Tactus Alpha: v0.4 "Torchlight"

Good grief, it's a whole bunch of progress! 

Now that the game has been ported to Rainbow, I've decided to take full advantage of the additional PRG and CHR capacity offered by the beefier cartridge, and managed to draw a sweet dynamic lighting effect with all the bonus tiles. This means I can run the "fog of war" mechanic central to this genre. This actually runs on an NES! It's kinda wild.

I've written a technical breakdown of the effect over on my Patreon, check it out if you have a minute. (It's open to everyone.)

In addition to the new torchlight effect, this new build showcases the updated HUD and a much smoother flow for boss, key, and exit acquisition, cutting down on the old "brute force search" tedium. You'll also notice blank equipment slots! I wonder what that's all about? :D

Concerning demo builds: I don't want to leave my itch followers high and dry, so for select demo builds, (including this one) I think I'll release them to the general public after a short delay. I won't do this for every build, as it takes extra time to make sure the demo content is suitably polished. Keep an eye on this space. As usual, my Patreons get access to dev builds as soon as they're available, so do consider subscribing if you'd like to support the project.

The core engine work is functionally complete, so this will be the last dev build with gameplay similar to the Action53 demo. Next up on my plate: new levels, new enemies, and a whole bunch of items!