TowerFall 8-Player Brings Expanded Murderfun
Funkills
Fast and deadly 2D arrow-o-platformer TowerFall Ascension [official site] has been big on the local multiplayer scene since even before its official release but what if you have more than three friends? Are you expected to take turns to fight? Can TowerFall expect patience after pumping your blood with fire and murder? That's not right. But, good news: an eight-player version is now out, touched up for frenetic murderfun.
TowerFall 8-Player supports 4v4 team battles and six-player free for all, up from the base game's limit of four. Its levels are rebuilt in widescreen format to fit more murderers in too. TowerFall boss man Matt Thorson calls this a "mod" but really it's a new standalone game focused purely on multiviolence. An explanation:
"This package does not contain the core TowerFall experience. This is an official mod for TowerFall that only includes Versus mode, and is heavily modified specifically for 5-8 player matches. It is also still possible to play with 2-4 players on the new levels."
This isn't included in an update or anything, mind. You will need to buy it separately - it's $8.88 on Itch. No, it won't be on Steam. The audience for 8-player local multiplayer games is pretty niche, mind, so I can't imagine this is too offputting if you've already got a load of controllers and USB hubs together.
However, fans have previously made an unofficial 8-player mod. It doesn't have those updated maps and has a few issues but hey, it's free.
The next big project for Matt Makes Games is 2D mountain-climbing platformer Celeste.
TowerFall 8-Player was originally created for the Indie Olympics, a local multiplayer competition at this year's Game Developers Conference in March. That also hosted the third TowerFall World Championship, as shown in this little new video:
