Developer Atmos Games has been silently working away on their latest release, Twisted Tower, which is being published by 3D Realms. While still in early development, they felt confident enough in their progress to invite MP1st to take an early look at it. This was a hands-off demo, but it still managed to impress nonetheless. Take a look at our Twisted Tower preview below.
Take Us Back a Century
The story of Twisted Tower takes place in the very specific year of 1922. Why that year in particular was chosen remains to be seen, though, of course, it could just be a random choice with no implications for the story. Mr. Twister is a world-famous toy maker who also happens to host the world’s most popular brutal game show, called Twisted Tower. Here, contestants engage in fierce combat as they attempt to reach the top of the tower, at which point they will be awarded the princely sum of $10,000,000. Due to inflation, this would be worth around $183 million today, so it’s a world-changing amount of money.
In a nod to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, only those who find a Velvet Ticket within one of Mr. Twister’s famous toys can participate in the deadly game. 18-year-old Tiny is in love with a young woman named Charlotte, who unfortunately has become engaged to a school bully named Preston. Naturally, Tiny hopes to win the contest to get the money and the girl. Something tells me it won’t be so simple, though, and with a dark past he must confront, Tiny certainly has a difficult road ahead of him.
No Big Daddies Here
The inspiration from BioShock is obvious, though not so overdone here as to be boring or same-y. The whole vibe of Twisted Tower can best be described as retro-futuristic as if the world remained stuck with 1920’s aesthetics, but the world still filled up with marvelous inventions that made life better, or at least more entertaining. Even the tower itself has some character. The player will progress through each level, which takes place on a floor of the tower. Within most floors, there are also occasionally branching paths. Pressing one button over the other takes the player through only one half of the floor, and the only way to see what the other half of the level has to offer is to replay the game (or perhaps reload a save just before that point, if the game ends up supporting that functionality). This will no doubt add some replayability to Twisted Tower.
Twisted Tower is a first-person shooter in the style of old-school shooters mixed with more modern sensibilities (though not too many). Enemies are plentiful, health is limited, and items are randomly placed within boxes – during our demo, for instance, hardly any health pickups spawned, resulting in our demo player staying in a near-death state for quite a while until he finished a floor and promptly died at the onset of the next. Death does restart the entire level, which will be a point of contention for those not used to such setbacks in most of the FPS games you can find these days, but this will likely please those looking for a challenge.
The Unity Engine is used for developing Twisted Tower, and for such a small team (Thomas Brush is the coder and founder of Atmos Games), the production values are off-the-charts good. Honestly, at first glance, you could tell me this was produced by a team a dozen or so strong, and I’d believe it. All characters are fully voiced, the levels and character models are well-detailed, the lighting sets a perfectly dark mood, and the sound design is also fittingly violent. Atmos Games has hired some additional help, so now three people are working on Twisted Tower, a number so small I had it confirmed multiple times because it really is impressive what has been done here.
Great Potential
Developing any game is a long process, and while Twisted Tower appeared to have many of its systems ready, Atmos Games was actively tweaking things leading up to our demo. They had just tweaked the jump speed, for instance, slowing it down a bit from its original DOOM-like speed to something that didn’t feel like you were highly caffeinated. This caused one room that was jump-heavy to require much more precise jumps, something our demoer forgot about as he confidently leaped to his death. When a game can still give its developer a challenge, you know you’re in for a treat.
Twisted Tower has a lot of promise. For a small team of three people, the production values are incredible here. Even for much larger teams, this would be a great result. While a release date is not yet ready to be announced for Twisted Tower, it’ll no doubt end up on many wish lists in the meantime. Fans of old-school shooters should feel right at home, and you’ll want to stay tuned for updates as development on this game progresses.