Hi everyone, this is the game I am working on.
What is THE INK TOWER?
A top-down action roguelite I am making solo, about 7 months now. You climb a tower of 15 floors with one life. Parry at the exact right moment and the fight freezes, and you draw one stroke of ink. The stroke is your attack.
It came from two things I love: the deflect in Sekiro, and an old phone game, Magic Touch, where you draw shapes to fight. Then I wanted every run to be different, so it became a roguelite, and the climb came from The Dark Tower.
Features
- A perfect parry freezes the fight. You get 1.4 seconds and one stroke of ink
- Four shapes. A line, a loop, and later a spiral and a figure eight. Each does something different
- 15 floors in three acts, one life. Pick one of three doors before most floors
- Eight bosses, three per run, one at the end of each act. Beat one and you keep its trophy
- Relics that change your shapes, and a book that shows your whole build
- Ranks. After you win, climb again, and each rank adds a new rule
The parry
There is a white flash just before every attack lands. That flash is the moment, unless the attack is red: then you dodge. Parry a little early and you only block: nothing stops, and you still take about a fifth of the hit. Too early or too late and you take the whole hit.
Between parries you can punch too, three hits in a row, but you cannot punch and parry at the same time.
The shapes
A line cuts through the enemies in its way and hits the first one hardest. A loop around a group hits everyone inside it, and the more it holds, the harder it hits. Later you unlock a spiral that pulls enemies in and a figure eight that bursts where it crosses. The ink runs out fast, so most of the game is deciding where to spend it.
The climb
The quiet door is easier. The dangerous one has an elite enemy and a better reward. The middle one sometimes asks a price, like 12 max health for good, and you can say no.
Bosses
A boss attacks in strings of hits, and only a perfect parry on the LAST hit of a string gives you the stroke. I am reworking four of the eight bosses now, so each one has a move that only it has.
The Reaper. His moon locks a red circle on you, and you can’t parry it. Dodge out, and his blade sticks in the floor.
The Colossus. In his rage, a red V shows where the floor will burst. The slam hit for 43 here.
The Warden. His hook chains you, and the grey ring shows how far you can go. BOUND means you can’t dodge.
The Colossus’s trophy: where your stroke ends, the floor breaks.
Builds
After a floor you pick one of three relics. Some work with only one shape, some only on a perfect parry.
The book shows your whole build.
A short clip with sound, the Reaper’s last hit:
Next week I will post here how I made the freeze drain the room to grey while the fighters and the ink keep their colour. It took me a few tries.
A question for you: in the first GIF, what is the hardest thing to read? I want the freeze and the stroke clear to someone who never played it.
The free demo is planned for late October: the first two acts and the four reworked bosses. I will put it at the top of this post when it is out.
Thanks so much for reading 
. I will try answer every reply.