The Road to 1.0

[wheezwer]

1.0 IS ON THE HORIZON!

It’s been a long time coming, but we’re finally at a point where our next goal is a 1.0 release for Tower Unite.

We’ve been itching to tell you guys about this exciting next step for Tower, and we can’t wait to have you all in the mix of making this dream a reality!

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?!

Releasing to 1.0 is going to cover a lot of ground that has been long-awaited!

Updates will be focused on getting the game to a more stable and functional position.

There will, of course, be map releases and in-progress content updates coming up, but we mainly want to get the game to a place where we will be proud to call it version 1.0!

HOW YOU CAN HELP!

We’ve set up a feedback survey to get some insights on the game!

You can fill out the survey to whatever extent you like, and feel free to come back and add to your submission later.

You all have been so great at helping us out this year, and we’re happy to still be around after all this time being carried by you guys.

We’re still struggling financially and trying to stay afloat as best we can without breaking the team apart. If you want to support us financially while we push to get Tower in great shape, we’d be extremely grateful.

Your support is always appreciated. If you aren’t able to support us financially, please try to get the word out about Tower to friends!

We also have another plush campaign going on with Makeship, if you want to support that!

1.0 IS NOT THE END!

The 1.0 Release is focused on game stability, performance, and major bug fixes. We will be resolving long-standing issues that have been brought up throughout Tower’s existence.

Now that we have a huge percentage of the content that was intended for Tower Unite, we are ready to leave early access.

We will still be providing further updates on Tower after 1.0. Leaving early access does not mean the game will stop having updates. Tower has always been a passion project and we have plenty of ideas and projects to improve the game. As many know, this game is constantly evolving.

WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO

So far, on the Road to 1.0, we’ve been handling major bugs!

We’ve been already planning for 1.0 before this post, taking care of major bugs such as Workshop, Arcade optimizations, Plaza optimizations, Bowling, and other major areas of the game.

In previous updates, we’ve resolved major issues with Billiards, Pluck-A-Pal, Little Crusaders, Condo I/O, and a lot more.

Expect to see more major issues resolved, long-standing issues first, then more general fixes and polish.

DISCONTINUED & DELAYED PROJECTS

During this transition, we’ll be re-organizing our Trello. Many features on Trello have been seemingly dormant publicly, but internally they’ve had progress. However, there’s a few projects that we need to discuss.

For the foreseeable future, we are uncertain that we’ll be able to complete the following:

Mac Support

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Discontinued because: the requirements for the platform have changed drastically since we first announced support for this platform. It would be of great cost to us at this time due to hardware and developer costs.

Linux Client

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Discontinued because: Linux client is no longer required thanks to Proton. The Proton port has been very stable. We have a developer who uses Linux daily and they play Tower through Proton exclusively. We are suggesting that Linux users use Proton to enjoy Tower.

Arcade 2D API

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Discontinued because: Before we added Libretro support, we wanted to have our own Arcade 2D API for players to create games with. We ran into many issues and security concerns during its development. Knowing this, we worked on adding Libretro support to provide the same experience without the security concerns.

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The below projects are delayed, but not discontinued.
Many are in different stages of development.

• Game World: Horror Hill - This game world is still in development for a post 1.0 release. We plan to have more announcements on it in the future. We originally conceived a Game World for this that ended up being too large for Tower, so we are in the middle of redesigning it to better fit Tower.
• Game World: Planet Panic - This game world has had various amounts of redesign. We have put this one on the backburner based on very low community votes and have prioritized other game worlds and projects. We intend to have a demo post 1.0 release.
• Condo: Cooking - Cooking is nearly complete. We have been working on it in the background. We had to change a lot of the crafting code to handle Steam requests better as in the past Steam API’s have been a tad bit unreliable. This will be included in a post 1.0 update.
• Condo: Condo Pets - This will be included in a post 1.0 update.
• Plaza: Ocean Expansion - We will have more information about this feature post 1.0.
• Plaza: Workshop Condo Rental Store - We have the backend code for this completed and we are just waiting on free development time to complete this feature. It’s a feature we added later on in the stages of Condo Hub and less priority than other features.
• Plaza: Dueling - Due to concerns with Plaza performance and lower ranking on community polls, dueling has been on the back burner. We have been planning on redesigning our original idea and possibly moving the arena map into SDNL.

