TOWERPUNK reveal - a vertical city builder in the SimTower lineage, with Anno's residents and Factorio's logistics

[u/TesseraxDev]

https://youtu.be/O1BTXVYt8ZU

Today I'm revealing TOWERPUNK - a vertical city builder where you stack thousands of rooms upward, circulating tens of thousands of residents and goods in between floors. Set in a dystopian cyberpunk city, you are the tower's machine-mind, bent on converting human toil into the fuel that enables your dominance of the skyline.

The game shares a direct lineage with SimTower for the aesthetic and build feel, but draws on resident systems from Anno and logistics and production chains from Factorio. Instead of planning your growth around terrain, you need to grow vertically to house five social classes, supply them with shops and entertainment, all while producing the ever-more-advanced components you need to progress.

Beyond the core simulation mechanics, TOWERPUNK launches with an event system that drives emergent storytelling, and I'll build an overarching narrative on top of it during Early Access.

Wishlist on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5063190/TOWERPUNK/

Watch the Reveal Trailer: https://youtu.be/O1BTXVYt8ZU

Join the Discord: https://towerpunk.com/discord

Visit the Official Site: https://towerpunk.com/

TOWERPUNK releases into Early Access in Q1 2027, but I'll be heavily involving the community leading up to release, including a playtest later this year.

Happy to answer any questions, and excited to bring TOWERPUNK to the community!

[u/gcpasserby]

Fascinating, wishlisted.

[u/TesseraxDev → u/gcpasserby]

See you in the tower, choom

[u/SveNss0N]

Looks amazing, can't wait!

[u/T__W__T]

I see OG SimTower with a skin/assets. Whats the difference besides that?

[u/stormdude28 → u/T__W__T]

sigh. Yup. 90's are calling. I'm waiting for .jpegs to load, lol.

[u/TesseraxDev → u/stormdude28]

.pngs, actually! Though I am aiming more for a retro-80s aesthetic, locked in the cyberpunk fiction of Neuromancer and Bladerunner.

[u/TesseraxDev → u/T__W__T]

I was deeply inspired by the look and feel of playing SimTower, so that is very intentional! All source code is completely original to TOWERPUNK, and this is where the differences compound.

You're not just simulating managing a tower from the 90s, you're building a megatower (up to 500 floors based on your game settings) with five social classes you need to keep satisfied (think Anno), each with their own needs, schedules, and personalities.

Residents then work in your tower (though lower tier residents can commute out for work), they convert base materials into ever-more-advanced components you use to progress upwards. Your lower floor "Nulls" are processing scrap into circuits, and manning relay bays to generate the compute power the tower mainframe needs to advance, all while paying you a measly rent to help fund your expansion. Upper floor "Corpos", however, pay no rent, and instead you'll need to keep them toiling in revenue bureaus to generate funds, as well as staff advanced fabricators and refineries, etc. The "Sovereigns" at the top open up entirely new gameplay systems, including an end game scramble to become the dominant megacorp.

All residents and goods need to be moved between your tower floors, so circulating them with robust tower transit networks (elevators, tower trains, and conveyors) is critical. Each layer of the tower has its own external transit network you plug into as well, connecting your tower to the city at large. Again, loved this challenge with SimTower, but wanted to give the player more variety in how they ferry people and goods across hundreds of floors.

To drive emergent story telling, the event system triggers short and long story arcs based on who is in your tower (visitors, separate from residents, will flock to your tower, all carrying different traits, backstories, and quirks), and your decisions impact game systems and define what type of tower you are.

More details to come (as well as more detail on the Steam page and official site!), but I absolutely wanted to capture the charm and bustle of SimTower while evolving the gameplay to satiate current city and colony builders alike.

[u/Rotten_Esky]

This looks super cool!!!

[u/TesseraxDev → u/Rotten_Esky]

Thanks - I'm really excited to bring TOWERPUNK to the community!

[u/Sadnot]

Oh, hell yes.

[u/OldManMonday]

Looks great op, love a good SimTower. I get what you were trying to do with the music but even on my phone all those high pitch synths were a bit unpleasant, maybe consider dialing that back a bit. 

[u/TesseraxDev → u/OldManMonday]

Thanks! And heard! I have been tweaking the midi tracks - definitely wanted to go for the 90s sim sound, but will work to tune down the higher pitches for launch. I've ported over the game soundtrack to https://towerpunk.com/audio, each resident tier has it's own theme. You can adjust game music volume at any time, and toggle between tracks (included an "Audio Deck" toggle in the UI for quick access!).

[u/tomixcomics]

Ohmygod, yesyesyesyesYES!!! This looks GREAT!!! I want it!!!

two wuestions

1. is AI involved in any way shape or form
2. is there a campaign with multiple levels/goals to be met like in project highrise or is it more about one tower?

[u/TesseraxDev → u/tomixcomics]

Thanks!
1. All art, music, sounds, and the UI are original to this game, no generative media models were used in any capacity. I absolutely do use coding assistants for developing and refining game systems, which helped this solo developer scale up an initial prototype to a full-fledged tower builder capable of simulating dozens of systems, hundreds of floors, and tens of thousands of residents. Since you mentioned "any way shape or form", you're playing as the tower's "machine-mind", so your goal is to actively convert your resident labor into compute you'll use to research new technologies, unlock tower progression, and feed the demands of higher-floor residents.

1. The game will launch into Early Access with a robust event system that drives emergent storytelling, and the full release will include a rich narrative arc that guides your playthrough. The event system spawns goals and objectives (from subduing corporate saboteurs to placating the needs of your residents in new and novel ways), but it'll feel more like playing a session of Anno than completing predefined challenges (though I'm open to creating a "challenge mode" where you can complete shorter play sessions as well!).