Freedom Tower Developer’s Diary — August 2023

Welcome to Freedom Tower, our debut narrative game inspired by the struggle for Ukrainian independence after World War I and the mysticism of our folklore. I hope you are ready to fight for what you truly believe in!

The camp's fire We met one winter evening in late February 2023 at Gamedev Camp, a mentoring program for developers from Eastern Europe. As the organizers put it afterwards: it's a rare thing when it's obvious that people sound and work in unison.

Don't get me wrong, we had a lot of debates, fights, and rejected ideas. I'm sure we will have more in the future, but it was more about constant practical testing of millions of ideas and endless brainstorming. When there are only four of you, everyone can have an impact on decision-making. We never stopped trying out different theories for the story, game designs, visual styles, and 100 and 1 other aspects of game development.

We had a lot of ideas, pitched them to each other, and although sometimes they seemed to be polar opposites, we mostly agreed that it had to be something important that would tell the story of our fight for freedom and touch people who share the philosophy of this fight.

The world of Freedom Tower We spent hours discussing the events of the national liberation movement. Realizing that we could not achieve historical accuracy, we chose a different path. Historical fiction with elements of fantasy and, potentially, steampunk! That is, the events of the game are not real, but I think we managed to achieve the emotional component of the fate of a young cadet of those times!

Imagine the world of the early twentieth century, where most of the continent is controlled by the evil totalitarian regime, the Black Empire. Orest, our protagonist, is a cadet at an imperial military school who will have to choose a path according to what he is willing to live for.

Rumor has it that a guerrilla struggle is still smoldering in remote villages and city catacombs - the Tower rebels. These are people with completely different histories, they may even speak different languages, but they continue to fight for the opportunity to live freely on their land in peace.

There is also a third party, the mystical one. Molfars (mages) are mediators with the world of spirits and mythical creatures, and in the beta version we have just begun to unveil them.

The first events We're currently participating in various events dedicated to game development and applying for contests. We have recently taken part in Games Gathering, the biggest game development conference in Ukraine.

We are happy to be participating in the Ukrainian Games Festival on Steam that kicks off August 18.

Only the Carpathian Molfars will be able to reveal further milestones in this adventure. The Tower of Babel may have remained unfinished, but that doesn't mean that people won't return to the dream of touching the sky!