The Official Aldorlea Games Forum

MARI AND THE BLACK TOWER

$6.99 only!!!




This is a first game by a brand new developer, Joshua Keith.

SUMMARY:

A mysterious tower has appeared near the city of Westvale. Pouring forth monsters and plagues, Mari and her partner Abbie must bring together a band of heroes to stop the Black Tower as it threatens to end all life on earth.

FEATURES:

* Four-player party with eight unique classes to choose from, ranging from the defensive Knight to the singing Horn Artist
* 10 floors to climb and 30 quests to complete
* Classic turn-based combat with some modern improvements:
-"Instant" skills perform immediately without using up a turn
-Uses a TP system instead of classic MP. TP is built up in different ways depending on the class and consumed to use powerful abilities (watch the trailer to see these abilities in action!)
* Hundreds of items, weapons and armors (about what you'd expect)
* 8-12 hours of gameplay, which more to be added in future updates
* 3 Difficulty settings - choose easy for a more casual experience, or hard to up the difficulty and give bosses more powerful abilities

SCREENSHOTS:









Lost in the game? Please feel free to use this thread to ask your questions!
ENJOY!

Hello to Joshua Keith, and thank you for the game.

When I want to exit the game, there is no possibility to do so except to click on the x at the top right-hand corner. I click on "End Game" and come to a screen with: New Game, Continue, Options. There is nowhere where it says "Shutdown" or something similar.

Also, about the Torches: I don't seem to have to use them. The path is well lit when I have "Lighting Effects" off. Something was said about this when I entered the tower, but have forgotten what it was. So what would I miss if I don't use the torches and just keep "Lighting Effects" off?

Another thing: I find the screen and images rather small. Clicking on F4 turns the rest of my monitor black, but I don't get a larger picture. With other RPGs they are at least full screen, but this game gives me just a tiny picture: not quite 6 inches wide by 4 1/2 inches long, with black borders on the left and right of the screen.

Well, it's good to know that the dev is popping in to see if anybody needs help and answers. It's been 2 days since I posted my questions. *sigh*

It's the week-end, maybe they are doing something else.

If you want to sell a product, you don't just "take off for the weekend". At least that's how I see it.

I don't know, I'm often online, because I'm also often making my games (kinda), but to each their own.
I've sent him an email, anyway.

Vald wrote:Hello to Joshua Keith, and thank you for the game.

When I want to exit the game, there is no possibility to do so except to click on the x at the top right-hand corner. I click on "End Game" and come to a screen with: New Game, Continue, Options. There is nowhere where it says "Shutdown" or something similar.

Also, about the Torches: I don't seem to have to use them. The path is well lit when I have "Lighting Effects" off. Something was said about this when I entered the tower, but have forgotten what it was. So what would I miss if I don't use the torches and just keep "Lighting Effects" off?

Another thing: I find the screen and images rather small. Clicking on F4 turns the rest of my monitor black, but I don't get a larger picture. With other RPGs they are at least full screen, but this game gives me just a tiny picture: not quite 6 inches wide by 4 1/2 inches long, with black borders on the left and right of the screen.

Sorry about the late reply, and thanks for playing!

The "Lighting Effects" option is in for those playing the game on its Android version or a low-end PC as the lighting effects can have a huge impact on low-end devices. When it's disabled, torches won't work and lighting effects won't be present. You won't miss anything if it's turned off, but the environment will be set better if you leave it on.

As for the screensize, I'm actually not sure what's causing that. I just booted up the game and the graphics resized properly on F4 and fullscreen. What's your monitor resolution?

Indinera wrote:MARI AND THE BLACK TOWER

$6.99 only!!!




This is a first game by a brand new developer, Joshua Keith.

SUMMARY:

A mysterious tower has appeared near the city of Westvale. Pouring forth monsters and plagues, Mari and her partner Abbie must bring together a band of heroes to stop the Black Tower as it threatens to end all life on earth.

FEATURES:

* Four-player party with eight unique classes to choose from, ranging from the defensive Knight to the singing Horn Artist
* 10 floors to climb and 30 quests to complete
* Classic turn-based combat with some modern improvements:
-"Instant" skills perform immediately without using up a turn
-Uses a TP system instead of classic MP. TP is built up in different ways depending on the class and consumed to use powerful abilities (watch the trailer to see these abilities in action!)
* Hundreds of items, weapons and armors (about what you'd expect)
* 8-12 hours of gameplay, which more to be added in future updates
* 3 Difficulty settings - choose easy for a more casual experience, or hard to up the difficulty and give bosses more powerful abilities

SCREENSHOTS:









Lost in the game? Please feel free to use this thread to ask your questions!
ENJOY!

