Y’all probably saw this coming. I feel like I have to say something positive now, after the downer of a post earlier. Despite what that last post may have led you to believe, there are still plenty of things a love about TU.
The arcade is so incredibly fun and I’m so hyped for the future phases. I love Trivia. Minigolf is so damn fun and the courses are beautiful. I’m so happy to have the Nightclub back (I had missed it soooooooo much). The new, cartoony artstyle is coming together amazingly. Can’t wait until the whole Plaza is done like that. The new Laser Tag arena looks so amazing. Can’t wait to play in it. The Celebrations store and the Rail Shooter building are both awesome looking and the pics of the new Fresh are getting me excited.
Above all else, I love how dedicated and passionate the devs are and the level of transparency with the Trello, devlogs, announcements, surveys, etc., is something that most other devs don’t even bother with.
So, as much as I seem to rag on the devs, I really am quite happy with the game (and devs) overall. And I’m sorry that that gets lost on occasion in my depression and Asperger’s fueled rants.
For the record I agreed with most of what was aired out on the previous post, I’ll reply on here since I think it’s unnecessary to revive that thread after everything calmed down.
I greatly appreciate that the devs are actively working on all of my main issues after all. And I still have 1000 hours in this game for a reason: the versatile condo building. It’s one of the many things TU has that GMT could never hold a candle to.
So, I’ve been playing this game for almost a year, without any previous knowledge of Garry’s Mod Tower (how did it escape my radar is beyond me), having actually found about it around 2017 on Steam as a suggested game after Golf With Your Friends. Boy, am I glad that I did not buy it back then, my impression of it would have likely been worse.
So last year this game came back to my mind as a vague memory I don’t know why, and I didn’t even remember the name! I asked myself “what was that game with the Minigolf, the pool, the casino and a bunch of other things?” and I had to scour suggestions and searches to actually find Tower Unite and even then I wasn’t sure it was the game I was looking for. I bought it anyway and came in with a lot of skepticism, finger trained on the refund trigger, and somehow this game ended up winning me over.
To finish this small ramble, let me add that this is the first MMO I’ve ever played and this is all coming from a person who does not have a very favourable opinion on MMOs.
Not a huge fan of MMOs myself but this game isn’t really an MMO, it’s a virtual world game. First off, 64 players per server really isn’t all that massive (I mean, Battlefield has 128 players battles but that’s not an MMO). Second, many aspects of the game (notably gameworlds) have far smaller caps than that.
I just wannah join in and share my view as well. Alot of the time we can complain about the issues and long development time, which I feel in most cases is fair. However appreciation posts always help emphasize the positives.
I feel like I could write a thesis paper on why Tower Unite is so incredible and unique. I know I’ve pretty much said this all before but I’ll try to summarize a few of the bigger points that comes to mind:
The overall diverse nature of the game with a focus on socializing:
TU feels like it is the soul crusader reviving a genre that I spent my entire youth playing and loving just to watch it dwindle away. I don’t know what the proper term would be, but I grew up playing virtual chatrooms that had atleast some gameplay to them.
I spent years wasting time on Palace, Habbo Hotel, Gaia Online, Coke Music, Second Life, PS Home, and countless other social platforms/games. Places where I could create an online avatar, decorate my own space, take part in fun activities and make new acquaintances. Everything I listed above is either a shell of its former self or completely dead. Some are a little embarrassing looking back, but whatever lol The only option you really have outside of TU are the current trend of VR Chat rooms, but most of they don’t have the same focus on diverse gameplay and activities. They’re more so just chatrooms.
TU fills the role that pretty much all of those platforms did for me, and then some. It’s the best incarnation of the kind of casual and interesting online social experience I’ve always enjoyed and in more recent years have been trying to chase down again. Even in its current incomplete form I’d take it over any of the ones I’ve played before in their prime.
Absolute Creativity with incredible accessibility
Before I started playing TU I never drew consistently. The Canvas system is so simple and flexible its genius. I started making wonky characters as cardboard cutouts for my condo, paintings and graffiti for my walls, parody packaging for products and custom signs for my condo. I’ve even played with some simple animations with the new animated canvases. I’ve become far more fluent in a handful of programs and learned tons of different techniques because Tower gave me a place where to use them.
The same applies for Workshop. Blender and 3D modeling used to be the most intimidating thing, I couldn’t make through a donut tutorial. Once workshop came along I trudged through and while I’m still absolute rubbish, I’ve been able to create character models and unique furniture I’m proud of. I feel extremely comfortable in Blender and am able to navigate it (on the surface) with much more ease and confidence now. Just recently I took a 2D image of a gas station and created and textured a basic 3D building with lit windows and signs just from that image. Not anything super impressive, but I had no idea in the past you could do something like that so easily.
My point is TU gives you this incredible opportunity to instantly apply and showcase your creations in both 2D and 3D. Instead of your creations just sitting in a folder or displayed on a webpage, it’s more tangible in an immersive virtual space shared with others. This accessible application provides an almost instant gratification every time I draw a new image or iterate a new model. I can’t wait to throw it in TU and see how it looks.
Down the line I’m expecting the same thing to happen in a whole new way when the Arcade tool is further along.
Not to mention the built in condo items and tools. Tower has ruined every other game’s housing systems for me. Nothing comes close, and if anything does come close its not NEARLY as accessible.
The most transparent development team I’ve ever seen
Between these forums, the discord, the trello, community polls and much more it’s unreal how much of an open book the devs are. It seems like they hide nothing but still manage to sneak surprises into almost every update. I know there are other developers out there that are also insanely good with this, but it feels less and less common. Pixeltail are a rare breed that should be the gold standard when it comes to informing a game’s community and being open with them. I’ve watched every update slowly make progress up to its release, seen countless suggestions make it in the game, almost every criticism or drama be addressed, and nonstop dialogue between the devs and the community.
With the time between some updates I would get concerned whether development had stopped or slowed for TU, but you can just check any of the sources listed above and you can see exactly where the game is progressing. There is always movement somewhere. I swear I follow TU’s development more than I play a lot of the weeks when I’m busy.
TL;DR: Tower revived social games for me, TU encourages creativity though accessibility, and the devs are as transparent as a ghost.
The “proper term” is virtual world game. Not all the games you listed are that but Second Life and PS Home are. And, surprisingly, there are other options (although not as good). I’ll refrain from posting links but look up Atom Universe (it sucks ass), Nebula Realms (has potential but currently sucks), and Destination Home (it’s actually a fan-run revival of PS Home and its so nostalgic being back in PS Home).
Heyo, donut club member here. I have yet to actually finish it either. lol. I did get close though. I made it through Level 4, Part 2 and then, in the next part, he said it was about to get really boring and i bailed. lol. Do intend to go back to it at some point and finish though.
Yeah, seriously. The only dev I can think of that really even comes close is ConcernedApe but there’s still a lot that even he doesn’t do.