Projects
![]()
No projects found
Investors
New
DAO Treasuries
DATs
Lend / Borrow APRs
Chains
Categories
Spaces
Players Gonna Play: Tollan Survivors
Recorded: March 28, 2025 Duration: 1:05:36Space Recording
Short Summary
Tolan Survivors is set to launch with innovative gameplay that combines elements from popular titles, inviting players to join its private playtest. The project showcases significant growth and aligns with emerging trends in the gaming industry, particularly in co-op gameplay and meta progression.
Full Transcription
Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and get started. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and get started. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. so
here we go. Check one two. All is working well. So we're just running a little bit late here to get the Toland team set up, but I'm going to kick it off. Here we go.
Maybe there's some settings.
Full screen.
Simple.
Alright.
Here we go all right boss hunt main objective defeat the boss 15 points time
limit eight minutes points are added the faster the main objective is completed. Points added per second under time limit.
10 points.
Right, so like,
everyone can probably beat it,
but whoever does it the fastest squeezes out those leaderboard points.
pretty straightforward, let's go
Okay.
So once you level up,
you can
pick
one of three abilities
every time.
Oh, looks like Mike's on the backstage.
What is up?
Hello, can you hear me? Am I live?
You're live. We are live.
Oh my gosh. Hello.
Alright, you came just in time.
You came just in time. I'm picking my first ability.
Alright, alright.
It doesn't have my favorite, but my favorite one is the Arcane Ray, obviously.
It's like an...
Or unlucky.
Sorry? No, it's...
Those are still pretty good abilities.
I'm trying to think.
I do like Chain Lightning. three random enemies within the player's
vision range are struck every five seconds but the fire trail seems pretty good too because we're
non-stop moving dealing 25 damage to enemies hit is there like a diminishing return on it or is it
just is if they're standing it's just just 25, 25, 25, 25.
That's a good question.
I don't really have an answer to that.
Okay, let's limit test.
Let's find out.
Wait, where's my... Oh, it's when I dash.
Oh, now I'm sad I took that.
It was cold fire dash, right?
Right.
That's pretty good, though, if I dash through them.
Yeah.
Okay, so not totally
rugged ourselves but damage is increased by 10 i do like flat damage increase
slash towards the nearest enemy dealing 25 arcane energy is this one you like arcane ray
oh yeah that's that's my favorite so we grabbed this right snap pic on site no questions
asked exactly oh um michael why don't we um just because we didn't get to do a little introduction
want to introduce yourself and the project as well while i'm here fighting for my life
can i see this the chat somehow as well is there a there a way for me to see what people are saying?
Yeah, on the right side.
Okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.
And I also am trying to make the video a little bit quieter.
X hasn't really figured out their chats. Oh, we're on X right now? Okay, gotcha.
Cool. Yeah, well, I'm Michael.
I'm founder of the studio that made this beautiful game that's Eli. It's Eli, right?
Yeah, Eli, Eli. Eli is just playing right now.
Started this a couple of years ago. This game particularly was in development since late last year.
So, yeah, excited to be here, excited to see you playing the game and uh i would love to be
as helpful as i can all right please be helpful hey what um how long have you guys been building
toland survivors and like the whole toland world because it's not just one game right
well toland world started development in 2022 uh the game is still in development. It's a larger scale game, combines sort of on the intersection of Diablo, Stardew Valley
and Hades.
To all survivors here is a little bit of a smaller experience.
This one was in development since late last year, well since Q3 last year.
And we like to call it Vampire Survivors and Steroids.
There are going to be a lot of unique systems
that you haven't seen in other games in the genre.
One of them is Co-op mode,
where there will be a lot of spells
that require two or more players to activate.
Oh, interesting. I didn't know that.
And there will be a lot of different layers of meta progression
that I'm not ready to talk about in depth yet,
but our goal is to allow you to create as many unique builds and combinations of abilities,
spots, passive upgrades as possible.
And obviously, objective system where your goal is not to just survive and and make it through the run but rather
complete certain objectives on different sides of the map uh currently in this in this demo you
you've been randomly assigned whether uh the boss fight or uh destroy two orc in camp i'm not sure
which one is right right here. This is a boss fight.
