I Spent 3 Years Making A Horror Game... Let's Play It!

all right and we are recording hey how's it going my name is Thomas brush and I am the creator of this game Twisted Tower super duper excit excited to show it to you today um it's basically like uh I mean obviously it's inspired by Bioshock huge huge fan of Bioshock um but yeah it's kind of like creepy theme park Vibes and BioShock um okay let's go ahead and jump in and I can't wait to show it to you oh by by the way if you're going to if you can play the demo feel free to click wish list on Steam all right let's go choose your ticket tiny things have changed since the wall

you were away I met someone whose established position promises a steady future oh so she left me win treasure beyond measure all right let's go so in creating this scene this this cut scene here um I really wanted it to feel almost like going through a wormhole or uh aliceon Wonderland you know falling into Wonderland or one of my favorite movies one of my favorite movies is uh hook and so with uh with hook there's really no explanation for why he's able to go to Neverland who cares right um it's more about the character story

right and so in this case the cut scene the goal of the cut scene was to well give us a motive a motivation to go here and to make it feel like we just entered a portal into a different world okay I'm at the Twisted Tower Touch the Clouds of your imagination okay so this game was created over the last 3 years we created it in unity I say we because as the Project Lead I had a team of you know at one point it was like five people but uh um one of my good friends his name is felipi he did all of the 3D art here hell is this place so he was the 3D artist and I was the art director and Project Lead okay 25 tickets all right this should come in handy nice bro

okay get some tickets baby break some present boxes I like it so in terms a lot of people have asked actually um what kind of assets are used in this game because a lot of indie games and this is an indie game uh if it's not obvious but um a lot of Indie Games will utilize a ton of assets which is totally fine but I'm really proud of this game because I would say it's got to be something like 90% of this game is is not assets those rocks are assets the trees so stuff like nature and stuff like that is assets but uh everything else is from scratch which I'm really proud of okay let's go hello bro what

by the way I'm acting surprised I'm I'm acting for you because I want it to feel like I'm actually streaming the game I've played this game though I've probably played it a thousand times um but I'm going to act like this is fresh and new uh so it's enjoyable for you all right what do we got here hello hey can I catch it oh almost one more try let's go yeah I got it hey buddy want some popcorn an old sign climb to the top Brave and clever claim the treasure goes forever okay let's go get that treasure and impress our exgirlfriend

oh hello what do you want Oh don't like that thank you very much oh that feels good what dude get away get away stop it what was that guy's problem what is your problem dude I didn't do anything to you so one of the things we found uh people really enjoy with the demo is breaking the balloons it's kind of a problem when it comes to game design because the demo is like an hour long and it should be you know but for some

reason every player wants to break every single balloon which is totally fine I'm happy for them but I was shocked when people started playing the demo how many balloons people were breaking but I'm going to do it too and why don't we break some confidence as well uh obvious inspiration here um I've said it a million times Bioshock but also uh Tim Burton love Tim Burton's work huge huge fan of Tim Burton and if you've played any of my previous games uh hopefully you would agree that this game even though it's 3D and it's a different it's a first- person shooter not a platformer uh hopefully you would agree that it's got that same Vibe right try Sprint and Crouch for some slick sliding action okay here we go nice hello

welcome to the Twisted Tower your eldest dreams will Bloom and flower throughly HS and wonders Grand you'll squeal for more at my command and if you reach the top tonight the treasure May steal Charlotte's heart how do you know about Charlotte huh yes tiny we know all about Charlotte get out of here you creep all right we've got Mr Twister the owner of this park uh he's a little too happy kind of creeping me out let's collect some uh loot reminder oh my word welcome to 1950

baby Ascend to your dreams don't mind if I do what the heck oh boy let's enter This creepy Castle wind oh I don't like this win her back uh what [Laughter] Charlotte oh oh

