“My philosophy for making games is that I have this thing I call: ‘The Trinity Hook,” explains indie developer Thomas Brush.
“What that means is that any project I’m working on has to appeal to the audience on three separate levels. First of all, it needs to have a decent story hook. Then, it needs to have a strong visual hook and finally, it needs to have a gripping mechanical hook. You’ve got to tick all three of those boxes. Otherwise it’s not worth doing.”
Just from a glance, you can see how these guiding principles helped shape the vision for Brush’s latest: Twisted Tower. Indeed, as we sit down with the charismatic creator (who, incidentally, has been able to hone his salesmanship by talking up this game at every opportunity on his YouTube channel), it’s evident that he has given a lot of serious thought to how he plans on meeting that self-imposed criteria.
And it’s a discipline that seems to have paid off in spades! Because while our Gamescom 2023 appointment with Twisted Tower wasn’t an extensive hands-on session (one of Brush’s colleagues from Atmos Games took the wheel for us) and we only got to see a pre-alpha build, the title’s clear potential shone through all the same.
A World of Pure Imagination
Of the three “trinity hooks” here, it’s probably the narrative one that will turn the most heads. After all: an ultra-violent cross between Bioshock, Willy Wonka and Disneyland is about as compelling an elevator pitch as you’re ever going to hear.
For his part, Brush acknowledges that this is likely what gets people invested in Twisted Tower to begin with, claiming: “When I say that it’s inspired by Bioshock, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Shining and all of these other reference points, people always want to find out more. They’re like: ‘What does that even mean?” Which honestly sums up our initial reaction to reading this game’s Steam description. It’s such a bizarre hodgepodge of seemingly random influences (Brush also namechecks Luigi’s Mansion, Half-Life and The Teletubbies later on in our conversation) and it’s hard to envision how any of these disparate parts could ever form a cohesive whole. Yet we’ve got to admit, once you’ve seen it in action you almost immediately grasp what the team is going for here.
A dark comedy with a satirical bent, Twisted Tower is set in a nightmarish dystopia where the gimmickry of reality TV has somehow spiralled even further out of control, and people regularly tune in just to enjoy the suffering of others.
One of the most popular shows in this dog-eat-dog world is (you’ve guessed it) Twisted Tower. In a nutshell, this prime-time viewing takes the form of a psychological gauntlet wherein contestants must fight their way up a high-rise that’s been rigged with various booby traps and that is patrolled by armed maniacs. Oh, and its architecture is constantly shifting as well, making it nigh on impossible for participants to ever get their bearings.
Of course, should you manage to overcome all of these obstacles and make it to the tippy top of the hotel, then you’ll be rewarded handsomely with a cool $10 million. If you’re not successful, however, then let’s just say that a lack of financial compensation will be the least of your worries.
In terms of how this ghoulish funhouse is actually run, everything that happens here is controlled by the show’s chief financier (and de facto host); an eccentric billionaire by the name of Mr. Twister. Although the evil mastermind never appears in the flesh during our preview slice — instead only greeting us with derisive commentary over the Tannoy — we can tell that he’ll be an integral part of the experience when it launches next year. He’s constantly taunting you, daring you to do terrible things, and dispensing macabre instructions that utterly fly in the face of your self-preservation instincts. Think of him like a chipper version of the Jigsaw killer, only with a much wackier-sounding voice.
Giving us the low-down on his main villain, Brush expounds: “Mr. Twister earned his fortune selling toys and now entertains himself by torturing people in this sadistic game. He’s basically my [spin] on Willy Wonka. From the outside, he’s got all of these cool, alluring things like toys and theme park attractions that you want to come see. But he’s actually really demented.
“I mean Willy Wonka himself is already pretty menacing, right? That concept of somebody promising that they’ll make your wildest dreams come true, provided that you do certain things in an environment that they control; it’s all very sinister. I didn’t even have to change that much to turn him into the ultimate [horror villain]. He was already part way there.”
Speaking of things that were kind of fucked up to begin with, Brush cites the more uncanny aspects of Disneyland (i.e. It’s A Small World) as yet another unlikely influence on Twisted Tower. Which brings us nicely to that second hook.
The Creepiest Place on Earth
According to Brush — who offers all of his insight to aspiring game makers through a developer diary series that charts his own journey— once you’ve got the story pinned down, the next thing you’ve got to do is identify an eye-catching visual draw that will make your project stand out from the crowd.
Always one to practice what he preaches, he’s found a very striking look for Twisted Tower. While the introductory lobby area certainly evokes fond memories of Bioshock — with its gorgeous art deco stylings — you’ll soon discover that every single floor of this hotel has its own distinctive, quasi-nostalgic vibe.
Indeed, as you take control of the 18-year-old Timmy (who is essentially this story’s golden-ticket-flaunting Charlie Bucket), you’ll be traversing a wide range of areas including: indoor waterparks; rotating hallways; and a family-friendly suite known as only “The Tickle Me Rooms.” Suffice it to say, the latter is not quite as wholesome as it sounds.
There are obviously consistent through lines and unifying motifs that tie all of these biomes together (namely the retro, early 20th-century aesthetic) yet Brush is adamant that he wants the game to keep surprising you with crazy new sights and experiences at every turn. That way it never grows stale.
Believe it or not, the idea for this anything-goes approach stemmed from The Magic Kingdom Park over in Anaheim, where incompatible lands that have no business sitting adjacent to each other end up having a seamless flow. The only difference here is that, instead of transitioning between the delights of medieval fairy tales, the wonders of tomorrow and the thrills of the old west, you’re going to be exploring decidedly less cosy fantasies.
