The Only Tower
About
The Only Tower is a minimalist action roguelike inspired by Dome Keeper and Vampire Survivors.
Protect the Tower
You're the only one that can operate the Tower! Stay nearby to keep it powered up in order destroy the hordes of enemies trying to bring it down.
Upgrade the Tower, Upgrade Yourself!
Leave the comfort of the tower to pickup resources in order to upgrade the tower, weapons, and the player.
Upgrade the Enemies!?
After every wave, you'll have to choose which enemies to face next, as well as how to upgrade them. You'll have to choose carefully if you want to succeed.
Survive?
Be not afraid.
Controls
Keyboard
- Move: WASD, Arrow Keys
- Dash: Space
Gamepad
- Move: Left Joystick
- Dash: Xbox: A, Playstation: X
Press/Streamer Kit
Tiny Mass Games
The Only Tower was created in association with Tiny Mass Games, a loose collective of small teams and solo developers who aim to create an exciting new game every quarter. Check out our other work at tinymassgames.com.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- 0.11.0 - Rampier and WebGL PerisistenceApr 10, 2023
- 0.10.1b - Windows and ExitMar 20, 2023
- 0.10.1 - Harder & BoomierMar 19, 2023
- 0.9.4 Notes. Beta Release!Mar 13, 2023
- 0.9.3 NotesMar 11, 2023
- 0.9.2 NotesMar 10, 2023
- 0.2.1 NotesJan 23, 2023
- 0.2.0 NotesJan 21, 2023
Comments
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It's very, very interesting they chase after the player and not the tower. So if the tower had a longer battery, you can just kite stuff around it.
Or do a hit-and-run strategy.
"Be not afraid."
💀💀💀💀💀
Can you make it playable on Linux ?
found this similar looking game on the app store
did you guys contribute on this or...
ugh. Nope! didn't contribute to that at all. They actually have another clone of this game that is a little less shameless. Ah well, I'm at least confident that their work leaves them miserable and unfulfilled :)
it would be really cool if these "eye games" all turned into part of some larger game or arg lol
I do think of them as all being part of some kind of extended universe. See also: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1624550/Betty__Earl/
interesting... can't wait to see your next prototype lol
i cant start the game im prob just dumb but help
Tip: get thumper with fire. (Second upgrade)
What do the upgrades do?
Love the game tho
They play a sound effect and unlock future upgrades!
what are the upgrades
still hoping for more content lol
hat do the upgrades even do?
devilishly difficult, took MANY tries to get past the first eye wave
Enemies get WAAAAAY too OP. I'm not a fan of enemies being 50% faster, 50% tankier, or dealing 50% more damage. Maybe have a difficulty option or a Zen mode because I don't like having 50% more battery recharge speed on wave 2 with 3 hulks shredding my tower.
Yeah the RNG is not fair sometimes.
its fun but im noob so i cant beat it
(my best so far)
I believe in you!
so close yet so far
So unique and genuinely fun, really enjoyed it
thanks so much!! Glad you enjoyed it!
Really rich visuals and sound effects, and just nice polish overall. Choosing the enemy upgrades in successive rounds added a complexity to it -- it's a difficult game but I made slow progress on each play, which is a good sign. Gameplay was smooth -- nice work!
Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed it!
In both web browser (firefox latest) and download (windows 10), the game will randomly stop accepting inputs. its very frustrating since the game is fun, but i cant play it
hmm, strange that it would happen in both the browser and in the downloads. I haven't gotten any other reports like this. Are you using a controller, or keyboard?
my best was 132 (round
)
for some reason I can't see the eye in the start screen
(mac book air - opera Gx )
That's so strange. Maybe try a different browser like Chrome or Firefox?
how do you start the game Like I pressed every button and clicked on everything
(pressing ``Space`` makes sound but does nothing)
You gotta move the eye onto the circle labeled 'start' and then wait for the white outline to wrap around all the way.
What eye???
Edit: I can´t see the eye for some reason but for a second i saw the white out line on the start button
Fun game, honestly! Well done!
Thanks so much!
You’re welcome! Keep up the good work!
Please give us interim reports.
I think the game is really good! Keep up the awesome job!
Thanks so much!
i think the main issue with the latest update is the fact that enemies get all their stats upgraded (such as the 75% hp 25% speed and 25% attack upgrades). it makes trying to target one type of enemy harder. have you tried fighting hulks with +100% speed?! I like the idea, but once you're past wave [REDACTED] it becomes way too hard... maybe after you beat wave redacted you get a "super upgrade" that can maybe give a fourth level to weapons? i don't really know, i just think that if its going to get exponentially harder after wave [REDACTED] there should be something to make the player still viable. i really enjoy the game and this game has become my go to game when i'm bored. i hope the feedback helps, all i want is to see this game get better and better!
Hey yeah! Definitely helpful. I do think I need to dial back the enemy upgrades, though I am still going to try and get 'upgrades to multiple stats' to work. Also, for the full game, there would be some other big change (go to a new zone? unlock a new character?) after beating [redacted], so I'm trying to balance the game to where just being [redacted] is a satisfying challenge on its own. For now, the post [redacted] gameplay is just for the people who've really figured things out. Will definitely do a balance pass though, it's still too hard.
Maybe add a visual pool of how many mobs are there in the next round, and when you select the difficulty, add the mobs into the pool. the pool then disappear (maybe all the mobs animate out of the camera area) and get game started. Help player know what will they face next. XD
This is a really great idea, thanks for the suggestion!
I watched other streamer played your game and got an inspiration. How about you select the difficulty first, then select the level up and the higher difficulty you add, you can have stronger weapon.
