Kid Canary & The Midnight Tower
Kid Canary & The Midnight Tower is a game built around randomized turn-based battles with monsters w/ clicking being the main way of interacting. Every item is a stat boost & every attack takes Kid closer to the final floor of the Midnight Tower.
It's a chill game about battling monsters in a scary dreamlike dungeon.
Left Click to interact with objects/buttons.
Space/Right Click to switch from Act to Look (to inspect items/monsters)
Game and music by Jamie Barker. Support the game on patreon or ko-fi, or by donating or buying the soundtrack here! Please comment/follow! Thanks for playing! <3
Download
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Development log
- OST out now on Bandcamp :-3Sep 02, 2022
Comments
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That was a very cute game with just enough of the push of discovering new foes and getting better stats to keep climbing and fighting until the tower's summit. When I reaaally started to gain momentum by hitting hard and going fast (understand: high attack and high speed, hehehe), it felt so satisfying! Thank you for this :D
on my first run i grabbed a cursed sword and instantly game over'ed so i was scared of ever picking them up for a while 😭
Really fun little time killer. Cute vibes :3
btw there is an exploit where if you click fast enough you can grab both items when you're meant to only choose one lol.
(although maybe that's intentional?)
omg i was devastated when a bat ate my rabbit's foot
great game 10/10
What a killer game! So fun and the art is dope.
Thanks so much for playing the game! :)
thanks for playing!!
Hello ^^There's a sync bug with the text of the Juicy Burger and its effect. I died eating a Juicy burger, which is supposed to give me health, not take away. Antoher bug, I grabbed the slime shoes through the slime instead of attcking the slime. I also got the effect depression and it disappeared the same turn.
Hi Meffelda, are you sure it wasn't a Moldy Burger? Those do take away health ~ I'll take a look at the slime shoe screen as there's a whole thing for blocking out items behind enemies lol... I think it'll be fixable!
When you say you got depression (on the enemy turn), was it cured because you got another status effect? Thanks for all the info! :) I'm looking forward to working on an update & any notes definitely help!
I got to the boss and I legit thought it was impossible to win until I saw the comment section QwQ. It took me 45 minutes to get lucky enough to get thereeeee T_T and I obviously died :>
Really wel made, I do not know what I like more, the music or the gameplay.
These are the games that I enjoy. Simple games that do one thing really well.
Thanks so much for playing the game! I really enjoyed this video!
I love this game!! I like how the game sort of tells you "You lost, but it's ok. Try again." It's sort of like a hug lol. This is a nice feeling game.
ah thanks so much! that's a nice compliment that means a lot to me!
You're very welcome :) <3
beautiful chill game)
thanks so much for playing it!
Loved this! It was really cute and definitely scratched that dungeon crawler itch I've been feeling recently. Speed was absolutely my favorite stat, dodging attacks was always so satisfying. Absolutely rad.
I really enjoyed this game and I finally beat it! I love the art and music. I have a suggestion if you don't mind: I think the damage the enemies inflict should be reduced at the beginning of the game maybe (floors 1 & 2 maybe?). Some enemies were dealing 4 damage back to back on the 1st floor which didn't really give me a chance. But besides that, I really enjoyed this game, great job!
thanks for this feedback <3 update coming soon!
YESS FINALLY GOT IT! nice game :}
thanks so much for playing! :)
:D i got a giant cursed sword which allowed me to win
i have a suggestion for when/if you update the game. maybe you could nerf the fire bat thing? it dodges way too much ;-;
It's really cool. Too bad i keep right clicking and losing my run because of the "previous" button binded to it x)
hm.. it's bound to your browser to go to the previous page? i apologize for the inconvenience! you can also press the space bar to toggle items, so right clicking isn't neccessary! :)
Wow I was surprised to see this! I purchased a kid canary RISO zine some years back and it's one of my favorite comics. I remember it required dice to "beat." Downloading this asap!!
aaa nice!! thanks for reading the OG comic! there's a reference to it in this game, but it's pretty standalone and also very different in tone (although both are about dreams to an extent, this is more about nightmares and depression)! I want to rerelease the comic cus only 180ish copies exist haha. Definitely let me know what you think!
love the game, but just can't beat it...still fun though! got absolutely wiped out at the boss even though my stats were the best ones I've had so far. controls are fun and enemies are creative
hmmm yeah, attack needs to be around 12 at least I think --- x.x --- It's not perfectly balanced of course cus I made the game in a month, so I appreciate the feedback!! I plan on updated the game after all the feedback, so it's very helpful!!
First try... ;__;
aaa so close though, only twenty more floors to go!!
Fun little game, chill soundtrack, wonderful art!
thanks so much for taking the time to play the game & for the feedback!
You really have to play this a few times (and have a little luck) to even have a CHANCE at this. It took me stacking up to 25 atk to even get close to winning.
It definitely varies a bit on each playthrough ~ some people have beat the game with 15ish attack! Thanks for taking the time to comment and play the game! :)
This is such a lovely game (& that soundtrack is 10/10)!
thanks so much for playing! i'm really happy with the soundtrack --- it was one of the last things I made for the game! I'll check out your stuff as well!
I love it! Such a cute little game.
thanks for checking it out! :)
Took a while to figure out the mechanics (and get the optimal items), but it was a fun game.
Though, I did notice that the game can become quite difficult if you don't find enough attack boosting swords (3 attack for 3 hp is a very good deal if you have the health for it) or you find yourself unable to afford the hp increase and stamina increase items in the shop.
A defense build with other low stats can be stuck doing scratch damage to the final boss and dying in a few turns, while a high attack build can easily win the fight quickly.
