Freeware Game Pick: Tower of Heaven (Askiisoft)
Not sure how I managed to miss this when it was released a couple of weeks ago - Askiisoft's Tower of Heaven is a wonderful platformer which will have you tearing large chunks of hair - nay, SKIN - from your cranium.
Your task is to ascend said tower, but a mysterious power which resides at the top is doing everything it can to make sure you don't succeed. The introduction of the 'Book of Laws' early on ramps the difficulty up tenfold. Oh, and there's a time limit too.
Special mention should go to Flashy Goodness, whose provided soundtrack is simply amazing. It really gels well with the general feel of the entire experience.
Prepare to shout OH COME ON many, many times. Grab it from Askiisoft.









Comments
This game was amazing. I loved the soundtrack, and the graphics were awesome. I just wish that it was a bit longer. I wanted to see more crazy rules thrown at me!
Posted by: Chetyre | August 23, 2009 8:11 PM
Also of note, I checked out Flashy Goodness' deviantart page, and caught a link to the creator's page, and they're having a speedrun contest! http://godsavant.deviantart.com/journal/26569675/
I would love to watch some of those speedruns.
Posted by: Chetyre | August 23, 2009 8:16 PM
I'm having terrible graphical issues with this game. I want to play it so bad but literally I cannot see anything on the first floor.
Posted by: Tino | August 23, 2009 8:28 PM
Same here. Graphics errors make this unplayable for me.
Shame
Running on Win7 x64
Posted by: Benja | August 23, 2009 10:46 PM
Liked it a lot, despite its being very short. I didn't even find it frustrating. But, maybe that is because if (indie) games in general have taught me one thing, then it's to be patience and not to get frustrated.
One part I particularly liked is the minimalistic story. It consists of only few sentences, but these are rather meaningful and metaphorical. I think that is a lot more beautiful than all "art games" I've seen so far.
Posted by: MisterX | August 23, 2009 11:33 PM
i liked it until i forgot to save and closed it.
Posted by: Dan Cardin | August 24, 2009 12:17 AM
Awesome game!
The level design was genius. I really liked the ambiance of the game. Worth the download.
Posted by: EdM | August 24, 2009 12:52 AM
worked great here (win vista)
SPOILERS ALERT
Anyone found the secrets? The only one I found was in the first level that you can't walk left, if you keep going left you get the first secret. I can't find the other one, though
Posted by: Sata | August 24, 2009 2:38 AM
A pity it's so short. And kinda jumpy (vaious fps rate) on slower machines.
Besides - charming!
I was so anxious to see what's next so I couldn't take a break before finishing it.
Posted by: chris chris | August 24, 2009 5:44 AM
Flashy Goodness, you are an amazing musician. I see big things in your future.
Posted by: Ivan | August 24, 2009 5:55 AM
Very good game. A bit odd having that resolution change at the end, and it wasn't really that hard. But I liked it (and it's music) a lot.
Posted by: AlbeyAmakiir | August 24, 2009 6:09 AM
I really didn't find this game frustrating at all.
Moneyseize, N, Flywrench? Now there's frustrating stuff.
Posted by: Simon | August 24, 2009 9:48 AM
The second secret can be found at the area that comes after the corridor shown in the screenshot above. At the end, you have to jump from a moving platform to get to the exit. Get back on the platform and you can ride it past the right side of the screen.
Great game, very enjoyable. The difficulty level is just right. Many indie games that take pride in their difficulty have stupid shit like spikes on every damn surface, pixel-perfect jumps and all sorts of trial-and-error wankery. But these guys really seemed to have put some thought into the level design.
Posted by: Blueberry_pie | August 24, 2009 10:54 AM
how do you actually save ? I find every time I get to a new level im unable to save... I press Q to bring up the menu, then select save and press Z or Y and other keys but it doesnt do anything.
Posted by: Anonymous | August 24, 2009 7:25 PM
The only confirmation that you saved is a little sound you hear when pressing the save button. Pressing Z/Y is correct. If you've saved correctly, a tower.sav gets created in the game's folder.
Posted by: MisterX | August 24, 2009 8:39 PM
Do the secrets add anything, besides saying that you did them?
Posted by: Chetyre | August 25, 2009 3:40 AM
I really want to play this, but graphics issues are prvevnting me.
There is black everywhere, and I can't see anything.
Vista x84
Posted by: Anonymous | August 25, 2009 4:00 AM
I tried playing this a while back when I saw the post on tig. There's some graphical issue for me though, and from the way it looks, it's due to the lack of compatibility for a combination of Vista and certain graphic cards.
Mine is Vista x64 with Nvidia graphics card.
Posted by: Anonymous | August 25, 2009 8:53 AM
Chetyre, when you find both secrets, the dialogue at the end of the game is different. After the credits, there's a short animation where you see the shadow of the player character with a butterfly resting on his hand. (Or does it always show this? I can't remember) Haven't checked whether anything is different when you get only one secret.
I hadn't even realized this was posted on TIGSource before. I guess the screenshot they had there didn't appeal to me as much as the one here did.
Posted by: Blueberry_pie | August 25, 2009 9:00 AM
How come the yellow blocks still kill you even without the Book of Law?
Posted by: Kepa | August 25, 2009 12:45 PM
Don't the yellow blocks always kill you, as soon as they appear? Their killing power is "innate" while the other deaths (like not walking left) are a result of heavenly smiting.
Posted by: gsilverfish | August 26, 2009 3:21 AM
Music are really great! Already downloaded it. ^_^
Posted by: drugon | August 26, 2009 7:46 AM
Only played a few levels, LOVE the gameboy aesthetics, and the music seems very good for the few minutes I've played.
Windows 7 RC x64 with Intel 965 graphics (ugh). No issues.
Also the game dumps OGGs of the music when you run it... then mysteriously deletes them on quitting. Copy them while the game is open! :)
Posted by: Casimir's Blake | August 26, 2009 7:11 PM
Thanks for enjoying the game and the music, everyone! It's been a very interesting experience.
Posted by: Flashygoodness | August 27, 2009 12:08 AM
Amazing, amazing music, especially towards the end (or is it the same music all through hmm..?). Perfect play time and difficulty. A job very well done and so worth a playthrough!
Posted by: Jimmy Lee | August 31, 2009 1:30 PM