
* UI: Zero and Eight looks very similar in the smaller text, might be more readable if Zero didn't have strikethrough.
* UI: Some minor improvement could be had with upgrades, e.g. displaying a max level (if any), and icons or color variation, e.g. health upgrades green, shield upgrades cyan, etc.
* bug? there is no upgrade between tower level 99 and 100.
* readability? I would perhaps replace "Tower" with "turret" in some cases, e.g. "Turret damage"
* balance: if you're interested in more active play, having different wave types, e.g. more shielded enemies, only kamikaze, all enemies coming from one side but with double HP, etc. Generally the player experience is usually when difficulty goes up and down in small waves, but overall up.
* balance: if you prefer players to have more idle gameplay, I think "random upgrade" option would be neat.
* wishlist: I think one or two more weapons would be nice. Perhaps a laser and a smart bomb.
* wishlist: AI upgrades would be nice, in early levels it would be nice if the turret would consider both enemy distance and turning rate.
* wishlist: more varied upgrades, e.g. drone upgrade, anti-missile drone power, projectile speed, projectile size, spread, shotgun mode, missile turning rate, missile area damage
* wishlist: perhaps limited-use power, e.g. one smart bomb per playthrough, nanobots for healing, etc.
Well, there's more but again I'm sure you already have hundreds of your own ideas. Again, it's already quite fun and pretty polished!
Hey Analytik,
I’m really happy about your feedback, and thanks for testing and playing! I hope you enjoyed it. :)
And yes, exactly. I have a big roadmap for the game, which I’ll be sharing here soon. You’ll be glad to hear that most of your suggestions are already on it. I’m taking your feedback on balance into account and will polish it further. I also love your idea about enemy waves and variations. I’ll definitely include that, thanks a lot!
I’ve noted all your other change suggestions and adjustments as well.
The text issue is actually due to the font. Since I chose an existing pixel font, I can’t change it for now, but I’m planning to create a custom font specifically for this game.
I can also tell you that I’ve planned five different towers in the game concept. The assets already exist in the game; I’m just not sure yet how to implement them. whether players should unlock new tower variants with credits or only after certain waves:
Laser Tower
Railgun Tower
Shotgun Tower
Virus Tower (unique: controls enemies and makes them fight each other)
Bug: The upgrade between levels 99 and 100 is missing, check recorded, fix coming!
Regarding your wishlist, about the smart bomb per run or nanobots for healing: I originally planned a skill system, which already exists but still needs polishing and isn’t included in this test version. In the future, you’ll earn skill points from master level-ups and can unlock skills from a skill tree, which you can activate manually during gameplay. each with a cooldown. Nanobots are already planned, and the smart bomb sounds great. I’ll add it to the list. :P
Additionally, there will be ultimate abilities that can only be used once every X rounds, so players need to save them for the right moment.
Thank you for playing my game, and your detailed Feedback <3
Arijkx
My pleasure! It was really fun to have it on the second screen, although I'll stop playing for a while because upgrading 100 times is a bit too distracting when I'm trying to code my own games in the meantime OOPS 😅
But I'll definitely come back.
What's the big plan, if I may ask? Do you plan to sell it eventually, or rely on donations? Personally I think it does have Steam potential, if you keep improving on the already good the quality.
I’ve always wanted to release a game on Steam. Before doing so, I wanted to see if it would be well received and if people liked the style and gameplay. Based on the feedback, I planned to further develop the game and, if it’s well received, also bring on a sound artist to create a fitting audio setting for it. After that, a Steam release would be planned.
You’re a developer? That’s really cool, all the more reason I appreciate your feedback! What are you working on at the moment, if I may ask?
Good luck! I think you've got a solid skill set already, so your chances are better than average; but yeah don't underestimate marketing, I'm sure you've seen how many indies have an okay game and don't get even 10 reviews.
I'd offer help but I don't have actually sound design experience yet, and don't think I would be quickly good at it. But Kenney is working on a sound design tool that will hopefully release soon, that looked pretty simple & powerful... well anyway, plenty of audio related talent around.
I have, as we all do, dozens of potential projects written down. Currently working on a minimalistic clicker multi-mini-game, mostly so that Google doesn't close my Android developer account again. In the background working on a large-scale detailed town simulation text/GUI game (drawf fortress but less combat and more mundane human life), and also Bevy game jam starts this weekend so I'll to join.
BTW how many hours have your poured into this game so far? Ballpark?
Yeah, that’s true, marketing is really important. And I can totally understand how tough it is for the indie game community, especially after setbacks like with BlockBlasters: Infected, where Steam downloads contained malware disguised as a patch. That really makes it hard for indie developers to gain the community’s trust.
But I’m optimistic, because I’m not in it to make money; I develop games out of passion. I just want to play games I can’t find in the store. Nowadays, everything is focused on profit and online requirements. I’m an “’89er” and I miss old-school games: buy once, keep forever, no early access, just a finished, polished game.
I also want to engage with my community and try to take their wishes into account as much as possible, so we can create a game together that really has value, not just a source of income, but something that makes history. :D
Your game idea sounds really interesting! I’d love to hear more and test it when something’s available.
I definitely need to check out that sound tool when it’s finished!
Feel free to join my Discord, then we can add each other (if you have a Discord account) and chat if you’re interested.
How long did I spend on the game? For the assets, I spent about 20 hours drawing (using Aseprite). Coding and developing the first prototype took around 10–15 hours. After that, until the current version, I’ve spent about 6 weeks, roughly 100+ hours.