We understand that many players are waiting on these features exclusively, and that it is upsetting they aren’t finished yet. We also feel this way. We have been working on getting them moving again and hope to renew them and their designs so they can come out sooner than later.

OTHER THINGS TO KNOW!

Among all the development work we’ll be doing, we’re gonna be doing a lot of clean-up and stuff behind the scenes!

We will be updating our store pages, organizing our Trello, creating a more clear and concise roadmap, re-organizing our priorities, taking in feedback, and listening to your comments and helpful feedback on the surveys.

FINAL THOUGHTS & PERSPECTIVE

Mac came up with the dream of GMod Tower in 2006 when he was in high school, and it’s been 18 years of work on this passion project. Everyone on the team and who has been on the team in the past has had passion for the game, gaming, or their part in the project.

We just want you guys to know that Tower is supposed to be a dream game. It’s a game we on the team want to play and have wanted to exist. It means a lot to us and is shaped by our experiences and love of gaming in general.

We have always been humbled by how much love and appreciation Tower has gotten and that Tower has found a place in many people’s hearts. Working on Tower for these years has been a dream come true. We’ve all gone through life changing events and formed memories that will last a lifetime thanks to Tower. We are so thankful for a supportive community and for those who have enjoyed Tower and shared with us their memories and happiness.

We just wanted to say thank you again to all of you once again, and for any feedback and support of Tower Unite throughout the years, and we can’t wait to keep working on this project with you all!

We want to discuss the history of Tower’s development in the future, and talk to you guys more informally about it when we have the time.

~ wheezwer
<3 PixelTail Games

[EvKem]

Wishing the best of luck to the devs on the way to 1.0! Excited to see this game finally exit early access, hopefully it succeeds in pulling in new players!

The list of stuff either discontinued or delayed makes sense, especially Mac support and the other gameworlds. But I’m not gonna lie, really heartbroken to see Dueling potentially cut from the plaza : ( Was maybe my favorite thing to do with random wanderers in the past.

[NintenGunner]

…I didn’t expect THIS.

I suppose that finally leaving EA with the amount of content that’s in the game as of now makes sense. You’ve all been doing a lot to get the game in a more polished state, and things are starting to feel more finalized. (And, admittedly, leaving early access would be a good advertising boom, considering how people tend to feel about EA games.)

Can’t wait for what’s to come with the 1.0 release of Tower Unite.

[Xmarksit]

Nice to see a big focus on polishing existing content, while on the road to 1.0.
Gameworlds are a big part of TU, and some just need another look over and QA.

Gameworlds I feel are in a good place and don’t need further changes:
- Minigolf (Physics sometimes do what it wants, but it's fun)
- Ballrace (Great)
- Little Crusaders (Would benefit from better networking)
- Virus (Would benefit from better networking)

Gameworlds I feel are good, but need tweaks:
- SDNL (Needs its payouts tweaked, sliding to be less spammable)
- Accelerate (Going off track is too viable)
- Zombie Massacre (All enemies should have a 'crawl out of ground' animation upon spawning, to prevent being slapped with unavoidable damage from a fresh spawn).

Also I do hope to see Global Chat return in some form, I understand it had issues when it released, but the game is a social game. And for some Global Chat was a really approachable way to converse with everyone ingame, regardless what they were doing.
It created a tighter sense of community.
And I belive going forward that is incredibly important for a game like Tower Unite.

[shadow1w2]

Long road indeed.
Congrats on getting this far and Im so glad it could.
I hope it can keep going and some new friendly ways of funding can work out.

