Tower of the Tail
A 2D platformer where your inventory is your health, and every decision matters.
9-PERSON TEAM
JAN-MAY 2026
ROLE: PROGRAMMER & AUDIO DESIGNER
Project Overview
Tower of the Tail is a strategic 2D platformer built in Java using LibGDX. Players guide Klutz, a curious mouse climbing a mysterious wizard tower while managing a grid-based inventory that doubles as a health system.
Taking damage destroys sections of the inventory, forcing players to constantly adapt their movement abilities, resources, and progression strategy as they ascend the tower.
Core Mechanics
Health as Inventory
Instead of using a traditional health bar, Tower of the Tail tied player health directly to inventory space. Taking damage permanently destroyed random inventory cells, potentially dropping movement abilities and essential items.
Because every hit reshaped the player’s available space and loadout, players constantly had to balance mobility, survival, and long-term progression while climbing the tower.
Strategic Tradeoffs
Players can combine or split jump and dash upgrades to adapt to different platforming challenges. Some upgrades increase movement power, while others alter the player’s size and inventory capacity.
Stronger movement abilities are not always beneficial — higher jumps or longer dashes can overshoot platforms, reduce precision, or make hazards harder to avoid. Players must constantly balance mobility and inventory space depending on the challenge ahead.
Inventory-based Traversal
Movement abilities occupy physical inventory space, forcing players to constantly decide which tools are worth carrying. Different platforming sections favor different loadouts, turning traversal itself into a spatial resource-management puzzle.