Yeah.
So what we're working on right now is also the more clear game UI for your quest.
So on its upright near the mini map you'll be able to see your quest at all times and
you'll also be pointed towards them on the mini map so you know which way to go.
Ooh, it's gotta be this right? Increase the raise?
That's pretty good.
Yeah, that's not a question, right?
Okay, so the mini-map, those little
dots are something I can, like...
So the red ones
are the ones you can destroy.
The yellow ones are some interactive
objects where you can get something cool.
Are those
blue gems the XP? yeah on the floor okay
so you have to go over them and get them you're adding the magnets as well so you can pick up all
the all the uh blue gems from anywhere in the map so there will be only one for a run this
cooldown reduction does that mean my fireball is just going to be spitting out way faster uh
cooldown reduction does that mean my fireball is just going to be spitting out way faster?
The cooldown between fireball bursts will be shorter.
Right, so it is indeed...
Yeah, exactly.
Dash length. Experience gained.
Hmm.
What do you think here?
I would go for experience.
Okay.
Always try to make sure I'm leveling up
as fast as possible.
Uh-oh. Always try to make sure I'm leveling up as fast as possible. Uh oh.
Oh, we're leveling up fast. Is there a level cap?
I don't know, actually. That's a good question.
I'm sure I know that like...
There are mysteries.
There are a lot of mysteries in this game.
I just want pure damage.
Oh, where did all this XP come?
Probably Arcane Ray killed some monsters outside of the screen.
Arcane Ray goes like all the way across the map?
Not across the map, just slightly outside of the screen.
Okay.
It would be TLB if it went through the whole map.
Okay.
Killing an enemy heals you.
This seems okay with all the damage we do.
Sustain.
Go for that.
That's a good one.
Needed some healing.
In case we get
in an ugly situation.
Oh, and there's potions. Those auto-heal?
Oh, these are items in gear, but't have oh yeah you uh you can you can see chests on the map they
on the mini map they are marked as uh yellow uh dots okay you can get gear from them right now
or it also drops from some enemies the the stronger ones usually okay this is a tricky one right
like the arcane ray could last longer
or we could get more XP
do you think XP just keep
that's a pretty tough show
but 10% increase in XP game
is pretty decent
I trust the founder
never gonna question you
this is what I don't want.
I want you to make decisions yourself
and then us to learn on it.
We did learn. If I picked the
Arcane Ray one, it would have been fine too, I think.
I'll let you choose
for yourself. I know what I
would have picked there.
I'm taking Life Steal.
Is that what you would pick? I'm taking it.
Maybe.
Alright, I'm gonna pick it then tell me.
I would do the same, yeah.
Oh, alright. So that's how we're gonna play it?
I'm okay with that.
Okay, so this should be a chest down here.
How often do you stream?
Like with Arbitron?
With Arbitron or in general.
Yeah.
We have been on a little bit of a
hiatus because of GDC and everything,
but ideally it'd be once a week
in a perfect world.
But we've had weeks where we stream
like twice when it's
busy.
Deal six damage repeatedly. Yeah, this is your guys's first time on here isn't it
it's my first time here because i've been running this show since like late 2022
oh wow yeah it's one of the first things i did was kick this thing off. Amazing. I kind of would like to have health, more health, just be unkillable.
And now after I click it, tell me.
I think I do the same.
I'm not sure, but I would be here to pick.
Oh! What did I pick?
I accidentally
E and
picked one automatically.
Oh, it's the lightning.
Lightning one, I picked.
That's the issue right now for many players,
because if they're trying to dash
excessively and then the
skill selection menu pops out
they just do something by mistake uh we will we will solve this with a little cooldown so you can't just face immediately when you win the menu opens
uh that's that's that's some that's those are good choices
i would go for dragon breath honestly i had a feeling there was a little there was a little Dragon Breath next time and just let's see how it goes.
Yeah, go for it.
Oh my god.
Oh yeah, exactly.
Oh, I don't like that I can't aim the breath though.
You can, it's towards your direction of movement.
Okay.
But I guess I want to be able to move in one direction and then aim it down.
That'd be nice.
