There Will Be Ink is a tactical action game for 1-8 players. Play solo or with friends in battles between stick figure armies drawn on a paper notepad, just like you used to draw in class instead of paying attention!
TWBI is a difficult game, where charging forward into the fray will rarely win a battle. Tactical thinking is essential. Assessing the battlefield, taking cover as needed, keeping an eye on troops positions: all of these are essential for winning the day. Or, if that sounds like a chore, switch to “arcade mode” and run & gun at will!
Features:
- Fast-paced action gameplay with a focus on cover
- Take control of any friendly unit on the battlefield
- Play through 56 missions across three campaigns
- Jump into a quick battle with the random map generator, with sliders and toggles for troops & buildings, trees, debris, and rivers
- Unlock new recruit types as you play, including rifle infantry, assault infantry, snipers, medics, RPG troops, heavy machine gunners, engineers, laser jetpack troops, flamethrowers, and tanks why not!
- Full featured map editor – lay out a battlefield and jump straight into the action
- Campaign Generator - set your parameters and click a button to create a new series of progressively more difficult missions
- Enjoy hundreds of frames of (poorly but enthusiastically) hand-drawn art!
- Join a battle in progress for 8 player local co-op or vs. gameplay (requires 4 XInput and 4 DirectInput gamepads)
- Online multiplayer using Steam's Remote Play Together
- Navigate dynamic battlefields, wading across rivers, taking cover behind trees, rocks, sandbags, and craters left behind in the chaos
- T-Rex with jetpacks! Maniacal Yeti!
- Compensate for weather effects like rain, wind, and smoke rising from burning buildings and trees
- Earn training credits, even when a battle is lost, to assign new abilities to your troops
Articles
Hello there, Billy! There Will Be Ink is coming out of Steam Early Access on Friday, March 10th (2023, in case that needs specifying)! Here is a new release trailer for the game:
There is now a demo version of the game, allowing you to play the first 8 mission of the main campaign, which can be found exclusively here at indiedb.
It's been a long time getting here, but these are exciting times in TWBI land!
Along with the new trailer is a new game update. I've added support for a "Borderless Window" display mode, which may help some who have experienced audio or graphical issues playing with multiple displays. I've added a requested option to show unit class names on the battlefield, to make it easier to find what you're after. Engineers can now chop trees with the new "Lumberjackery" skill, and there have been several fixes as well. Full change log below!
Changelog (Beta 9.3.1)
New
- Borderless Window display mode
- Renamed "Full Screen" option to "Display Mode": Fullscreen, Borderless Window, Window
- Game option: "Unit Names on Battlefield" - shows unit class name, disabled by default
- Engineer Ability: Lumberjackery - allows the Engineer to fall trees with wrench
- Added stat for trees chopped, counts towards Engineer progress
Fixes
- Fixed crash relating to mines and pathfinding
- Fixed crashes relating to T-Rex
- Fixed crash on "Lake Frendz" level when hovering over unit in Tactical Mode
- Fixed mine laying not working
- Fixed slight hitching when units are approaching target
- Fixed Jetpack not drawing correctly when unit crouches
- Fixed Stick Man boss bullets being too big
- Fixed arrows sometimes displaying at weird angles
- Fixed notepad holes punching through hero tags on Missions page
- Fixed timer advancing on "Lake Frendz" when game is paused
- Fixed progression from one-time intro page going to campaign page instead of main menu
There Will Be Ink – Beta 5.0 – Major Update, Roadmap, & Giveaway!
News 1 commentNew Video tour, units, missions, abilities, AI, prisoners, wound system, tutorial, sounds, stats, badges, terrain, and a tentative release date!
There Will Be Ink - Beta 4.3 - Hopeful Edition
News 1 commentTWBI now includes support for 8 player local multiplayer, with the hope that it won't be too long before that feature can be used. Also new since the...
There Will Be Ink - Beta 3.0 - Now with lasers!
NewsNew unit, missions, visuals, tutorial, and much more!
There Will Be Ink - Out Now On Steam Early Access!
NewsThere Will Be Ink is now available on Steam (Early Access)! In addition to that, a new update has been released, Beta 1.1, with some interesting new features...
Files
There Will Be Ink Demo
DemoThere Will Be Ink is a tactical action game for 1-8 players. Play solo or with friends in battles between stick figure armies on a paper notepad, just...
Post a comment
Profile
Icon
Platforms
WindowsCreator
summitfeverEngine
GameMaker StudioContact
Send MessageHomepage
Summitfevergames.comRelease date
Game watch
Follow
X
Tags
Embed Buttons
Link to There Will Be Ink by selecting a button and using the embed code provided more...
You may also like
Tiny Troopers
Tactical Shooter
Tanktastic
Tactical Shooter
Black One: Blood Brothers
Tactical Shooter
Blaststorm
Tactical Shooter
C.W.I.S
Tactical Shooter
Crimson Crow
Tactical Shooter
Just came back after forgetting about IndieDB and oh boy this really has come a long way. Sad to see that it's become paid -- but I do understand that we need to live. I'd be more than happy to buy it, actually -- and if you're still active here would you rather me buy it now and give proper feedback?
