It's been a while since the last devlog, and the reason for this is because I have been hard at work assembling the next build of Tower of the Immortals. As I covered in an earlier post, the new zone is called The Steamworks Foundry. This new zone has a total of 15 stages as opposed to the 10 seen in the first zone, as well as a number of new features that will give you so many more ways to develop and advance your character.

I am at the point where I am putting in the last of the new content, as well as tying up loose ends and cleaning up some bugs and issues that were present in the previous build. The only *major* thing that needs to be done is writing the songs for the hub level and the combat stages, but hopefully that won't take too long once I dedicate myself completely to writing these themes. I already have some ideas put together in Famitracker, so I do have something to build upon.

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But now let's get into the meat of things. I know you guys want to know all of the new and exciting features coming to Tower of the Immortals, so I'm going to include a list of the big points that will meaningfully enhance your experience. When The Steamworks Foundry build goes live, these new features will be included:

-The Forge. I've covered this in previous devlogs, but this utility will give you the ability to craft customizable gear using gems, runes, and alloys that you can purchase and find throughout the game. There are over 100 unique item names that you can get from combining gems in various ways. You can upgrade weapons, armor, helmets, shields, rings, and amulets.

-Blessing shrines now exist! Whenever you find one, you can select a special permanent bonus to apply to your character! The nature of these blessings is influenced by the race you play as. In the game's story mode, you always find one after a miniboss fight. However, this isn't the only way to get access to one...

-A new playable race is added: the Dwarf! This race has a special emphasis placed upon crafting gear, and receives bonuses that are very useful in the Forge!

-Special treasure chests that you receive after the end of a major boss fight. These chests will contain huge gold stockpiles, powerful elixirs, jewels, and other valuable treasures. And if rumors are to be believed, there are other places where treasure chests are kept...

-New spells and gear that will open up new strategies and builds. These spells have a strategic element to them that will enable you to approach battles in different ways.

-A new hub stage with more than double the number of NPCs found in The Slime Warrens. There are also several secrets hidden within the halls of this stage - there are rewards for those who explore and talk to people.

-Increase in the game's vertical resolution, bringing the size of the game's window from 360x240 (3:2) to 360:270 (4:3). 

-Tons of new enemies, a new miniboss fight, and a powerful new boss spread out over 15 stages of combat.

-Overall improved artwork, including some old sprites that have been re-colored and/or cleaned up.

-A new design for the Character Creation Screen.

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To whet your appetites for what's to come, I've got a few screenshots to share of some of this upcoming content:

This is the blessing shrine. You'll have a total of five randomly selected bonuses to choose from.

This looks like quite a menacing enemy. You can bet that this won't be an easy fight.

Another one of the new enemies. This one has a definite Pokemon influence.

This chest looks like it holds something special. What could be inside?

This is the much-vaunted Forge. Pyrite is standing here...but why?




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When the release goes live, I'll have a full rundown of all the changes made to the game including various bug fixes and QoL improvements. I'm also going to make a couple of videos that will give a behind-the-scenes look into the development of Tower of the Immortals. I plan on uploading these periodically to the game's Youtube channel, where they will hopefully be a useful resource to other aspiring developers, artists, and musicians.

I am greatly looking forward to the release of this new build, and I am so excited for you all to get the chance to try out all of the new content!

If you're interested in getting more regular updates and joining an awesome community of fellow game developers, you should definitely checkout the Discord server: https://discord.gg/pqVmjgAtX7