So while I was working on Zone 3 content, it occurred to me just how long this game actually is. For a demo, playing it through to completion is quite a task, while there are still so many more details the existing content needs. This made me realize that I've been focusing on the wrong goal this whole time - the game doesn't need more content, it needs to be more polished with what it has! As it stands, the early part of the game still feels unbalanced, the UI is unfinished, the mechanics are still not fully developed, and I've also had to deal with the fact that there is an unbalanced amount of exposition at the start and a lot of time spent getting to the actual combat.

It's time I stopped putting it off. Tower of the Immortals has enough content as it is - it's time to make what it has better and really show what the game is meant to be. I pivoted about a week and a half ago starting with the UI, and now I've expanded the scope by adding in things such as new mechanics (stun, poison, and slow effects for spells), new items to buy, a complete overhaul of the spell system, and over a dozen new feats. Stamina is also being introduced, meaning that there's no more infinite running. I am also considering adding in a few other things requested by players, so once I've got those finalized I'll be glad to share them!

There are a bunch of new spells that have effects like vampirism, slow, stun, and summon effects. What's more is that these spells and feats will be split up between the different playable races, making them feel much more distinct than before and giving the game a whole lot more replayability! You can also be affected with poison as well, and I will be working in this mechanic into the existing stages.

I will also be overhauling the game's introduction and enhancing the tutorial beyond that scary slime and a few signs. A lot of the mechanics are poorly explained at the start, making it difficult to handle making a new character as players haven't been given the chance to learn them yet! Having a few signs that you'll forget all about shortly is also a poor way to explain mechanics. I'll be revising that as well.

---------------

Over the coming weeks, I will gradually unveil what direction the game is taking and what has been added. Almost every part of the game is being touched - spells, feats, abilities, character creation, the tutorial, even the introductory experience. I will give a preview of some of these changes here, and post in greater detail each section in future devlogs. The clunky spell scrolls are going away, replaced with spells that are all available at the start and can be upgraded with a new mechanic called Arcane Energy. I'll have more on that later!

In this post, I'll give a sample of the new UI that I build, with a later post detailing all of the changes in much greater detail! I'm not done redesigning the UI, so I won't have the full post on them until later. But I am happy to show what the new character screen looks like compared to the original one.

--------------

Here is the re-designed Character Creation screen, compared to the old one:

Old:

New:

All of the tabs have been redesigned like this, and I am excited to not only share these changes, but also what they mean for players in future updates.

This update is proceeding at a fairly rapid pace. The most time-consuming portion of everything is making all of the new artwork - menu design is quite involved! The mechanics have also had a decent amount of coding involved, but I've managed to complete a lot of that these last couple of weeks. I don't have a tentative release date yet, but you'll see a lot more devlogs coming soon with the details.