no Mr Twister is that you oh jeez are we stuck we must enter the Willy Wonka castle of nightmares okie dokie we are in the lobby ladies and gentlemen we are going to get that treasure and win back the heart of this clearly shallow Charlotte do I even want to win her back that's the question you going to leave me for money are you serious what the hell happened here the money is mine whoa

oh my goodness so this game is uh rated E for everyone sarcasm oh man I'm super duper proud of this I think Felipe again phelipe is the 3D artist he remade this Lobby three different times uh throughout the course of three years and this is the final result he did so good super proud of felipi um the goal was to you know capture that old Looney Tunes cartoon Vibe Disney Vibe kind of mixing it with with uh Bioshock though right and it was hard it was really really hard to capture this uh that feeling the initial uh impetus for the the lobby was um actually Hotel Cortez from American Horror Story and that's

why you can see some elements of art deco let's see if we can find any the these right here Art Deco Vibes right here these were these are original from the very beginning of production of the game but uh then we made these and I think it's called Art nuuvo I I don't know how to say it exactly but art Nuvo actually precedes Art Deco I could be wrong I think precedes it by like 10 years and so that's why we get this kind of 1920 30s Vibe because you kind of it's more art art Novo than Art Deco um so we kind of retro retroactively changed the art deco to be more like art Nuvo um I know I'm saying that wrong so you're going to forgive me please uh okay we got a map here Lobby Welcome Center clown Casino light speeded land Penthouse these must be different chapters mermaid Palace that's below me I want to go to the mermaid Palace

all right oh goodness what is your deal dude the real boy station Twisted Mallet special wouldn't you love an upgrade chap uh yeah are you going to give this to me for free buddy are you sure about that chap by the way that's my voice are you sure about that chap are you sure you want to upgrade the secondary fire for the Twisted Mallet oh Thunder thwack oh smack wind up for a thunderous swack dealing instant double damage to your foes so click and hold for some Thunder thwack you got a good deal on that one you got a good deal on that one cross me nose are you thank you very much sir the right strings pleasure youing business big guy pleasure doing business big guy I don't know if I'm going to keep that uh you can let me know I don't know

how you're going to let me know but let me know if you like the voice acting or does it need to be something more like Pinocchio pleasure doing business Big Guy cross me nose yummy this is a twisted snack you'll see it next to your health bar and you can eat it whenever you like you can hold up to 10 schmackos at a time hey now love me some funnel cake and popcorn I want to break everything tickets 100 I like it let's go uh excuse me hello Patricia do we want to talk to Patricia I don't know she looks like an interesting lady looks like she's been up to some interesting things heho if if it isn't tiny

Martin twist is all hot and B by you finally I guess to experience his stupid Park frankly twister hasn't been this excited since well anyways I will say I have a bit of skepticism you're not the looker as you're well aware that said as long as you keep neither Christine Halls tidy I think you and I can get along uh you're not doing a good job job keeping this place clean honey are you sure that you're uh you know as good as you think you are get some tickets get some corn dogs yep I know about the secret cash register nobody's found this yet in the streams so now you know oo but it's only 10

[Music] okay where do we go Mr Twister welcomes you so originally in the original build of this game you could see Mr Twister's face uh and a good friend of mine his name is Jason Smith he's the creator of cultic by the way you should check out cultic it's awesome he said you should not be showing Mr Twister's face you should hide it at all times especially the beginning of the oh particularly in the beginning of the game um so that's why his face is Now hidden and it's in Shadow and it totally works Jason was 100% right round of applause for Jason Smith he's a brilliant developer okay elevator card this is an elevator card

insert it into the elevator and you'll have access to the next floor okay let's go you did it you did it in case of fire remember to giggle capacity zero all right let's go you guys ready for floor one H what's that do you hear thatc Hello um hey he there oh no oh no oh no oh no get out of

here did you not see my bloody hammer do not mess with me some people have commented that uh the jumping height is too high in this game I love it I want I want to move fast and jump high and I understand that that reduces tension in the game uh it's it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make because it's just too fun jumping around it allows for a what would you say kind of an add approach to making or or playing games I don't like uh games that force me to be slow okay oh okay so I got to get that green token huh you're going to make this hard for me aren't you Mr Twister Twisted snacks Twisted snacks Twisted

snacks Twisted snacks amazing copyrighting Chets is the best oo looks delicious let's go tiny I have a confession to show of course you do it's about the prize so handle it with care the prize is not quite what you'd expect it's true but trust me you'll like it more than you knew you think you scare me you don't scare me all right oh gosh what the heck telephone get out of here

