The game was developed and produced by Maddy Thorson, who previously made
Planet Punch and
browser games.
TowerFall was her first full commercial game. The idea came from a visit with
Alec Holowka as they worked at a
game jam, the 48-hour June 2012 Vancouver Full Indie Game Jam. The team iterated through a
Legend of Zelda-inspired multiplayer mode that became a single-player platformer
Flash game where the player was a "skilled archer out of an ancient legend". She intended to add multiple weapons, but chose to keep the first one—the bow and arrow—due to its feel. The arrow was designed to fire without charging and to bias towards targets so as to give the player "more leeway". Thorson also chose to limit the aim direction to the eight
ordinal directions rather than affording complex 360 degree controls. She also added
levels, items, a store, and a story based on ascending a tower. Along with in-game progress, players would gain new items and skills. Thorson originally intended to send the game to
Adult Swim for "easy money", but changed her mind upon developing a multiplayer version after the jam. Holowka credits the multiplayer's
party game feel to the many hours of local multiplayer testing it received in Thorson's homes in Vancouver. Thorson lived with a developer she met through
Game Maker's community, and the two eventually moved in with Holowka in "Indie House", a Vancouver house whose occupants are all indie developers. The close community of indie gamers and their interest in trying new game ideas was both a product and generator of their living arrangements. Though Holowka dropped back from the project shortly after the game jam, leaving the project to Thorson, he stepped in to
demo the game at the 2013
Game Developers Conference at the last minute when Thorson's passport had expired. With an increase in press attention following an exhibition at
PAX East, Thorson entered an agreement with Ouya's
Kellee Santiago to release exclusively on the microconsole. Critics saw this as being the action the new console needed to compete with existing consoles, and Thorson felt the release for Ouya to be less "intimidating" than releasing for the
PlayStation 3. The game also fit Ouya's emphasis on
couch co-op gaming. Thorson originally did the artwork herself but was not satisfied with the results and hired MiniBoss to finish the graphics. Holowka composed the music, and Thorson hired Power Up Audio to make the sound effects. Thorson said that the game started to come together about six months into its development. They tested the game on close friends once every few weeks, and the friends would ask Thorson when they could play it again. Thorson brought the game to the 2013
Evolution Championship Series fighting games tournament, where they unexpectedly received more praise than criticism. The game mechanics were inspired by games from Thorson's youth. Upon reflection, they felt that the game had the item-catching mechanics of
Super Smash Bros., the one-hit kills and tension of
Bushido Blade, the playfulness of
Goldeneye 007, the shooting mechanics of ''
Yoshi's Island, and the positioning strategy of Team Fortress 2. They described their development process as tweaking Super Smash Bros. Melee'' to their tastes. The limited arrow design was intended to slow the gameplay and encourage player strategy. She considered adding
online multiplayer, a popular request, but lacked the programming skills herself. The game's medieval scenery came from their contemporary interest in the
Game of Thrones book series and their pairing of the arrow mechanic with "stone-walled castles and lava-filled dungeons". The player-characters also have individual personalities and backstories that Thorson intended to elaborate in a "lore" section of an instruction manual. == Release ==