However, it’s not just that vague concept of an interconnected world with themed zones that Brush has lifted from the House of Mouse. On the contrary, many of the levels in Twisted Tower have been directly inspired by specific Disney attractions. Particularly those that left psychological scars on the developer as a young kid.
Elaborating upon this, he said: “I love Disneyland. It’s so magical but, at the same time, I often find parts of it to be quite spooky. You know, the animatronics, the sense of [uncanny] and stuff like that. So what I wanted to do with this game is take a lot of my childhood trauma and just be honest with it.
“We’ve got a floor that’s basically The Haunted Mansion and another one that’s like a dark version of the Cinderella Castle! Not to mention The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was the basis for a lot of the things you’ll see throughout this. Our hotel has that same 1920s look, an elevator [at its heart], and we’re even using public domain songs from the era that sound exactly like the ones you’d hear in the Disney ride queue.
“But what’s really cool is that every environment has its own unique atmosphere, backstory and enemy type. I’m really proud of that and can’t wait for people to see what we’ve got in store for them.”
The Last Piece of the Puzzle
While the narrative and visual USPs came to Brush rather naturally, the third (and arguably most important) component proved far more troublesome. In fact, the mechanical hook went through several permutations before the team over at Atmos settled on what they have now.
On a surface level, Twisted Tower is a pretty standard FPS with a few creepy moments and the odd jump scare. Combat is frenetic and close-quarters (with you often resorting to the use of a hatchet whenever assailants get up in your face) and there are 10 or so weapons at your disposal, including a pint-sized minigun that satisfyingly reduces enemies to a gristly mulch.
It genuinely plays a lot like Bioshock — in terms of the pacing and general feel of shootouts — and by Brush’s own admission, it hardly “reinvent the wheel”. Although many indie devs would probably consider that sufficient enough, he insisted that there be some kind of extra special ingredient to make his game stand out.
Brush’s eureka moment finally came when he decided that the titular tower ought to be in a constant state of flux. For context, at the beginning of our demo, we see Timmy walking up a path towards the building itself and, from a distance, glimpse that each of its levels are autonomously rotating on an axis, almost as if the hotel is one big Rubik’s Cube.
The implication here being that you’ll have to contend with ever-shifting geography once you’re inside, alongside all of the murderous nutjobs that are running amok. Yet in reality this is purely for visual effect and doesn’t accurately represent what’s happening from a programming perspective.
Giving us a peek behind the curtain, Brush elaborates: “We found out through playtesting that, if the tower is automatically spinning all of the time, then it removes the [sense of] fear and tension. Because the players aren’t in control and therefore can’t make any mistakes. So it’s not actually in constant motion like we’ve made it seem from the outside. That’s all just a trick.”
Still, the team knew that there was potential in that rotating hotel idea and so, after an iterative process, arrived at a fair compromise. The way it works now is that players have the agency and can deliberately flip rooms around and invert corridors by pulling certain levers.
Brush continues: “The higher you go in the tower, the more control we give you until eventually you’re rotating entire levels. In the current build, this mechanic is strictly used in order to progress along a golden path, but we do want to reach the point where it’s also used to find secrets, hidden details and extra resources. It’s our very last development milestone and we intend to put a lot of that stuff in.”
To make exploration even more dynamic, there are also branching paths in the title. Every so often, you will come across a fork in the road and be presented with a binary choice; asking you to pick between one of two colour-coded keys.
Regardless of which one you opt to take, the other will disappear for good, thereby locking you out of half of the level. The only way to see everything in Twisted Tower is therefore to play through its campaign at least twice.
Justifying this design decision, Brush tells us: “Part of the reason why I haven’t played Bioshock or Half-Life countless times over is that, once you’ve done it, you’ve effectively seen all it has to offer. There’s also a problem nowadays where, if you watch a streamer play through something, then you often feel like you’ve [vicariously] experienced it all too. I wanted my game to avoid that issue. I want people to keep coming back to it.
“Sometimes the [mutually exclusive] paths here will intersect and it will be like spaghetti, but other times they will take you to completely separate areas. Which has been tough for us, knowing that a lot of work is going into [content] that some people will never see. Because we really do want them to experience it all.
“We’ve even talked about forcing the player to go through it a second time, which sounds potentially like the right way to piss them off [Laughs] But I think if it’s a unique experience, with different lighting, weather effects and enemy encounters, then we can maybe get away with it.”
In general, Brush seems to be very conscious of his obligation to both please an audience while also sticking to his guns artistically. Not only is he in two minds about whether or not a second playthrough ought to be mandatory, but he’s also debating how the title’s check-pointing system will function and if he should include a roguelike mode.
He later confesses to us that it can be difficult not to flip-flop when making some of these creative decisions, on account of how often he interacts with his fans. Indeed, through his YouTube channel and various livestreams, Brush is giving prospective customers behind-the-scenes access to the development process and, in turn, invites their feedback at nearly every juncture.
Describing this struggle, he says: “Everybody has their opinion about what it should be. When you have 200 people in the chat, and they all have an idea, you start to question your own decisions. The danger is then that the vision starts to get muddy and compromised, when in reality it was fine just the way it was.”
However, if seeds of doubt are truly being planted in Brush’s mind, then we’re pleased to report that it isn’t manifesting whatsoever in the startlingly original product. On the contrary, despite all of the conflicting opinions, pivots in direction and clashing influences, Twisted Tower is shaping up to be an idiosyncratic oddity that’s like nothing else out there at the moment.
Twisted Tower is being developed by Atmos Games and will be published by 3D Realms.
The post ‘Twisted Tower’ Preview – How Upcoming Video Game Blends Disney, Willy Wonka and ‘BioShock’ Into a Nightmarish Mix appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.