Demake styled mobile version maybe?
I’d love to get some family playing the slot machines on Tower’s casini rather than the horrible trash they find on their own trying to trick them into draining money into nothing.
Just hard to setup on Steam Deck then my power drains too fast.
That and to ease the grindiness, be nice to fish and earn event coins without burning my gpu down for hours to do so.

Sad to see the 2d arcade game api get dropped but I always thought it would be better to use an existing api like Pico8/picotron and other early era style fantasy console things.
Already a way to run Pico8 games via Libretro just no way to share them easily so maybe some integration could be done.
I’d love to have a Tower gamejam and make games intended for use in Tower.
Heck maybe they could be connected somehow like in lobby effects, condo i/o triggers or the like.
Also be nice to have some spectating modes as well, especially if theres no legal trouble with original games.

I also hope to see an offline/lan mode one day too for longevity.

Ahem enough of that though I look forward to celebrating 1.0 and hope to see the game continue to flourish to many X.0 versions.
All the best luck and kudos for all the great work on ine of the best games.

[Mega_Bacon_Sticks]

I’m most definitely excited for optimizations with Tower Unite. The biggest turn off I’ve had that has constantly pushed me away from Tower Unite for the past 2 years is the poor performance in my own Condo. I was worried seeing a 1.0 release already, but given my absence from the game I should probably take a look at what Tower now has to offer, but a major release primarily focused on aggressively ironing out bugs and making further optimizations makes me really excited for 1.0.

[Blue_Wolf]

As a long time player, even since the later GMod Tower days, it’s wonderful to see how far Tower Unite has got.
It’s in a really amazing state of support and active updates, great job for this. It feels so surreal that we will eventually hit 1.0, but only good awaits, it seems. It’s understandable some things have been discontinued or put on hold, but it’s for good reasons. The team already does some pretty amazing work!

Once again, thanks to everyone involved in keeping this game running and awesome!

[rythian]

@Xmarksit

Also I do hope to see Global Chat return in some form, I understand it had issues when it released, but the game is a social game. And for some Global Chat was a really approachable way to converse with everyone ingame, regardless what they were doing.
It created a tighter sense of community.
And I belive going forward that is incredibly important for a game like Tower Unite.

Yeah, for a game with such a strong social focus like Tower Unite, it does suck that Global Chat has been missing for so long. I understand it was probably a nightmare to moderate and I have no idea what it’d take to fix it, but it really added a lot to the experience in my opinion. Especially since I usually just like to sit alone for hours working on workshop maps; it tends to get a little lonely.

At the very least, the return of the global announcements for opening Game World / Condo servers would be really nice to see in 1.0. All of the connectivity plans described in the Condo Hub dev stream sounded very promising and I’m a little disappointed that not much has come of it yet.

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Besides that though, 1.0 is pretty exciting. Especially recently–bugs aside–the game has felt pretty close to feature complete to me, although maybe that’s just because most of the features I’ve wanted have made it in at this point lol. I appreciate that the focus is primarily on longstanding issues vs. new features and I think that’s something that’s been needed for a while.

[nmi5]

Hi there! First of all, good luck on the 1.0 release! Im curious about something however. When you say “We will be resolving long-standing issues that have been brought up throughout Tower’s existence.” what does that include? Please please please say it includes some kind of fix to netcode. The plazas lag so so much when they have a bunch of players on them, its really infuriating and has been my biggest issue with the game for years at this point.

[Randumb]

Sales are sure to rise through the roof once the game leaves Early Access!

[Acejinjo]

Continuing to give best wishes! And congrats planning to leave EA!
While I still think it’s not ready to leave, it is a lot of content for everyone!

Shame for Mac and Linux users but understandable.
(NGL was bracing myself with full on controller support being axed but I don’t see it here so there’s hope for players like me ^^; )

[Baby_Blue]

Insane to think this is on the horizon!