It would be pretty OP, honestly.
That's why we didn't do it.
It's possible to do it.
Add more enemies.
Add more enemies.
All of those are pretty good choices, honestly. This is very good. Ummmm... Hmm... Ooh, those...
All of those are pretty good choices, honestly.
Yeah, this is very good.
Uh...
I mean, Arcane Ray does so much damage.
Having another second of that is
like having an extra set of rays.
But we did just get Dragon's Breath.
But, I don't like that I can't aim it,
so I'm gonna go for Arcane like that i can't aim it so i'm gonna go for the arcane ray
you can't aim it either it's kind of random i know but you know it's the rays baby
oh god oh god oh that's a lot of sounds
you can check your inventory as well the it includes all the items automatically but you
still you still don't want to take a look and
to see what's going on there give me one second summon that deals eight damage so you guys kind
of went for like different elements right with a lot of these stuff um I mean we passed on this last time oh it auto equipped it let's see max hp that's fire
max hp movement speed damage hp minus movement speed i don't like that okay cool
Ooh, some nice gear there, huh?
XP gain.
Now you have the glow in your inventory with little arrow.
This one, yeah.
Means it's stronger?
It means it's stronger.
Oh, I see a quest.
Oof, it's getting messy.
I think I need some movement speed.
Oh dear.
How am I supposed to pass in this quest? Oh dear.
How am I supposed to pass in this quest?
Do I have to click E when I get to it?
Yeah.
Ooh.
Every time I get this quest,
I only pick one option.
Oh no. And I never choose the other other one and there's no level cap i don't know
four levels you just get to upgrade four things right away
yeah that's crazy but this is very sustainable
oh no there's only one right answer, you're telling me?
I think, because I always take it early in the game, right?
If you're already like 10 minutes out from the end,
you might want to take the first one as well,
because you're not going to level up too much anyway.
Time rest is going down.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, here we go.
Oh my goodness interesting
seems kind of nice
some crowd control
the cooldown reduction of everything just more more damage
um more hp and more damage oh oh oh i right when i you're lowish fee there yeah i think so
I like this little recap.
That was a good run.
Is this the same build that we played at GDC?
It's an improved one. There are a couple more assists.
This window here, for example, wasn't there at GDC.
This was added during the GDC week. Okay, that's a cool window i like the recap very important uh 4197
you can do better than that come on yeah yeah again i guess the idea is people are going to
start to like flex whatever this number is that's we're gonna have litter boards we're gonna have
some some tournaments going on around it there are a lot of things coming also the metagame so
because like right
now just eight minute run and there's really like not much replayability except trying both
objectives and then competing with others on the leaderboard but we're adding a lot of
meta game on top of it so there's a lot to unless so there's like a lot of content to go through
essentially okay oh no what's up i clicked spacebar when the level came up. Oh.
I think it was a faster fireball though, so that's nice. That's good.
Hehehe
If you haven't tried Water Slide last time, I mean it's like Fire Dash
Oh, I like that
I like this more than Fire Dash
And it has like a knockback effect as well
Yeah, that's the beauty Uh, cooldown reduction.
Actually, I just want to see what all the abilities look like, so we'll take Wingale.
Okay, alright.
Just experimenting here.
Oh, I forget I have to go back for my XP.
Alright, Dragon's Bath nice and early.
So far you set for a pretty good run. Let's see how it goes.
Let's see. Oh nice, the wind gale thing took them all over the place.
Increase the size. We need a little bit of lifesteal though.
They did get some of that.
They're really trying to make us do this.
Um, HP.
I should try and find some quests nice and early, right?
Well, you might not be strong enough for quests right now.
Like, it's going to be pretty hard for you to destroy any tower.
Right.
I wish we already had a co-op but we could play together right now.
I know, that would be good, but we can always come back.
Of course.
Alright, I want two fireballs.
Or three.
The fireballs just are sustained, you know?
We need sustainable damage.
Oh, this is pretty good, Evans.
Whoa, whoa. It does it before? Okay events before okay I gotta 150 enemies I see that to stay in the ring yeah right that's included I like that XP gain oh we need arcane ray right that's just a must
oh yeah
boom nice
oh oh ray mount
oh god Oh god.