100 tickets oo secret area hello bro you think maybe you could you know drop it down to one cigarette at a time man Jonathan what's up buddy okay okay I'm done start to smell over here cringe okay let's go Miss is this a toy guess we'll find out what do you guys think is it a toy

let's see oh goodness two paths x marks the twist keep an eye out for those doors marks with an marked with an X chap that means it's a path you can take on your next playthrough ensuring guests of the park get a new unique experience on multiple plays so this was a like a a pretty I mean it was a big undertaking for an indie game um basically we wanted every level almost every level I mean I think it's like uh 90% of the levels in this game have multiple paths so the playthrough is going to be sort of shuffled and randomized and players are just going to get a very unique experience so let's say they they watch a streamer who plays all of the left side paths on every level all the people watching can say okay well I want to actually experience the right side paths now you don't get Choice it's randomized so you can keep

playing to get different uh different sides um but the goal there is well frankly a lot of these linear kind of games especially I mean a great example is halflife BioShock incredibly linear games and you really don't get a unique experience um after you've watched let's say a streamer play the game and so our goal was to figure out how do we make a game that isn't procedurally generated because me and my team weren't really a fan of procedurally generated games we have nothing against them but it's just not for us and we want it to still feel linear but also unique for the player and so that's why we created these paths and it was a big undertaking it basically doubled the size of the game um if I'm being honest so okay can we upgrade wouldn't you love an upgrade chap I would love an upgrade chap are you sure about that chap yes bang bang bang triple shot it's time to spin that chamber chap power up for a triple shot careful though you fire off

three rounds so make them count so this is right click I ain't lying you're looking impressive now a thank you buddy okay let's see here are you sure 675 tickets do I really want to spend that kind of money it's 140 are you sure about that yeah I'll do that pleasure doing business oh well thank you sir locked key or locked door what's this restricted the doors marked with an X are closed due to reconstruction come back later and maybe this area will be ready for visitors Mr Twister I should come back here after I get to the top of the tower absolutely let's do it uho what hello welcome

come on get out of here you think you can scare me that's what I thought loot loot beware of contestant number nine okay smile get your photo with the hug that kid looks like he is actually I think he's the scariest one of them all good grief uh get your photo with the hugy Bears today okay how about no Mr Twister's twistiest tune the Huggy Bears Charlotte from night she really was beautiful that night don't be a softy tiny come on Tiny you're

softy let's go tickets bullets I like it uh is this going to be an arena is this a lockdown I wouldn't know it's not like I've played this game a thousand times oh Jerry [Applause] giraffe jeez oh need to eat some [Music] health that's what I thought Jerry hey that's not fair [Music]

oh [Music] yeah waste my ammo come on to whoever made this game too easy it's too easy maybe make make it harder flip room Jerry oh no [Music] Jerry it's a feature not a bug now this this camera in particular showing that lever a lot of people playing I've said they they they they feel like they don't need to see that lever uh most of the time the player is always right the customer is always

right but in this instance I'm right because I've tested this demo with players and they I don't know I have no idea why but they will miss this they will not pull this and they will get completely lost now it's fine getting lost but in my opinion in a demo in the first 15 minutes of playing you don't really want the player to get lost because they're still learning how the the game Loop works so I know it's annoying that that camera shows up believe me but you'll thank me later in another life okay okay we got some halflife vents here oh back to where we were what you do

