I've launched Tallowmere's new website: www.tallowmere.com
Alpha 70 is the latest build and can be played by purchasing a license key.
Although it's alpha, it's fun and playable, and I'd love to have your support!
Some info from my Q&A page:
What's the gameplay like?
Currently, Tallowmere is a singleplayer experience. You start in a dungeon with an axe, talk to some friendly NPCs (who assist you in various ways), then make your way into the unknown on a mission to see how far you can get.
The first room has one main enemy, the second room has two main enemies, and so on; the game eases you in but quickly gets harder. A typical playthrough for me lasts anywhere from 2 minutes to 30 minutes.
Every room, including your home room, is randomly generated. Some rooms have bosses or special events. One of the monsters in each room holds the key that opens the door to the next room.
Some rooms contain treasure chests with new weapons. Most rooms contain traps in addition to the monsters. Every room contains a waypoint to return to town.
You can block enemy attacks with your shield, but you can't block traps.
As you slay your foes, you collect their souls. Collect enough souls and you can return to town to level up your maximum health and damage output. Enemies and traps level up after you do.
Levelling up, for both you and your enemies, is random. Numbers increase within a random range, but by how much is a mystery. I have not created any spreadsheets for scaling or determining numbers. I believe Tallowmere's randomness is fair; sometimes you'll be dealt a good hand, sometimes not so much.
But, because you can fully block all monster attacks, theoretically you should never die. Death is permanent and should come down to user error.
At the end of your run, the game tallies up your stats. Learn how things work and you'll (hopefully) make it farther than before!
What's planned down the line?
While most of the core mechanics are in place, I plan on adding:
- More monsters
- More traps
- More bosses
- More weapons
- Items and consumables, like health potions or temporary power-ups
- Shrines with random power-ups
- NPCs that sell things for gold (gold currently just looks pretty)
- Passive abilities when you level up
- Clothing and gear
- Different environment themes
- Split-screen co-op
- Multiplayer LAN co-op
- Maybe Internet co-op
- Acts or chapters with a long-term story or objective
- Scripted room events, like parts of a story or quests to take part in
- Mini-games
- Pets
It's only taken me two months to release a playable alpha, so the sky's the limit from here.
If you have any questions, please contact me - thanks!
