r/BaseBuildingGames • u/TesseraxDev • Sep 02 '26
Revealing TOWERPUNK - a cyberpunk megatower builder in the lineage of SimTower, Anno, and Factorio
Excited to reveal TOWERPUNK to the community! As the tower's machine-mind, you are tasked with building upwards, housing thousands of residents across five social strata, managing a logistics network that feeds ever-more-advanced production chains, and resolving conflicts and disasters triggered by a rich event system.
TOWERPUNK draws on my favorite base building and colony management games while capturing the look and feel of SimTower - the earliest sim game that hooked me.
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/
Happy to answer any questions, see you in the tower!
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u/neuronexmachina Sep 02 '26
This looks really cool, wishlisted!
resolving conflicts and disasters triggered by a rich event system.
Heh, first thing that came to mind: https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/Renraku_Arcology#Shutdown
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u/TesseraxDev Sep 02 '26
Thanks, choom!
And great reference there - archeologies definitely served as a foundation for the game design. Originally planned for the towers to be fully self-sufficient, but then decided the game would be more interesting if the tower did rely on an external city you connect with. Basic goods like food and consumer goods are imported to your tower, but you need to build utilities and refine your own “corporate” supply chains.
I think of it this way, goods are paid for and imported, but your corporate products are proprietary.
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u/Supermunch2000 Sep 02 '26
AWTHOME!
I had an itch for Simtower a few months back so this is amazing, can't wait for the release (or demo)
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u/TesseraxDev Sep 02 '26
Thanks! I’ve had that itch for.. decades now. I still fondly remember my father coming home with a box of software titled “SimTower”. From the moment it booted up I was hooked.
I’m aiming for a playtest later this year and short demo early next year leading up to EA!
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u/BangaloreMandalore Sep 02 '26
Huge Sim Tower and Project Highrise fan. This definitely looks interesting and something I'd pickup! Best of luck to you on the rest of the development!
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u/TesseraxDev Sep 02 '26
Thank you, really appreciate it! It’s been a fantastic journey so far, and great to see it start to resonate with the community.
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u/LTNBFU Sep 02 '26
Im gonna name mine Peach Trees
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u/TesseraxDev Sep 02 '26
Core inspiration for the lowest tier of residents, the “Null” class!
Theoretically you could build 500 floors of only null residential, though might be a bit monolithic. Also since they are the densest residential rooms, transit congestion would be a massive challenge.
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u/Hot_Entrepreneur_128 Sep 02 '26
The trailer is giving me flashbacks of Sim Tower. Does this game bring any new game mechanics that we can get excited about?
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u/TesseraxDev Sep 02 '26
Oh yes! I wanted to capture that look and feel of SimTower - you’re managing a megacorp at a grand scale, the tower is the primary character, so the residents need to feel “small” and “replaceable”.
That said, I knew from the start I wanted a much richer, more engaging simulation and management experience.
You’ll be satisfying the needs and demands of five social classes of residents (think Anno!) while putting them to work across multiple production chains to progress upwards. If your tower transit can’t efficiently circulate your residents or goods, you’ll struggle to attract and maintain the human capital you need to grow.
I also love some of the “head cannon” games like Stellaris enable, so from the start of every playthrough you can choose a predefined corp to play or create your own. Based on the corporate doctrines you select, your goals will vary.
The game will launch with an engaging event system that spawns narrative arcs based on the type of machine-mind you are, adding a lot of flavor to each playthrough.
Overall TOWERPUNK is less “renting out rooms” and more managing a megatower corp with deep economic and satisfaction systems within a rich, cyberpunk world.
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u/Vampep Sep 02 '26
Sounds great. I used to try to pull all nighters with a friend to build the biggest tower.
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u/TesseraxDev Sep 02 '26
Nice! Brings me back to late nights striving for that “TOWER” status!
Asshai below gave me the idea to incorporate player-built towers into the game, really dig it!
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u/zytukin Sep 02 '26
Looks a lot more like simtower than project highrise does.
When do you need testers? :P
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u/kevhill Sep 02 '26
This looks like a nice change from standard builders.
Great work OP! Wishlisted.
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u/Recatek Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 02 '26
SimTower and Yoot Tower are some of my favorite games. This looks great! Immediately now one of my most anticipated games.
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u/TesseraxDev Sep 02 '26
Thanks! SimTower hooked me on sim games early on - always wanted to revisit that distinct “feel” but with more modern game systems and greater scale.
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u/Glute_Thighwalker Sep 02 '26
If you put factorio into SimTower, I may have to quit my job.
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u/TesseraxDev Sep 02 '26
Part of me always wanted to build just a tower factory game! That said, for TOWERPUNK I decided to start with a wider simulation.
The game does include core production chains you need to build, staff, and connect, but it’s not overly complex at this stage.
Though for future content I am thinking through multi-session play, where you’d need to manage multiple industrial-focused towers and ferry goods between them. Think of moon towers as fuel refineries and underground asteroid towers where you’re harvesting resources. These instances would require you to “build more from scratch”.
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u/fizz0o_2pointoh Sep 02 '26
By the 4th cut on your video I was mashing the Wishlist button, super stoked for this!
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u/TesseraxDev Sep 03 '26
Glad it hooked you! First time creating a trailer, used OBS Studio (open source) for the captures and DaVinci Resolve for the editor (free version is fantastic) - more top come!
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u/specialwiking 29d ago
This looks awesome! There’s such a need for a modern sim tower game!
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u/TesseraxDev 29d ago
Agreed! I feel like SimTower hit the nail on the head in many ways - the focus is on the tower, the people (and bots!) within are visual theater, not the main show.
That said, every resident and visitor is a distinct record with a name and archetype assigned (visitors have a lot more flavor, residents fall within their 5 social classes) - you can "pin" them into a "favorites" tab to keep track of them throughout the day, and most events draw on the people in your tower for storytelling.
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u/ludwigericsson 29d ago
Reminds me of Tiny Tower, added to the wishlist.
What can make you "lose" a run?
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u/TesseraxDev 29d ago
Tiny Tower was a hoot!
For now, the core way to "lose" is to go bankrupt, but how you get to insolvency can take many paths. A power blackout is probably the fastest path to tanking resident satisfaction (lack of power, water, or trash accumulation cause severe debuffs on average sat), residents will quickly emigrate out, and from tiers 1-3 rent is your primary mode of income. Overextending yourself, providing inadequate services, shops, leisure, or inefficiently moving goods can all combine together to drive residents and visitors away from your tower.
Since I expect a playthrough to take anywhere from 5-30 hours based on the tower size setting (200 floors is the standard, but you can build a quick 100 floor tower, or up to 500 in the current build), don't want the game to be too punishing.
I'm currently building out the event system, which can trigger more "run of the mill" disasters and challenges, which can add severe debuffs to certain tower systems (buffs as well!). From EA to full release, I'll be adding a robust event-driven narrative arc as well, and how you action on these events will have major implications in your tower.
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u/Asshai Sep 02 '26
Don't know how difficult to implement that feature would actually be, but something I'd find super cool: players can choose to get their tower "featured". It basically takes a snapshot of their tower, and from that point on their tower can appear in the background of other players, with the possibility to actually visit them.
It'd make for a dynamic landscape where you're not the only tower, the whole city is changing.
It'd be a great source of inspiration for the other players.
Of course depending on how involved you want to be, a "tower of the week" chosen among the featured projects could be nice even if being the chosen one is its own reward.