Thanks for the feedback! I'll definitely be working on a balance update in the future --- especially with the higher hp enemies, etc. (you can definitely hit a wall with certain stats against certain tougher enemies). In the future, having some option ways of damaging enemies like other types of items etc. would be cool, to help with options/flexibility for builds. I'd also like to add a stat respec screen! I'm glad you enjoyed the game overall though & really appreciate the comment!
Glad I could be of assistance. Also. I noticed that while making the browser game screen larger can be done though zooming in, there is no option to adjust screen size or fullscreen mode for the downloadable version.
It's definitely something I'd like to add in the future! I'd need to rework some of the UI and assets so scale properly, but it's definitely going on the list! :)
First run at school, had 23 dmg 18 def 8 spd 1 luk amazing game.
Thanks so much for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed the game! :)
This game is pretty fun. The art style is also really cut. It is simple and easy to understand. However the downside is how it is pretty reliant on rng and getting the items needed. There is some skill in planning out the optimal item to get and what can help in the long run. Although I was pretty close I did not manage to win. It is still fun overall and pretty addictive
thanks for playing & for the feedback!! def. a lot of RNG, I'm sure an update or two to readjust after feedback will be helpful with that! there's a lot of extra code work I can do for balancing & I'd like to add a stat respec screen in a future update to alleviate some of the RNG!
just watched the video as well! the curse debuff can be kinda brutal --- it looks like it went after your attack a lot which is why you got stuck around floor 18 (curse randomly takes a stat away on some turns, until it's cured) --- still, a really great first run! it's really nice to watch other people play the game & I'm glad that overall the game was fun and easy to understand!
triple pizza slime :D
pizza party!
they were all cold, very glad i didn't eat any ;-;
it took me like 10 runs to discover the fact that the depression effect exists
and about 13 to discover cursed
and in that run i (first of all, cured the curse, and second,) killed the boss in 3 turns :D
btw i feel like literally every burger i eat while i have an effect is moldy- is that intentional and/or normal?
shouldn't be related --- they are two separate game objects (you can notice moldy ones cus they are darker/have a black olive, but also the magnifying glass says if they're good or not!) depending on the run, they can just pop up more than juicy burgers x.x --- I appreciate all the feedback, cus there's prob a balance update coming shortly haha.
i think it might be just my luck (not my luck stat, it's just a thing with me and video games where my luck is always either absolutely insane or absolutely horrible and never in between)
and also my lack of attention
first try B)
not sure what happened to my luck tho- earlier i had a lot :/
probably a broken mirror shield or cursed sword? some items take away other stats, but having that much attack never hurts x.x (i think i've seen a 20+ attack) but yeah, def a solid first run haha! :o (I'm looking forward to adding to the game!)
i think it was like 3 cursed swords and 1 mirror shield now that i think abt it :/
Third try, no defense seems to be no problem :D This was such a fun game, I liked it a lot!
thanks for playing & for the feedback! :)
I cant seem to play. I start each new game on floor 5, which is a shop, but I have no cash. Then I progress to floor 6, where clicking on monsters does nothing (no animation, feedback or damage as far as I can tell), but after 4 clicks my turn ends and the monsters attack me. Eventually the monsters kill me, and that's all that can happen. Chrome Version 104.0.5112.102. Happens in incognito window too, so it isn't a plugin issue.
Yes, it was working yesterday for me, but know I have the same bug. I hope it'll get fixed soon :D
Fixed! Thanks for letting me know!
--- I was reuploading a fix for a typo & and some incorrect wording in the guide/tutorial page & left something for testing on which messed the game up. Should work again lol.
Love this game. Thinking a lot about the lore. Whats going on here?
there's a lot of lore in the descriptions of objects/monsters, but it's overall (imo) about Kid's recurring nightmares/reliving bad moments and memories and finding themself in the astral plane. van in the shop gives a little more insight if you inspect them, but it's a fairly loose story and meant more to be atmospheric/hints & not a super concrete lore/plot. I have some update ideas, etc. to expand on it, but this first version is just about a recurring nightmare where kid meets van (and their father Lord Dredd who runs the midnight tower)
for context: there was also a risograph-printed book called Kid Canary: Rolling in the Keep (which was a comic, with some panels requiring dice rolls). there's only 180 or so copies of that and it's not available anymore (I might release it digitally soon) --- it doesn't have a lot of continuity, but amy (a fish girl) is mentioned in the game and she is a monster in that book that kid canary hangs out with. the book is very different tonally though & more of an adventure time/saturday morning cartoon/80s LOZ animate series vibe haha.
Thanks!
this is such a cool art style!
thanks so much! :)
I love the art style of this!
Thanks!! It was def. fun to push myself with the art and character designs!
It's a very cool little game, I enjoyed playing this !
Thanks so much for playing the game! :3
Incredibly fun game! I love the art style and the overall chill vibe. That “look” feature really added a lot of flavor to the game. Not only do you learn some fun lore about the enemies and items, but it also helps you determine what items might not be the best to pick up. Each run is randomized enough to engage the player in a good amount of decision making. Luck does play a part, but there is enough knowledge the player can learn to help get through the game a bit more efficiently each time. Every time I died I thought “Okay, just one more time and I’ll beat it for sure” until I eventually did! It was a wonderful feeling to have! Overall, amazing work on this!
Thanks so much for the kind review and for taking the time to make a video! It really means a lot to me!
this is super fun!! i only know you from your comics, i wasn't aware you made games too; i'll go check some of those out sometime!!
hey thanks for reading my comics! :) i hope you enjoy the game!
Very fun, it took a loss to fully get every mechanic but well made
thanks so much for playing! i'm really happy you took the time to beat the game!
This game is cool, I especially like the battle system!
thanks so much! it was my first time coding a battle system, so I have a lot to learn, but it was fun to make a turn-based battle system and definitely was a bucket list goal of mine! I'm excited to expand on it more and balance it further in the future.