Summoner's Tower by willhoit
Overview
Summoner's Tower is an addictive push-your-luck block stacking game. The higher your tower, the more points you earn - but be wary - every block comes from somewhere!
When you stack a block you summon it from somewhere else in your pile of blocks - this could be anywhere, including the base of your tower.
Good luck!
(The game may take a few minutes to load - please be patient!)
Controls
Using the mouse, left click to summon your next block. Right click to change block types.
Use the arrow keys or WASD to rotate the block. Space also changes block types.
Click and drag to move the camera.
System Requirements
Tested on Chrome 123 with a decent gaming card (also okay on a GTX1650 or better).
Things that didn't quite make it...
Well, it's a game jam. After bouncing between several frameworks, it seemed hard to find one that worked both on the web and off - mostly because we wanted decent physics with concave objects! The bevy framework's UI tools are still early in development and our menu's aren't quite where we'd like them. We had to cheat with 2d particle effects to get it running on the web. And the physics engine doesn't seem as stable as we had hoped - but we keep tweaking things! Maybe a future release will even have soft bodies...
Credits
The programming, art, models and levels are ours. Built using rust, bevy and rapier3d on Debian Linux. The music is by Eric Matyas at www.soundimage.org (we've opted out of Audio). Credits also available in game.
Ratings
| Overall | 1002th | 3.176⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1027th | 2.956⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 700th | 3.242⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1144th | 2.676⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1029th | 2.676⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1159th | 2.5⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 65🗳️ | 48🗨️ |
Balancing how likely it is that your next block will come from your tower is a big part of our game. We kicked around ideas on how to weight the probabilities to balance the risk vs. reward, but that does make it harder to intuit the probability. Post game jam, we want to add a more developed level progression that would adjust the odds as you increase in level. (We think numbering them would make it more puzzle like and less push-your-luck, but maybe some information on the odds would help.)
Also each shape does have unique properties - score contribution, mass, friction, etc Plus the higher in the tower they are the bigger the multiplier! We'll experiment with surfacing this information to the player... though we're trying to keep the ux minimal.
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If you have the time and energy, would you mind taking a look at my friends' games (not mine)? They've helped me a lot in the past, and I'd like to return the favor. Here's the link:[https://ldj.am/$385805](https://ldj.am/$385805)
Great job!
First game I've ever played embedded on the Ludum Dare page so that's cool! I agree with one of the older comments that the randomised chance of removing parts of your tower feels a bit rough, but I guess using different block types is just a different types of skill expression.
@choisicles - we like the risk-reward too! I often found myself drawn into it while debugging! But, to the point @jamieok made, it can sometimes seem a little harsh. We've been experimenting with a weighted progression system that would lower the odds of pulls from your tower initially, but approach the even distribution as you climb skill levels. Post-jam we're also planning on improving the animation (and audio) for the summoned block, so it'll be easier to tell where they are coming from.
@jamieok - we were trying to keep the 3d placement simple, but we're experimenting with a way to fine-tune your placement without adding too much complexity.
@goddoesplaydice - this was my first bevy project (though I've used Rust and other ECS systems). I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked but compared to a raylib project (in C) the compile times are quite noticeable