Increased the range of water explosions.
That's pretty defensive, but I like movement.
I feel slow sometimes.
A lot of XP.
Cooldown reduction.
Let's see how that goes.
6% doesn't seem like a lot, but I feel like if it stacks...
Oh shit.
Oh no.
You need some health.
Oh here it is.
Yeah.
Like, speed gain is pretty important right now.
That's what I would do.
Movement speed.
I feel like movement speed is so huge.
I'm just outrunning them all.
I said it's a little bit LP. I agree. I was seeing people stuck in a little bit and they were just flying around the map.
It was too crazy.
I'm already feeling a little bit unkillable.
I mean, if we're moving fast, I think the fuck is good.
Gotta go around and find all our XP.
This goes from four to six rays.
Yeah. from four to six rays yeah oh my god Oh
Jesus I don't know if that was right but...
Well this is probably better but let's see what water speed is.
Don't forget to claim the reward from the totem on the rise. Okay.
Yeah.
Three minutes left.
Three minutes is almost half of the game, though.
Oh, true.
Damn. A lot more, okay.
Damage, damn, a lot.
Bro, yeah, I only leveled that movement speed twice, and I already, like, it's the reason I'm surviving probably
oh yeah more damage More damage.
Oh no! Get him!
Yes!
Haha, this came crazy
oh dear
oh there you go i have to beat him then it's over oh yeah Oh they're running fast.
Do they get like a buff from him?
Not really.
It feels like they're moving faster.
This is a special breed of gnolls.
They're very fast.
Okay.
Yeah, the movement speed is really OP here. That's crazy.
Oh no no no!
Same as his spells.
Yeah, I gotta find some potions.
But then we only have one minute to kill him, so...
Oh damn.
I'm right out of time.
Oh, that's the best tool.
Woo!
There's the pushing on the left.
Near the token.
Oh yeah. there you go.
Nice, nice.
Congrats.
You did it.
Let's go.
That's awesome.
That's a pretty good score, it's all.
OK, is it?
It's good, it's good.
Is it based on just how much time was left?
It's based on a lot of different parameters.
You can see the though on the right.
Oh, right, right. The enemy's killed too.
32 levels, nice.
Knowledge totem. So the quests also give you some points.
Yeah, of course.
Wow, almost a thousand.
And there was more quests I could have done if I kept going around.
There is one more totem there, but that's it.
Okay, so there's three totems every round.
Yeah.
Are they always in the same spot?
No, they always randomize.
Yeah, but one is the bloodfed one with the combat ring.
One is the towers,
and then one is something else.
Right.
Okay, let's see who was my carry.
Okay, not even close.
Jesus.
Wow. The DPS.
This is so huge.
Oh my gosh.
Okay, so...
Enjoy Kain Raid before we nerf it,
because, yeah, this is going to be one of the first things
we're going to nerf. It's 2 OP.
Well,
these early were very defensive, you know, they...
Yeah.
Can't underestimate the survivability, right?
Does it save my progress anywhere or not?
Oh, it doesn't. No, we'll save it later.
Well, all that's left to do is go again.
Oh, this is a different one.
This one is about destroying encampments.
Destroying encampments.
Points are added.
Destroying encampments.
Okay.
So we just... E aí What's been some of the big learning curves you found in this game where you're kind of like,
almost like a light bulb moment when you're trying to do some of the game design and spell and abilities and things? That's a very good question and and I'm not sure if I even have an answer to.
I think it's...
We're really trying to combine
several genres together,
and we understood that some of the mechanics
doesn't really match well together.
So there were a lot of great ideas
that just had to be discarded because of that.
That's always a hard move. Yeah, of course. I mean, the game industry in general is one of the
hardest industries. It's not a rocket science, of course, but it's still pretty challenging because
it requires a lot of artistic expression that will also feel good to interact with for end users,
as well as it needs to be technically bug free and smooth so there
there are a lot of different components that go into it but it's just i guess
the like understanding what features from different genres makes sense to combine
Okay, that makes sense.
okay that makes sense there are a lot of references out there there are many survivors games
There are a lot of references out there.
There are many Survivor's games as well.