Awesome! I like the idea of the upgrades being tied to the difficulty level.
Do you have a link to the video?
yes! it's from bilibili, a china video share website. here is the link, I'm not sure whether you can click it. I copied the link and it showed in Chinese. Maybe try to click it: 【小游戏】用最简单的画面做出了最强游戏性？！极简风格塔防类幸存者《唯一的塔（The Only Tower）》游玩解说流程_哔哩哔哩bilibili
The player didn't comment on the game but only tried to play his best. The comment below the video are discussing the game design and mechanisms.
He cites your link on the bottom of the description of the video.
So cool! Thanks so much for sharing, it's really awesome to see someone from the other side of the world playing my game :D!
Thank you for your game! It's really cool XD!
btw, its from bilibili:【小游戏】用最简单的画面做出了最强游戏性？！极简风格塔防类幸存者《唯一的塔（The Only Tower）》游玩解说流程_哔哩哔哩bilibili, probably you'd like to find out some other comments
Still need some balancing, break through Wave 12 is really hard, but if really could get to about 30 waves even more is really fun, hope this game could go further.
Really appreciate the feedback. Agree that things still need a lot of balancing, but trying to get to a good baseline challenge level where getting to the [redacted] wave and surviving is satisfying. Wanted to fix the scaling stuff by itself without disturbing any of the other elements to see what happens. I'm curious what new strategies might be required this way. Really helpful to know from players which ones are dominate, so that I can increase the others.
Thanks so much for the thoughtful feedback, and sorry that you're feeling frustrated!
👁👁👁 Be not afraid 👁👁👁
Got to essentially invincible loadout with freezing sprinkler, shotgun max range, and freezing grenade launcher. For the eye select "attract pickups when eye is at tower", extra drops upgrade, and higher pickup radius. Avoid picking boomers, choose some hulks at the beginning of the run so you can leave your tower and collect powerups when needed, you can kite those hulks away from the tower. Eventually I got to a point where nothing could get through, so I selected weirdos every time I could to max enemy drops (they have a lot of drops and they drop them close to your reach without charging all the way in). No need to dodge the Be Not Afraid boss, its damage doesnt seem to scale so just tank their hits. You eventually become invincible with this strat, I only died because I got bored and wanted to use my points.
ahh, i suppose with the new way that enemies increase all of their stats for leveling up, this run is much harder now.
Yeah, it's definitely a lot harder. Still dialing it in, would love to know what you think after you've had a chance to play a few times.
You have better to perform enough playtest before release new update. Enemy increase numbers & default enemy HP too higher to Enjoy this game in Ver.0.10.1b. At least Ver.010.1b's content quality reduced than Ver.0.10. I know, Good games go all out for killing player after "Tutorial is Ended".
And, Bomb Object damage is bugged now.
engrish
How many languages do you speak?
zero, I'm illiterate
I like the theme / aesthetic, but the difficulty curve needs tuning. Depending on your RNG early levels can be impossible.
when i pick the enemies come slower i feel like they come faster is it a bug? anyone else get it? i played the game and it threw all the enemies at me when i picked slower eneimes
sorry to necropost but thats bc the enemies move slower, but have the same spawnrate
could you make an upgrade system for the enemies and yourself like when you make yourself stronger you get less xp and when you make the enemies stronger you get more xp
I tried the bomb to kill the angel, but went for it too soon.
can you make boomers explode and leave an AoE of the effect they had on? it seems like it would be a pretty cool feature
like if they're on fire and they explode they leave a fire area for a short time
oo, this is a really interesting idea. I like that it synergizes with the other powerups. I'll definitely give it a shot!
From one game dev to another. How did you get your game on my itch page, what did you do to get your game popular.
Well I think I got a bunch of comments early on, and I tried to respond to everyone. I think that boosted my popularity. It was popular enough that it was at the top of roguelikes for a while, which also helped. This then turned into Wanderbots playing, and he's got hunders of thousands of followers, so that was obviously a huge boost.
But what if my game has 100+ downloads but not a single comment?
Im not a developer but I've seen that happen before it's just something that can happen i guess
Love the game! I was just curious about the "Eye is immune to fire" and "Eye is immune to ice." I originally thought they had to do with the appearance of element-attribute upgrades? I don't really know what they do though....
This really only does anything if you have the appropriate grenade launcher upgrades, as nothing else is capable of applying ice or fire to Eye.
Did anyone else pick up the nuke power-up and then just lose the game?
Ugh :( This is a bug. Really sorry about that! Will have an update out hopefully tonight to fix it.
could you make an upgrade tree, so I can see what the upgrades do? (also, I totally thought the nuke was intentional lol)
Lol same ngl.
Huh, interesting. Maybe I need to introduce mimics :)
W idea. That would be so annoying...
I love it.
Also is it just me or is the sprinkler and rifle the same thing.
as long as they don't insta kill, only deal damage
How did that bug sneak past anyways? Did no one ever actually test the nuke? Sounds like an interesting story at the least
Bug is still there
Yeah, thanks for the update. I've been stuck trying to solve the issue of new builds wiping old progress. Want to get that right before I update anything else. Hopefully will be fixed soon!
Will you release the game on Steam? Maybe EA for now?
So I actually started a little collective of developers (Tiny Mass Games, https://tinymassgames.itch.io/) who are attempting to release a batch of games every quarter this year. This was the game for q1. My plan is, after the year, I'll see which game(s) had the most interest, and then develop that further.
This game certainly seems to have gained some traction, much more than I was expecting, so it's a good contender for a more complete development cycle. Of course if a publisher comes along and says they'd like to fund this project, I would definitely do that.