Tower of Heaven

Tower of Heaven
Developer(s) Askiisoft
Publisher(s) Askiisoft
Designer(s) Justin Stander
Programmer(s) Justin Stander
Artist(s) Godsavant
Composer(s) Flashygoodness
Engine GameMaker 7, Adobe Flash
Platform(s) Browser game, Windows
Release Windows
  • WW: August 13, 2009
Browser
  • WW: 2010
Genre(s) Platformer
Mode(s) Single-player

Tower of Heaven (天国の塔, Tengoku no Tōu) is a 2D action platformer video game developed by American studio Askiisoft. The game was built in GameMaker, and was released for Windows in 2009, with a Flash version released in 2010.

The game was critically acclaimed, and was noted for its short length and difficulty.

Gameplay

A typical level of the game, showing the first law that is given to the player to impede their progress.

In Tower of Heaven, the player controls Eid, a silent protagonist with a large, onion-like head, who scales the Tower of Heaven, a mysterious monolith that promises glory to those who scale it.[1] During the journey, a voice assumed to be God talks to Eid, getting angrier the further he climbs.[1] He gives Eid the Book of Laws. The voice imposes more and more laws, and the player dies instantly if any of them are broken.[1]

The game also includes a speedrun mode, where you are timed, and a stage editor mode for the Flash browser version, where you can create and play your own stages.

Development

Tower of Heaven's soundtrack, composed by FlashyGoodness, and graphical style are heavily influenced by the Game Boy, which was called "sly and deliberately deceptive" to hide the "brutal" difficulty.[2] The game lacks a lives system, and instead uses a timer on each floor to encourage players to continue.[2]

The game has been said to "expose" the "arbitrariness" of long-standing platformer game design by giving the design of the Tower an in-universe source and ultimately revealing its design as artificial and in need of destruction.[1]

The game's release was celebrated with a speedrun contest held by the developers at the TIGSource forums.[3]

Reception

Tower of Heaven received positive reception from critics. Michael Rose of Indiegames.com called the game a "wonderful platformer" despite its difficulty.[4] Joseph Leray of Destructoid called the game's soundtrack "absolutely killer".[3] Fraser McMillan of Gamasutra called the game "almost more liberating" than open world AAA games, due to the fact that it makes quitting the game and the player's quest a perfectly valid option.[2]

Tower of Heaven received a tribute in the form of a playable stage in the 2017 fighting game Rivals of Aether. The stage included similar art to Tower of Heaven, along with music and references from the game.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Nothing is sacred: killing God atop the Tower of Heaven". Destructoid. Retrieved 2017-07-03.
  2. 1 2 3 McMillan, Fraser. "Analysis: On Tower Of Heaven - It's Hard To Be A God". Retrieved 2017-07-03.
  3. 1 2 "Go down, Moses: for the love of God, play Tower of Heaven". Destructoid. Retrieved 2017-07-03.
  4. ↑ "IndieGames.com - The Weblog Freeware Game Pick: Tower of Heaven (Askiisoft)". www.indiegames.com. Retrieved 2017-07-03.
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