Where are the fortresses?
You'll find them when you find them.
Okay.
It's a big map.
Right.
Okay, so none here.
They're not here.
And I don't know where they are.
They're always random.
That's good.
Oh yeah, movement speed next patch we're nerfing movement speed and the arcane ray yeah
it's not even a patch at this point it's just a new version. Did I complete it?
I walked by and pressed the E.
Oh, yeah.
Alright.
Here we go. some fortresses.
Oh no, they're shooting at me.
What do you think they're gonna do?
Level you up or something?
Oh no.
What the heck?
They're so strong.
Yeah, because you're very low level for now.
Okay. Not very, but you gotta very low level for now. Okay.
Not very, but you gotta level up more before you can do that.
I had no idea.
There's an Org base on the top right. You can see it on the mini-map, there's like a lot of red circles.
There's a mini-box in it that is hunting you right now. Yeah, it's time.
That's a lot of similarities.
Oh, he's...
And all of them are stuck within the base.
That's so funny.
Right, because you'd have to destroy the...
Yeah.
And if you're stationary for half a second, you'll die.
Basically.
Oh no.
I dashed into an ability. Did we kill the mini-boss?
Oh no, I still think he's running around.
He's trapped in that huge army.
Holy smokes.
This is getting unreasonable.
Oh, so much XP.
Don't mind if I do.
Whew. oh oh hey like I got a little stuck yeah yeah all right well the that one's tougher than the boss one because once I went to those towers they just melted
me yes exactly Once I went to those towers, they just melted me. Yes, exactly.
Okay, same thing.
Okay, we have another chance at redemption here.
Oh, that's a good one to get right away.
Wow.
Two scholars right away
That's tricky right when you pick your ability you kind kind of like hit on the enemies for like a second.
Maybe there's even a bug. Maybe their cooldowns somehow go off while you're in the ability menu.
That's possible. ability menu E aí a delicate dance you have to do with the dragon's breath you know you you don't want to run just right into them but you kind of like wiggle around
all right Alright. Alright.
Oh my god, Mordak's speaking. Jesus. I I have stronger dragon die. Oh Oh Locked in
You have a pretty big chance to win this right now.
What?
You have a pretty big chance to win this right now.
What's your strategy?
Well, I have a lot of damage right now.
I'm very offensive.
Good.
And I have a lot of XP.
I have 50% XP gain.
Nice.
Yeah, cooldown reduction. I just want my Dragon Earth and my Fireball.
Oh, movement speed. That's what I needed.
You just don't want to end up in a crowd.
Yeah.
There's some health. I'll take it.
Movement speed.
Oof!
See that? How I kind of sucked.
One second. Yes, geez. oh see that how i kind of stuck one second
whoa
some burn
okay let's get some more health.
Okay, we need to find some towers, I think.
I think we can take a tower down.
You think so?
I don't know.
I do think there's probably a lot of XP down here now.
Oh my gosh.
I haven't taken any wind or water stuff.
Ooh, three seconds? No, I need to move fast. I need to move fast I need to move fast I
decide at what point I stopped just trying to grind this XP and just get my feet wet.
I think it's a pretty good time for it.
It's a good time? Okay.
Uh-oh.
Nope. Not worth it it oh my god holy shit item oh the i if it it auto equips it if it's an upgrade right yeah that's good okay we got a
mini boss ah i got stuck on the chair oh no you had such a good build. I know. Look at that damage.
Oh my god.
69 both.
Yeah, 69.
Man, the tower one.
It's challenging, huh?
Yeah, I dashed down into that tent
and then just like kind of got stuck
and just game over there
My god look at all of them if it gives you the boss fight you might want to just refer to the page
Oh, no, it's yeah, it's nice go for it
But we have such a good XP gain in that one
That's good.
Some early gear, nice.
Hmm, is the lightning any good?
Like if you stack it?
Have you tried that?
A lightning build?
It's pretty good.
But you'd rather cool down, I think.
Just faster fireballs.
That's pretty good as well.
Not being very helpful, Mike.
I'll let you make your own decisions.
Okay, some more gear.
Damage. Easy. We got our boy dragon.