Hey! Sorry for the very late reply (I really wish IndieDB gave notifications for this sort of thing). Version 1.0 of the game is not far off, and at that point I will likely drop an updated demo version here. There was a sale recently on itch and Steam, if you were able to catch the game there. Any level of feedback is helpful :)
Oop.., That early April Spring Sale?
Regardless, sounds good! Though tbh, Steam's generous refund policy does already kind of count as a demo. :P
What version will this be leaving Steam Early Access?
It was a custom sale from March 25th to 30th. Probably I should have run it a little longer though. I know, I'll put it on sale again!
Itch.io
There we go, 25% off until Friday, and it includes a Steam key.
You're quite right about Steam's refund policy being like demo access, heh. I'll likely still drop a demo here on IndieDB for anyone who doesn't use Steam or itch.
I'm not sure I understand your question about which version will be leaving Steam Early Access. It will be what I consider the finished game, though I plan to keep updating after that.
Cheers!
Thanks, then.
Anyway, I've already made up my mind. I'd love to help support this venture. I'll be doing it on Steam, though -- sale or no sale. Courtesy of the messy world of economics, buying it in my currency is somehow half a USD cheaper. xD
EDIT: Could we have modding support in the future? I'd love to make custom units.
Thanks so much! If you get a chance (in due time) to leave a Steam review it would be very helpful and much appreciated.
As it happens, your purchase makes my 100th sale on Steam. I feel like you should win an award or something ;D
I've thought about opening up access to unit/weapon attributes and graphics, yes. It would require a bit of redesign and is behind some other priorities right now, but it may happen down the road. For now there are the Map and Campaign Editors, and I'm working on a set of alternative units (analogs to the base set, but with different weapon stats/art/sound) for a new campaign to be released with version 1.0. Also down the road I'd like to add some more varied unit sets (eg. a fantasy set, a sci-fi set, etc).
Now that you say it, I'd like to have a time machine that lets me travel into the future... And, you're welcome for the purchase.
By the way, you may wish to optimize fire a bit... If I turn up the tree value to maximum in a Quick Battle and then start spraying fire all over it quickly becomes pretty laggy.
Also, tooltips for the unit icons when you hover over them in the Quick Battle setup, please?
EDIT: Also, where can I report bugs to you? I keep getting a crash whenever I load in a beta campaign mission. Apparently you forgot to set some friendlyInWay variable before reading it... Oddly, it only applies to Arcade mode...
Thanks for the feedback! The lag issue with trees burning is fixed (or greatly optimized) for the next build. I keep delaying that update's release as I make more optimizations and other changes, but watch for it early next week. I'll try to fit in tooltips for unit icons in as well, good call.
Bug reports are best sent to hi@summitfevergames.com. Alternately I'm quick to respond to anything posted to Steam comments. I'm also making it a point again to check here regularly, as I don't seem to get any notification when new comments are posted.
EDIT: I was able to replicate and resolve the Arcade mode crash bug. It turned out to be related to paratroopers trying to avoid friendly fire (which is disabled in Arcade mode). The fix will be part of the next update. Thanks for bringing that to my attention!
Stuck on level 2... am i just bad or am i missing something? very frustrating when you're stuck
Would like to see it play like "totally accurate battle simulator" where you decide how many /what type of characters / where to place, and rewards for using less resources.
Hello there! Thank you for the feedback. It is indeed a pretty challenging game. I've since added tips that show up on the main screen (for the next build) to help players out. Hiding behind cover can be very helpful, and so can running and rolling. For instance, for level 2, one strategy is to charge forward and taking cover behind a boulder, then fall back as needed. That being said, I may reduce the number of enemy troops on the second mission. You can also level up your unit's abilities from the 'Barracks' page. Even when you lose a battle, you get points for any units defeated.
I like your idea about choosing what type of units. I've thought of implementing something along those lines at the start of a mission and may yet do so. There are also barracks beyond level 2 that spawn new units.
Thanks again for the feedback, and I hope that helps!
Oh yeah! I get it now. I agree about being able to recruit units with some sort of currency you earn at the end of a scenario, as well as keeping the infinite spawning barracks. I disagree about where to place, though. I think they should just be clumped together in some spawn zone, since such a change would make this more of a battle simulator than a tactical action game. You know what this makes me think of?
Stealth missions. The AI, if set, will only attack those in say, a certain range. This makes for some interesting stealth scenarios and makes the player focus less resources on units. Making the AI also call for help might be useful, too. I don't think this could be that hard to implement in, perhaps version 0.9.0 or something. I'll let you work at your own pace but will definitely pick up any more updates that come our way :D
It seems like you've got the attack script quite polished already, too. I think your code is somewhere along the lines of "go in range of enemy and shoot" and "if enemy is close enough use grenades". I think you could use the "go to" part to make the AI follow the player as well if set, instead of being omniscient sometimes.
Stealth missions are a great idea. I've been having similar thoughts as I plan out AI behaviour states and the possibilities those might provide. I'm excited to get to work on the new campaign, once I get there, and for what sorts of levels players might make, if I can get anyone playing, hah.
That is pretty well the AI behaviour, yeah, along with taking cover when fired at (or just when attacking, for ranked troops), resupplying, etc. Units will follow their current target, but they refresh their target fairly often as well, which makes them easily distracted I suppose. The new AI states should make it easy to have sentries, and I'm hoping for some level of calling for help as well (eg for nearby units to notice if their comrades are under attack).