Toss Quest - a throwing-based action game (beta testers needed soon!)

Toss Quest DevLog​

Hi everyone! I'd like to introduce a game that our team, Whale Cakes LLC, is working on. We are composed of 2 guys: an artist and a coder. Our game is called...

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Toss Quest is a simple game about tossing and catching things. It plays similarly to an arcade shooter/bullet hell: the player controls their character on the bottom of the screen and is able to move back and forth. Enemies appear on the top of the screen, and the player must dodge their projectiles to avoid being hurt and ultimately defeated.

However, your character has no weapon of their own! No guns and no swords; they are totally unarmed. So how do you fight the enemies? You have to catch their projectiles and throw them back at them!

Here are some examples of enemies you’ll encounter:

The frog, a terrifying foe, and goblins that throw orcish daggers that travel in strange paths.​

Each enemy behaves differently, and they each have their own unique projectiles to throw at the player. Any projectile that the player catches and throws will behave the same for them as it did for the enemy that threw it, so stronger enemies with more dangerous projectiles will benefit the player in a way!

The cockatrice is able to paralyze the player with its Evil Eye, and other enemies can also inflict the character with status ailments! Some projectiles split into several others, like the skeleton’s bone.​

You may also find chests that contain unique projectiles not thrown by enemies. They typically have interesting special effects.

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We're planning on implementing 2 different modes: story and arcade.
Story: play through a series of pre-made levels, defeating waves of enemies and taking on fearsome bosses.
Arcade: endless, randomly-generated waves of enemies for the player to defeat. The goal of arcade mode is to defeat as many enemies as you can and get as far as possible.

We may also add a special third mode!

One last feature that'll be in the game is the ability to change color schemes. There will be many different color schemes for the player to choose from, and some special ones to unlock by beating certain milestones in the game! The player will also be able to choose from several characters to play as.

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We plan on beginning beta testing for Toss Quest for iOS this summer, hopefully by August 12th (our coder's birthday!). Keep a lookout for any posts regarding recruitment of testers! We've been longtime followers of Touch Arcade and would love to get the community's feedback, and give members a chance to get a sneak peek at our game We're about halfway done, with all enemy artwork done and a good deal of the enemy AI and projectiles added to the game. We'll update this thread with our development progress, so be sure to check back for updates! You can also check our twitter and tumblr accounts for updates as well

Coder's Twitter: @admung
Coder’s Tumblr: dev.admung.com
Artist's Twitter: @blabberf
Artist’s Tumblr: blabberf.whalecakes.com

 

Thank you very much! We're glad you like the art style As for local multiplayer, we do have an idea for it that might be pretty cool. It's definitely something we'll consider putting in the final release, and if it isn't in there at launch we will most likely add it in an update!

 

Here's a gif of a recently added enemy, the demon! It throws a magical talisman surrounded by 4 curse flames. If a curse flame touches you or an enemy, it inflicts a status effect that burns the afflicted until they throw a projectile!​

 

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Sorry about the lack of updates! We've been busy working on a bunch of new features. This gif shows off stages and waves, as well as enemies changing colors depending on which stage the player is in. Please ignore the lack of ability to play our own game that we demonstrate in the gif.

Stages work like so: when the player starts a stage (in the case of the gif, the "Spooky Mansion" or "Shady Village"), each screen full of enemies acts as a wave. When the screen is cleared, the player enters the next wave. In the finished game, rather than going straight to the next stage after finishing one, the player will be taken back to the overworld map and will be able to decide what do do from there.

On a side note, we are making lots of progress on this game! We should have a cool gameplay video ready to show pretty soon

 

Hey blekdar, good to see you here! Yep, we finally have a real devlog glad you are interested in the project, and we'd love to have you as a tester! Unfortunately, we didn't meet our goal of starting beta testing today, but the game is definitely quickly approaching that stage. We should have it ready by the end of August/beginning of September! We'll keep this thread updated with news about beta testing

 

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Hey everyone, development is still going strong! August is almost over, and Toss Quest is quickly approaching a "ready to be released for testing" stage! There is a lot more content in the game now (i.e. cool non-enemy projectiles), such as the projectile being demonstrated in the above gif. It's the buzz saw, and is able to slice through enemies and projectiles instantly!

 

Glad you like how it's turning out! The game will be free to download, with a single IAP to purchase the full game (we're still deciding on the price, but it will probably be $0.99). The free version of the game will have its own unique level set independent of the full game that is specifically designed to help players get an idea of what to expect when they buy the full version Of course, even after buying the full version, you can come back and play the demo levels whenever you like.