Oh yeah. Movement speed.
Movement speed.
Does movement speed scale the distance and speed of your dash?
I can't answer this.
This is a good question.
I would say no.
But it's a good idea.
I think.
It's a good idea to separate them and have like dash
to be available through your meta skill tree true
i assume eventually like you'll be able to um have skill trees before you enter battles
exactly exactly some progress like yeah they will they will carry on between runs that's good
Exactly, exactly.
Some progression.
Yeah, they will carry on between runs.
That's good.
Just so you can optimize for different play styles.
Will there be just different classes?
Yeah.
There are all the different classes.
Because this is obviously a mage.
Oh yeah.
Uh, sorcerer.
Sorcerer.
Sorcerer.
I wonder what a warrior would feel like.
I was just thinking about that actually right now.
We gotta make it warrior next.
Blast through, first working.
It definitely should do like a...
Any ultimate abilities as well.
Oh, an ultimate ability would be cool.
That would be fun and just thinking about what we're gonna do for the warrior.
Warriors also always, you know, they can jump and hit the ground pretty hard.
I mean, a good ult for warrior could be like a bloodlust.
They increase their damage by like a bunch of percent, but take more damage.
Attack speed as well.
Yeah, everything.
Move faster.
No lasers yet.
It wants to take a different build.
We must listen.
That was a lot of damage.
Getting greedy.
Oh no.
Technically, if you walk far enough from this crowd of monsters they will respawn in front of you.
Really?
Let's try it right now, let's see what happens.
Here they are. Here they are.
Oh no. Oh, it came right here.
Oh, finally!
Level 15.
Took it a while.
Just a minute.
I love when the sound effects break because there's so much stuff getting hit.
Oh my god. This build isn't the best, I don't think.
Do you think so?
I don't know, maybe I'm underestimating it.
Yeah, I don't like leveling up next to a giant crowd because of that slight pause when you
come off the screen.
No tilting.
Here we go.
Oh, oh yeah.
No! Oh Alright, we're almost at that 2 minute mark Hello! Oh, if you combine two of the same gloves, they upgrade?
Yeah.
Okay, cool.
Oh, you have an end-and-the-boss fight here at the same time.
That's- That's fun.
I go hard.
Oh no. Oh no.
We're okay, we're okay.
Oh, your vent is almost done.
Nice.
Holy...
Oh shit, we have to go destroy the bases. Holy...
Oh shit, we have to go destroy the bases.
Yeah, a minute, yeah.
Oh no.
I think you can still get it
if you destroy them fast enough.
But it's definitely not gonna be easy.
Is that it? Yeah, I think this is it for this base.
Oh, there's another base.
Oh, I got stuck.
There are two bases.
I skipped the...
It was the best run in the base mode for you.
I was strong there. I i was strong i underestimated myself
earlier all right i think i'll have to run at this point but uh i i wish i wish you luck with
this is the boss fight so you might want to refresh it so it gives you the uh the basis one
i hope you'll make it will you eventually make it so you can uh choose
the game type or do you like the random you'll be able to to choose a lot of things yeah exactly
exactly i don't really like the random here especially when we're going to start doing
tournaments it will make a lot of more a little more sense to to to give players some more agency
over what they're going to do. So good luck.
Thanks for having me.
Thanks for coming.
Love the advice and lack of advice.
I like to give the mystery a little bit.
I like to let you
explore it yourself.
For everybody who's watching,
go to Talon.io, join a waitlist,
and we'll eventually send you access to the private playtest as well.
Thank you, guys. Thank you for having me.
Talon.io.
Talon.io.
All right. Thanks a lot, Mike. Have a good weekend.
All right.
Well, that was fun.
All right.
Well, we weren't able to beat the tower gauntlet,
but we did beat the boss hunt at least,
so we weren't completely noobs.
We had some integrity.
And that's it for me.
Appreciate you guys showing up,
and a big shout-out to tolan survivors and the team there and
yeah i'm excited to see where this game goes and it's already like we had them featured at gdc as
one of the game demos and just in a week's time it's already has like a lot more going on too
which is kind of fun co-op's gonna be crazy that's for sure. All right. See you guys. Oh Bye.