key let's go get that key oh no oh he's got a shield got it lost in the woods no you're lost in the woods something feels fishy I knew it got him hey oh man I'm getting powerful got a purple Key Don't Mind If I Do Don't Mind If I Do so a little bit of background um every single level in this game

is was remade three times so I think we have something like 10ish levels completed now um with with alternative paths so in reality that's like 20 levels you had to make but then multiply that times three that can't be right I feel like I'm lying here but that every single level we did that's why it took so long it might not be that it might be something like a total of 30 levels we made and we scrapped it down to 10 um so so much redoing and it's my it's my fault as the Project Lead 100% uh because I just didn't really know what this game was and so for years we we just didn't have a full grasp on what this place was and it was also our first 3D game so level design in 3D is completely different than level design in 2D um players can get lost it's by this here players can get lost so much easier in 3D cuz you're working with a totally Dimension like exponentially creates

confusion um so yeah a lot a lot of redoing and scrapping and I've learned that's just part of what game development is is making mistakes and learning from them and redoing things all right let's go oh boy another lock down Jerry Jerry [Music] Jerry got [Music] him you guys got nothing on me oh come on that was unfair who made this game this is so

[Music] unfair [Music] bro who we got who we got loot bam oh bam got it too easy I'm telling you I think the developer needs to just go back to the drawing board because this is ridiculous way too easy tick Tommy really really proud of this gun uh Felipe again he's the 3D artist and he he came up with this gun completely from his brain all I said was I said I gave him like sketches sort of side view sketches of all the different guns and just noted we want these guns to look like they're toys but they also

need to feel powerful and there're that's a that's like a really challenging thing to do because there's two opposing ideas they need to look powerful and they need to look like toys so using like painted tin plastic rubber bands Uh Wood those are things that helped the guns look like toys but we basically took a standard profile of a typical Tommy Gun and made it look like a toy so we feel like we we did a really good job with this uh so super proud of phip you did a good job here get out of here you guys got nothing oh aha that's what I thought so let's loot this delicious kitchen Jeffrey D's kitchen o o

thank you Mr Huggy Bear oh gosh did you just shoot through the wall going to add that to the bug list oh yes I can break all of them rotate the stairs okay okay [Applause] good [Music] good have you tried I'm not even going to say that out loud whoever made this game is go so immature I knew that was coming

I don't remember this oh oh so easy to predict crap okay that's called real really good acting I think I think so I don't know maybe not let's go so these trap doors were added after we finished the game so we finished like all the level designs enemies weapons and I think it was 3D Realms uh George at 3D Realms was saying hey if the game it's called Twisted Tower you really need trap doors and so we ended up making a bunch of different kinds of traps and Blades and saws so those are all in future levels and it he was right

it works totally works yeah oh man I am too good but the the funny thing about you know working on a game for three years and uh playing it over and over and over again is you really don't know what you have um and so until last week when we launched the demo I didn't know if this game was any good and I didn't know if it was difficult or easy or balanced or like Punchy enough or was it too fast was it too slow so those are all things you just you have no idea and you kind of miss the forest for the trees when you're in the weeds making the game for three

years so it's nice to get feedback now and read reviews and kind of get an idea of how difficult and how challenging the game is and what we need to tweak to make it better oh no oh no oh no got him whoa open for 30 T do I want to take the gamble guys I got 1350 1,350 tickets Let's Go 75 tickets so that is a net of what how much was it it was 30 tickets 75 minus 30 is something something it was a net positive POS I can't do that math all

right let's keep playing here watch out for Teddy okay I will okay we opened up the photo booth loot loot oh boy we got ourselves a spider ladies and gentlemen what are we going to do about

