Still not dead!
Adding new content has slowed down considerably though, but there's been plenty of polish going in the game over the past weeks. In fact the current test version I'm working on consists almost exclusively of things that my faithful testing crew has been reporting, suggesting or requesting. I'm definitely not making a game just for myself here. I want people to enjoy it, so I'm reluctant to add too much new stuff until current issues with gameplay have been solved satisfactorily. I just hope I don't go too far with that stuff... ^^;
Anyhow, among the new content is a feature that I've had planned for a long while, but never got around to adding it, until just now. Portal Beacons.
In Twisted Tower, every five floors you have a portal that connects that floor and a portal at the base of the tower. All that is not new, but I figured I'd explain again. If you die and choose to respawn in the village, you'd normally need to continue from the tower floor with the highest portal you've reached before. The Portal Beacons allow you to create shortcuts. When you find a Beacon Pedestal in the dungeons of the tower, you can spend a semi-rare item called a Sacred Orb to activate the crystal on the Beacon Pedestal. This enables you to teleport to that floor number at any time from the main portal at the base of the tower. For example, you're trying to reach floor 20, but die on floor 19. You need to start again from floor 15. This time you find a Beacon Pedestal on floor 18, and activate it. You die again on floor 19. Now you can continue from floor 18, instead of 15! This feature is particularly useful before boss fights, because currently there won't be a save point or portal right before the boss. If you die in a boss fight, and have no beacon enabled closer, you'll need to replay up to five floors again. Good thing is, even if you do die, you lose nothing but some money from dying and respawning. You keep gaining experience and new loot as you replay the dungeon floors. Every floor is a fresh experience, every time!
I've attached a screenshot of the initial version of the Portal Beacon in activated mode. The light is actually a pulsing wave, so it looks kinda plain here. I'll probably add some more light effects on it at some point.
Release of Chapter 1 probably won't make it for 2012 anymore, but I'm still hopeful for a 2013 January/February release.  I've pretty much got a schedule plotted out. Keeping up with that schedule is what's been proving tough lately, what with all the polish and tweaking needed on the existing content, and other projects taking up much of my available time.
... plus I get hooked on MMO games way too easily. T_T
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