Towerborne: Why Early Access and a Focus on Fun Means a Better Game for Everyone

Stoic, known primarily as the maker of Banner Saga, is also more than ready for a change – Towerborne is a seismic and very welcome pivot from its flagship series, which Game Director Daniel McLaren jovially refers to as a “depression simulator.”  

“There was some emotional exhaustion at the end of the last Banner Saga game,” McLaren says. “When you write and build something like that for so many years, there’s a huge weight on your shoulders. There was a very real moment where the team sat down and said: ‘I don’t think we can do another one’.” 

“Wouldn’t it be great if we made a game that was completely the opposite of [Banner Saga], something fun that we can play on the couch with our friends and family?” 

The vibrant, whimsical setting paired with simple but satisfying side-scrolling action makes Towerborne approachable for everyone. Towerborne is intentionally designed to be both accessible and rewarding at any skill level – while simultaneously delivering demanding challenges for those aiming to conquer the game’s toughest content. It doesn’t matter which way you play either – everybody receives the same rewards for taking part.  

Choosing Early Access 

Banner Saga began as a Kickstarter, and that constant communication with early backers was paramount to the direction that Stoic took with the game’s development.  

“Stoic’s history has always been about interacting with our players, and Kickstarter is the promise of something,” McLaren says. “For Stoic, that worked out very well, and now we’re able to say hey, you don’t have to wait for us this time, we can give you a game right now.” 

With Early Access, the studio can continue that tradition of building a game with consistent input from players invested in Towerborne‘s journey from the start. As a result, Xbox, PC, and Xbox Game Pass players will immediately feel the benefit of the refinement Towerborne will undergo during the Early Access period and beyond. When Towerborne enters Xbox Game Preview, it will open the floodgates to even more players across these platforms, allowing their feedback to further shape the game’s development.  

“It starts with our Founders – players who’ve self-selected to get a first pass at helping us shape the full game,” says Trisha Stouffer, CEO and President  of Stoic. “After Steam Early Access, with Xbox Game Preview next and eventually Free-to-Play with the full launch, the gates are thrown so wide for anyone to come in, which makes it harder to discern what is noise versus actionable feedback. So, our goal with Early Access is to position ourselves so the game is stable and feels great to play before we open up to a wider audience.” 

Xbox is also wholeheartedly supportive of Stoic’s historic approach to Early Access and working with players directly from the start. 

“We all have the same goal – to create a game that people love for a long time,” says Kristofor Mellroth, Executive Producer at Xbox Games Studios Publishing. “From the start, we knew our approach with Towerborne was going to be a little different. By being very targeted at the start and building up to bigger audiences, this allows the team to continue iterating and honing the most complex systems to make them the most fun they can be.” 

Free To Play

While Towerborne’s Early Access and Xbox Game Preview periods will grant the team precious time and feedback to build the best release possible, making the full-game free for anyone felt important to Towerborne’s overarching goal of complete approachability. 

“The Founder’s pack lets us do two main things: one is that we can slowly see where problems are and get attention onto those areas quickly,” McLaren explains. “The second thing, it invites a group of people that are really invested in the game, that believe in Stoic. They want to be a part of shaping the future of Towerborne.” 

The Free-To-Play approach shone brightly through Banner Saga: Factions, a free-to-play spinoff of the main series released in 2013. The idea was to allow players to come in for free and experience  the combat elements of  Banner Saga ahead of its launch, and Stoic was thrilled with how the process allowed as many people as possible to come in and help shape the game.  

“They were helping us building our combat and just making the game better in general, everyday we’d get feedback and do updates, I must have spent three hours a day just talking to the community,” say Arnie Jorgensen, Stoic co-founder. “We really missed that aspect after going back to working on a single player game, so we’re excited to bring it back.” 

A Second Game 

It’s fair to say that the currency a lot of modern games demand is your time above all else. While Towerborne’s enticing gameplay loop and limitless progression certainly allows you to spend as much time as you want in its world, Stoic, in a refreshing fashion, is pushing back on design elements that keep a player rooted to just one game. Towerborne can be your main game, but it can also be your second game that you can just jump into whenever the mood strikes, with minimal friction. 

“You don’t have to invest hundreds of hours every month to keep up with everybody else,” Jorgensen says. “Play as much as you want to, go away and play other games, and then come back. It’s important to acknowledge that everyone plays games differently. You can play for five or ten minutes and still feel like you accomplished something great, or you can play for five hours.” 

Stouffer adds: “It really is the manifestation of ‘just one more mission.” 

A Living, Breathing Belfry

Towerborne is a living game – which means the team will continue to develop the story, add new content and build out its world for as long as they can. As you progress, the world will evolve with your character, and this approach lends itself seamlessly to crafting an expansive, immersive backdrop to the fun you’re having as a player. 

“We have a freedom with an ongoing game that feels unattainable inside a single player experience,” McLaren says. “There’s this incredible worldbuilding going on, and if we want to add in new stories, new weapons or classes, we’re able to just focus solely on doing that and getting it into the game quickly.” 

Getting that second perspective is also crucial when it comes to seeing what your game can do. Oftentimes, a new set of eyes can be a great asset in scoping for bugs, sparking new ideas, and making an entire team say: “why didn’t we think of that?”   

“Players love to push the boundaries, and that’s part of the fun of it all,” Stouffer says. “You have an idea of what players are going to do, but you don’t truly know what will happen until you put it in people’s hands. Even the players who come in with the best intentions, they will do things where we say ‘oh, we didn’t know that could happen’. All bets are off.” 

It’s not just technical feedback that Stoic wants to gather from early players either. Stoic has recognized its community’s eye for great storytelling and ideas, and considers players almost as co-developers in its journey to build Towerborne. 

“We have ideas of where the story is going, but we’re totally willing to pivot if another idea comes from the community,” Jorgensen says. “We had that happen a lot with Banner Saga, where we’d see a great idea but it’s too late to add it into a single player game.” 

“This is our opportunity to really build a game with the players again. We think our ideas are great and hope that players agree, but they are going to have awesome ideas too, and to me, that’s the coolest part about making Towerborne a living game.” 

It’s Still Stoic 

Stoic is cognizant of the fact that Towerborne is a big change from Banner Saga, and the studio is by no means finished with that series. However, the team made a very deliberate decision to create an exciting multiplayer experience that invites everyone to sit down and have a great time.  

 “Anyone that has been following Stoic for a long time knows we’re making the games that we want to make – that doesn’t mean we’re going to make the same game all the time,” Jorgensen says. 

The commitment to fun is notably present throughout our conversation – the team itself is clearly enjoying building Towerborne and that enthusiasm will no doubt shine through the game. 

“We know some people will need time to process the change, and that’s totally okay,” McLaren adds. “We’re still the same studio, we’re just applying that passion and focus in a different way, and recharging our creative juices.” 

Towerborne begins Steam Early Access on September 10. To keep up to date with the game’s journey, check out the Towerborne website and join the official Discord community for more information about Early Access Founder’s Packs.