this spiders are terrifying so these are going to show up in the future game when it's in the full release and they're great I'm thinking about putting a top hat on them cuz we did the Statue and I said let's put a top hat on the Statue but it's not on the actual spider so think'd be funny if you had a a top hat on so we'll probably do that that let's go okay got my Medallion Twisted token it's time to get your first Twisted toy use this token in the main lobby on floor zero to collect your gift from your host Mr Twister thank you sir Patricia well heho little tiny Martin the magical mess maker blood everywhere it's a off I can't keep cleaning up yet all right be

quiet Wish Upon A Star for the wo bullet blight power up to enter bullet time and become invincible for a short period of time careful though you'll use a bunch of bullets to make a count dude I got so much money I'm going to upgrade everything P by the way everything is uh pretty pretty uh upgradeable in this demo because it's a demo and I want you guys to feel amazing when you play but in the full version I think I'm definitely going to scale things back so it's not so easy to upgrade everything all right I think we need to go back to the floor zero and use that Twisted token full health baby delicious funnel cake I always feel rejuvenated after a funnel cake corn dog dipped in ketchup and a little bit of

chili and Ranch okay let's go what was that Harpoon you'll be hooked free is that the toy is that my Twisted token toy game saved all [Applause] right what tiny are you ready to hear about the prize it is my honor with great Delight to reveal the prize of Twisted Tower tonight if you reach the top through trial and fight you shall win sweet Charlotte [Music] right Charlotte do I I even want to save this girl

though she left me for someone else with money is she really worth it well I will tell you people have asked that and I will say there there's more coming there's more coming I'm excited I'm excited to finish out the story that's the last thing we need to do for this game is finish adding in the story moments and story beats um throughout the remaining floors and uh really really talented voice actress um and they're all in the credit so check them out do I have them here no I don't they're on the menu really talented voice actors and actresses in this uh project super P super proud of what they uh what they delivered Harpoon grapple across the room by launching your Harpoon at Blue targets okay so I'm going to beat this puzzle the fastest of anyone on streams right

now people tend to struggle with this puzzle I'm going to show you it can be done in I don't know like 15 seconds almost got in a bug there good good good good good good all right all right all right oh we got the door open Let's Go okie dokie so we're back in the lobby we got our elevator card let's go take it to the elevator ladies and gentlemen does this seem a little too easy to you

I don't know something seems wrong I've got a bad feeling about this oh how did I know I was actually really proud of this lighting um there's a green now there's a point light and it's spinning around this and it's also changing colors really straightforward so you can see it Shadow moving because it's spinning around anyway oh gosh shut up Thomas all right let's see what this uh Power Up [Music] is bro we got a clown we got a clown no get out of here take that

woo [Music] hey guys suck I've got a maxed out Tommy Gun tickling Tommy and you got a pistol what do we got what do we [Music] got oh oh man this guy is good at this game how does how is this guy the streamer so good at this game how does he seem to know where every single enemy is it's a mystery apparently I don't so this music is uh written by a friend of mine named Chris poos brilliant musician so lots of the music in this game is my music that I've written like the main menu

music and then a lot of it is uh Chris blos we sort of tag teamed it um after we finished writing the music I went and saw Wicked because I felt like Wicked had this Vibe you know dark and fairy tale Vibes and the music in that movie is just so incredible so inspired by the instrumentation of it so going to try and incorporate some of that bombastic uh orchest ation from um Wicked into this game okay that's awesome what a great game this is the best game I've ever played you did it all right thank you so much for playing ladies and gentlemen or thank you so much for watching me play ladies and Gentlemen please check out Twisted hour demo I think you're going to love it I hope you enjoyed it and again my name is Thomas brush I'm the creator of this game um huge shout out to 3D realms

for supporting the project um shout out to Felipe caravelli the 3D artist shout out to Chris bazos Hector Rodriguez Gordon Arbor AJ vcat and all of the team at 3D Realms who helped QA this thing um yeah check it out below play the game play the demo enjoy yourselves it's a pretty hefty demo I'm proud of it blah blah blah blah blah okay I'll shut up thanks thanks for watching bye