Once upon a Tower: The meaning behind collapsing a Dragon’s Stronghold
Once upon a tower is an adorable action game. With simple controls, and an easy to understand goal, our roles as players is to escape the tower as the dragon’s living treasure.
The core loop
The core of the game can be described in two steps: Swipe — Move Down. If you want to advance in this game, you need to move down. If you want to move down, you’ll need to swipe. The relationship of this core loop might be described better as “swipe to move down”. Sure there are certain instances where you might need to do some lateral movement before being able to move down, but you’re probably in need of that in order to move down.
Note that I’m also specifying down as part of the movement. That’s because you’re only really making progress in this game when you’re moving down. Lateral movement would usually be more as a result of a dynamic since, in the end, you’re able to swipe downwards to get rid of obstacles in the way. There is solid ground that prevents players from moving obstacles, but I’ll make the argument that if all ground in the game would be breakable, it would still be a good game.
Mechanics
There are a lot of mechanics in this, too many to go into detail in this entry:
Most of these are very self-explanatory, but there’s one that interests me the most: swiping.
Controls aren’t usually a mechanic unless they’re very tied in the way you play the game. For example, instruments would be a totally valid mechanic in the Rock Band series. You could play it with a controller, but the game is very clearly not intended to be played that way. A similar example occurs in a lot of Wii games, such as Wii Fit, or Wii Sports. I believe Once Upon a Tower is another example.
The amount of time that takes to swipe on a phone is very fast. We do it every day, on a lot of our apps. Anything from Twitter, to scrolling on a webpage. And even though we’re so used to swiping constantly, every day of our lives, it’s almost nowhere near as fast as pressing a button. I tried playing Once Upon a Tower in an android emulator on my phone after playing the game for an hour or so, reaching as far as level 7 on my phone. Using the arrow keys to replace swiping, I managed to beat the game on my very first try on the emulator. Ok ok, maybe I got really lucky with the powerups in the run. I tried it again and managed to escape with another avatar I had unlocked. Maybe I’m too used to my keyboard — So I tried playing with my left hand. I didn’t beat the game this time, but I did get to level 10. And after going back and forward a few times between touch screen and arrow keys, the evidence was too apparent that the game wasn’t designed to be played with a keyboard.
The game still felt pretty fun to play on PC, but it was an entirely different game. It was faster, more frantic, and easier. At one point I noticed that if I spammed all my arrow keys I was able to simultaneously attack, move, and collect in all directions. It was an exploit at worst, and likely impossible to recreate in swiping motions.
Some might make an argument that if the game was ported to pc the timings would change, the delays between actions would increase, and the game would be fine. I do think the game would still be ok, but it would be a very different experience. When I experienced Once Upon a Time, it was clear to me that the designer thought to make swiping the one and sole way of playing the game. The beat of the game, the strategizing, the timing of enemies… they’re all thought of with the speed of swiping in mind. Moreover, every action the avatar makes is done by swiping. Do you want to move? swipe in that direction. Do you want to collect an item? Swipe towards it. Attack an enemy? Swipe on that guy. Grab a power-up? Swipe. Reflect a fireball to kill the boss? Guess what, you’re gonna swipe. Dynamics in the game are built around swiping more than they are around attacking or moving, even though those two actions are a direct consequence of swiping. And even though it’s a dynamic to chose how to swipe, and which action you’ll use by doing so, I’d still categorize all of those actions under swiping.
I wanted to make a strong case for swiping, but there’s a lot of small and hidden mechanics that I loved. One of my favorites was the levels since it’s something not usually done in games in this medium (mobile). It was satisfying to beat a mobile game, and I want to give it a shout-out as my favorite mechanic for this game.
Dynamics
Planning: Planning out your escape is no easy feat. Players are encouraged to look ahead and consider the different possibilities of moving ahead. Improvising is possible, but much more difficult than simply being proactive. For that reason, players are implicitly told to wait out and plan their moves. The clearest example of that is waiting in between floors with a dragon spitting fire above you and an obstacle spitting fire below. Players will learn that planning is crucial when they find themselves in this situation.
Actions (or the choosing thereof): Actions themselves are active, but choosing which to use is a dynamic entirely left to the decision of the player. This is a subtle one, but because swiping can be used to both attack and/or move, players have the choice to wait out the enemies or attack them right away. One is riskier than the other, and it’s up to player expression to choose one or the other.
Sequencing: Players will likely learn that planning is not the only thing they’ll have to do in order to succeed. Although very similar, sequencing is more about executing the plan in order than to simply think of the best route. You can plan a route and follow it to your heart’s desire, but sequencing it properly is another layer entirely. As an analogy, consider finding yourself lost in a forest. It’s one thing to know you should go North in order to get out, and it’s another entirely to realize that paths won’t go in a perfect cardinal direction. Planning out a direction is not the same as following a road.
Pacing: Gotta go Fast. Or not. it’s up to the player really. It’s probably intended that players go slow and cautiously, but it’s unsurprising that players looking for a challenge go insanely fast. According to https://www.speedrun.com/once_upon_a_tower, the current world record to beat the game is 9 minutes and 20 seconds. I don’t think anyone expects the average player to go that fast, but the point I’m making is that people need to find their own pace and rhythm.