After 7 hours and not reaching level 1, I am giving up on the game. I have been able to get maps and get bombs. I have explored all the rooms ,I think. I can not open the final door or the doors in the 2 jails because I do not have the key. I have 2 parts of a key.

I wish that a guide be created because it is very difficult to see where you are going, even with the torches. The many secret doors and places where bombs must be used, can be missed.

I like the combat system which is different and does require some practice to use because of its complexity.

Went after Sera in story 2. She teleported across the bridge and I'm stuck. How do I get to 2nd floor?

jkweath wrote:Sorry about the late reply, and thanks for playing!

The "Lighting Effects" option is in for those playing the game on its Android version or a low-end PC as the lighting effects can have a huge impact on low-end devices. When it's disabled, torches won't work and lighting effects won't be present. You won't miss anything if it's turned off, but the environment will be set better if you leave it on.

As for the screensize, I'm actually not sure what's causing that. I just booted up the game and the graphics resized properly on F4 and fullscreen. What's your monitor resolution?

Hi jkweath...

Thanks for the info on the lighting effects. What about the fact that I can't exit the game unless I put it into window mode and click on the x at the top right-hand corner?

I am using an MSI laptop (Win10, 64-bit - 15 1/2 inch monitor), with a recommended 1920x1080 screen resolution.

I'm not going to be trying this as the downloaded file is in rar format, and i am not prepared to pay for winrar in order to try a game demo.

Maybe Joshua can create an EXE file? Let's see when he comes back reading this.

I completely agree with RAndrews. I usually don't bother either. I don't know why some of the new devs use a zip file instead giving us an exe file, which all games use nowadays.
I don't have winzip either, but sometimes I find something that unpacks the contents of the zip file for me. But it's a pain in the neck. Zip and RAR files are as outdated as the floppy disc. Get with the times, I say. LOL

After 7 hours and not reaching level 1, I am giving up on the game. I have been able to get maps and get bombs. I have explored all the rooms ,I think. I can not open the final door or the doors in the 2 jails because I do not have the key. I have 2 parts of a key.

Sorry about this; it's a lack of clarity on my part. You can "use" one of the key parts (once you have both parts) to combine them. Then you can progress through the locked door.

Went after Sera in story 2. She teleported across the bridge and I'm stuck. How do I get to 2nd floor?

Take a right before the room with the locked door; you'll find a jail. There's a hidden door here, and after entering a 2nd jail there'll be a path in one of the cells (there's also a quest here too, if you picked it up!)

Thanks for the info on the lighting effects. What about the fact that I can't exit the game unless I put it into window mode and click on the x at the top right-hand corner?

I am using an MSI laptop (Win10, 64-bit - 15 1/2 inch monitor), with a recommended 1920x1080 screen resolution.

So I'm gonna be completely honest, in the past couple years of developing various game prototypes and playing other games, I've gotten so used to just clicking the X that the thought never even occurred to me to add a shutdown option. I'll see about adding one in once I release an update.

So just to clarify, are the graphics not re-sizing at all once you go full-screen? I'd like to see a screenshot if you get the chance so I can figure out exactly what's going on here.

I'm not going to be trying this as the downloaded file is in rar format, and i am not prepared to pay for winrar in order to try a game demo.

I hear ya. I only zipped it because the game requires the "www/save" folder that comes with it; without it, there's an error I haven't been able to solve that won't allow the game to save. If I only uploaded the .EXE then I'd have to instruct users to make a www/save folder which would be a bit awkward. I'll be looking into this as well.

Anyway, thanks for all the feedback from everyone. I'm working on an update as I finish typing this.

EDIT: Update finished:
-Minor dialogue updates to better guide the player
-Default light radius increased and more lights added to floor 1
-selecting "Exit Game" from the End Game option in the menu will close the game instead of taking player to the title screen

The update should be able to be re-downloaded from Aldorlea and by overwriting the .exe file with the new one. It is still in a .ZIP file with the "www/save" folder; there is a solution to the problem I outlined above, but implementing it would cause everyone's saved game to not work, so I'm choosing not to implement it until I can find a better solution.

Thank you jkweath. I'll try it right away.

Found it!!! Thanks again