As someone who spent their preteen years playing Gaia Online, Habbo Hotel, Runescape, Animal Crossing, and countless online social games nothing has EVER come close to scratching the itch of a Social MMO like Tower has. This game provides the core aspects and principles I always wanted in an online game and it does it without sacrificing accessibility.

The canvas system made me start drawing, and the workshop made me start 3D modeling. While I’m still not disciplined or great at these hobbies, Tower has been the catalyst that got me into creating again. The ability to see immediate application of your art in both 2D and 3D provides instant gratification in an environment I already loved. I am sad but understanding that Arcade API has to be scratched, as I was banking on that kicking my butt into gear to start programming more but luckily Godot has stepped in there.

PixelTail has demonstrated full transparency and community engagement on a level I have never seen from another developer. You all deserve absolute success with the official launch and have my full support. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous for the game handling a massive influx of players, but I’m confident you will manage no matter what.

Here’s to many more nights with friends socializing, playing games, sharing videos, farming units and condo hopping!

[SinfulMonsoon]

A surprise to be sure, but… Ah heck, a welcome one! Pixeltail has my complete trust and respect, all earned during all those amazing years together. I believe in them, and in the game, believe that they will not abandon it, but on the contrary, improve and polish it, as they already do

That 1.0 release will probably be for the best. I am fine about stuff being cancelled (technical issues/understandable) but really hope that Dueling arena will stay. Sad to see it being so low on polls, just like Lazer tag. No idea why people don’t seem to like them much

It is a somewhat risky move, but hope you will succeed. My support, both moral and material, is with you, just like my friends’ support!

[BlueLighted]

I may not have experienced GMod Tower, or been here since the start of Tower Unite’s launch, but I’ve been playing this amazing game for about 5 years now. It’s truly become a game I deeply care about, so I’m very excited to hear that 1.0 is on the horizon.

I do hope the polish that this game will receive will be big, because it’s very hard to personally envision this game outside of early access. Whenever I’ve encountered bugs, or played game worlds that feel unbalanced, it didn’t bother me as much due to the game being early access. But now that the team is focused on 1.0, there’s a part of me that is scared that some features may not be addressed or polished before 1.0’s launch.

Even though it may not be beneficial, I may attempt to compile all of my dislikes into a forum post at some point in the near future, especially with dislikes that I think should be looked into before a 1.0 release. For now, I’ll definitely get to filling out that survey!

Nonetheless, even if this game launches into 1.0 in a state that I may not entirely agree with, I’ll still happily support the game and do my best to help improve the game as a player. Very excited to see what the future holds! Thanks to the team for providing me with many hours of fun through game worlds, custom condos and maps, awesome music, and much more.

[Agent2583]

We should do a 20 years of Tower Unite / GMod Tower retrospective for 2026, with specific memories from players like me.

[SlickWine]

Holy crap, Lois!

This is fantastic news! Seeing a full map laid out and knowing that the project isn’t stuck in some weird development purgatory definitely makes the continued support of the game much easier.

However, I am a bit miffed that my rant review of the state of the game has been rendered completely outdated as this announcement addresses pretty much every criticism I have with it. Spent ages writing that…

Keep up the fantastic work and I look forward to playing (and hopefully recommending) the full release!

[Bear_Inmind]

Well, I must admit this was completely out of the blue.

[Malphas]

I paid the game 16€ many years ago; now I have more than 800 hours of gameplay on it. It is absurd how amazing this game is and i can’t thank you enough for bringing to us the only exception to many unfortunate dynamics that have come to define the sandbox/MMO genre.
I will definetly support you financially once i can get a job in these trying times; because you deserve and need it and because those players who can’t afford to spend a lot of money for this kind of game, will be blessed to have access to it.

[Teapot_Time]

Congratulations guys, this is amazing news

Thank you so, so much for everything you guys have already done, I’ll never be able to repay you for all the joy you’ve brought my friends and I with this incredible game.

Here’s to many many many more years to come!

[KabanFriends]

I hope the post-release localization support is based on community translations! This will be a great game to be translated in my language.