Resource Management: Through runs players will encounter power-ups, weapons, and even pets. In order to purchase these, they’ll need to decide when and how to spend their fireflies. If you die on a run you’ll lose the fireflies spent, but if you don’t spend your fireflies you might not get as further down as you could’ve. Some of these items, such as bombs, are limited, so it’s also important for players to be diligent when spending them.
Choosing to watch an Ad: As can be seen in my mechanics graphic, ads are a present object in the game. Players can spend their precious time and get a meaningful reward (powerups, revives, etc)… but they’ll also have to watch an ad. It’s a popular way of gamifying your revenue, and as unfair as it may be, it’s an option players have.
Power-up synergy: Borrowing from the roguelike genre, power-ups can synergize differently with previous choices players made. This means that powerups have variable power, and it’s up to the player to create a combination that works best for them.
Risk/Reward: Sure you planned ahead, and you’re confident you can sequence your swipes properly. That doesn’t exactly mean you’ll take the easiest route though, does it? Harder paths often lead to higher rewards, and the only thing better than escaping a Dragon guarded tower is by escaping a Dragon guarded tower with lots of bling. You still have to escape, so you better be confident in your own ability.
Burning chickens: Sometimes you’ll see chicken nests outside of the tower. I realized you can attack the stone next to them to scare them away.. which led me into trying to get the dragon to spit fire into one of them (only possible on floors with a window, where there’s also a chicken). Turns out spitting fire into a chicken burns them pretty well. I found no real advantage in doing so… but it was pretty fun!
Aesthetics
The aesthetics in this game are pretty straightforward. It’s a fun, simple game. The feelings you’ll experience will also be fun and lighthearted, but effective.
Ambitious: Your main goal is to escape a tower, from a dragon. That’s a clear goal and challenge from the very start of the game. The better you do, the more points you get. The lower you get, the harder it will get. It’s a nice feedback loop, and anyone willing to try harder each time is sure to escape alive.
Freedom: This one is hard to experience because you need to beat the game, but oh is it satisfying. Seconds after defeating the dragon and escaping, you’ll see the tower collapsing on itself. All those pesky spiders you couldn’t kill. Those reckless hounds chasing you into lower levels Those damn fire-spitting effigies. Everything will be gone for good, and our princess is finally safe.
Simple: Low poly art, one way of controlling your character, and easy to understand enemies. The game is pretty simple, anytime it can be. It’s chill, lighthearted, and never too strong on any particular feelings.
Fantasy: You’re a medieval princess, trapped in a tower, guarded by a dragon. It makes sense that the enemies and obstacles you encounter are also fantastical in nature. It’s very alike to a fairy tale, except our princess doesn’t need a prince to escape this tower.
Improvement: Even players not seeking a challenge will want to get better at the game. We all want the princess to escape! This aesthetic is further improved with powerups being given to players and the accumulation of fireflies that is sure to make them stronger.
The harmony of meaningful play
Now that I established the mechanics and dynamics in the game, it’s time to talk about how everything fits together. In short, it’s pretty good work. Most of the game design decisions seem to be made around the core loop. Moving down is the primary goal of the game, and to move down players must swipe in the best way they see fit. The designers of the game challenge the player with obstacles that cause constant detours. The solid floor will often force players to move laterally, and enemies persuade players into moving to the edges of the tower (you don’t want to be caught between a spider and a hound). Fire-spitting effigies force the player to wait out their movement, and even when choosing powerups players are deceived into stopping their movement (even if it’s in their benefit).
And that dynamic works beautifully because it’s at the very start of the game that we’re told “no one is coming to save you. And even if they are… they’re just going to fail. So only you can escape, figure out how”. There are obviously many ways of interpreting the vicious death of a knight, but I think they’ll all lead you down the same path. No matter which princess you chose, you’re going to want to get out. Dynamics are designed to guide the player, in their own personal way, to escape the tower. Mechanics meant to be challenging do the opposite, challenging the player in the opposite direction. There is meaningful play, because each swipe gets an immediate response: either the player goes down, or they don’t. If a player makes a swipe that ends in the fall down to the next level, they’re immediately told in a feedback system “you’re doing great, take this power-up”. A bad swipe results in death, returning players all the way to the top. The same occurs when they plan a route that leads them further down, when they’re risky and defeats the enemies in their way, or when they waste their time by figuring out how to burn a pigeon. Every mechanic and dynamic in the game is designed to either stall the player or help them on their escape.
My biggest criticism in this game is aesthetics. I wish at some point the tower started opening up more, or something of a similar effect that indicated that escape is near. The game does become more frantic as you get further down, with tougher enemies and darker visuals, but I think it would’ve been effective if more indications were given to players of their progress. Possibly even the sound of the wind brushing against the leaves in the trees, something to give the player that feeling of “almost there, one more push”. The game feels pretty much the same through the 12 levels, only increasing in difficulty.
But I want to almost pull back on that criticism because once you escape, the game gives you a very nice reward… crumbling down the very structure that trapped you for so long. The colors are vivid, the soundtrack is inspiring, and the camera zooms out into the broadest view we’ve seen. It finally gives you that feeling you didn’t have but always yearned: freedom, with a nice horseback ride into the rest of the princess’ life.
