The Tower
THE TOWER
"Like a wall in which an insect lives and gnaws."
a game made for Gothic Novel Jam, 2018
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This game now has a sequel, The House of God, and a finale, The Horizon.
Shown at Wordplay 2018 and Beyond the Console: Gender & Narrative Games.
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Content Warning:
Some readers may find elements of this story disturbing.
Please take particular caution if you are sensitive to any of the following:
Harsh language
Internalised transphobia
Anxiety over infertility
Medical Procedures
Blurring of reality and fiction
Abduction
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Controls:
This is a keyboard-playable twine game. Where you see a ~, you can press Spacebar to advance, or use the mouse.
In some sections you will be able to play a sub-game. Use the arrow keys to move around here. However, due to technical restrictions, you will need to click in the game to activate it.
Comments
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Whoof. That line, about, well, to avoid spoilers, about that particular validating belief applying to everyone but oneself. I feel seen. I think a lot of us do, on that. Helpful to be shown it in this context where the reader is questioning everything the narrator says.
Damn. This was just what I needed right now. Such a powerful use of form, the uses of Twine is perfect here. The hyperlinks space out each moment perfectly. By limiting the story to dialogue, text is used in a way that wouldn't work in any other medium, yet creates a perfect, unsettling atmosphere. And the themes here really resonate. The metaphors are powerful without ever feeling on-the-nose or taking away from the naturalness of the dialogue (or it's intentional unnaturalness in places). Truly excellent work. Reminds me why I want to tell stories.
Just curious, nothing wrong with this, how come when the words start to glitch, that you can hover over them, and see the typing cursor, and it actually allows you to type there? I don't think it affects the game in any way, I'm just curious if this is some Twine function or something?
it's some CSS i found online to make it look cool, that's all :)
A great game! The way you have to make the choice to click the next line feels like when you're playing a horror RPG and have to make the choice to walk into the room that you know some creature waits for you. It's agency and inevitability of the medium packaged into one and I really liked it, as well as the way the images complimented the haunting tone of the story. This game really captivated me.
This is so well done. Also it hits hard. Sending hugs to all the queer peeps, especially the ones struggling with their identity.
"...Man is blind, deaf, fragile - like a wall In which an insect lives and gnaws."
<...>
"Each of you builds in secret a temple to my fame; Each one of you in secret has kissed my foul behind;"
Great game i love the ending
This was kind of perfect for me right now. I've been having these exact same kind of conversations in regards to like insecurities with partners and being trans, paranoia about faking people out or being faked out, etc. Yeah, this was amazing, thanks.
I had goosebumps once the glitching started. Great game!
There is an easter egg in a particular Bitsy section. If you're familiar with Bitsy you'll know where it comes from as well.
great game, really love the atmosphere. <3
Checked this out before playing the sequel, and I gotta say that this pretty awesome. Great writing, aesthetic, and interesting choice in the addition of the mini-game sections. This was well done!
finally played this and it was AMAZING like holy crap!!!!!
LOVED_IT
oh wow oh wow oh wow oh wow oh wow oh wow oh wow oh wow oh wow
Pretty deep, dark story and has some nice images to go with it. The depth goes with both the story and the surprising depth of the game as a whole. Those who use space have to go full screen, since the key makes the page move down, but that's not a big problem.
If you're interested, you're welcome to enter our Game Development World Championship, we have a class for jam entries from this year too!
oh my god freya i love this
holy shit HOLY SHIT AAAAH!!! THAT IS SOOOO GOOD!!!!! JUST HOLY SHIT!!! PUT ME ON EDGE AND I FREAKIN' ENJOYED IT WHOA!!!!
God the writing in this one was so good, esp with the art accompanied by it. I just imagined Silent Hill music the whole time. This is totally a fave from you. Also when I clicked the link to ChapelR's LinkKey macro , it led to a broken page. Idk if that's Twine or the page itself. Awesome. 5 stars.
thrilled that you like it! thank you for spotting the bug - turns out it only happens on the itchio hosted version and not when tested from my desktop - but I know how to fix it, thankfully, so I'll update that <3
AAAAAAH THAT WAS SO CHILLING AND GOOD!!!!