5 Rules to Survive Tower 3

5 Rules to Survive Tower 3 is a narrative-driven game that immerses players in a chilling tale inspired by creepypasta stories. It's designed to build suspense and curiosity, drawing players into its mysterious world.

From class project to something more#

The game began as my final project for a narrative game design class, where I experimented with Twine, a tool for creating interactive stories. It eventually took on a life outside the classroom. I wanted to give the player a sense of agency, so the story is built around choices that lead to different endings, encouraging players to explore different paths and uncover the secrets of Tower 3 and the surrounding wilderness.

At the time, I had been reading and listening to a lot of creepypasta. One of the more popular sub-genres is the rules-based story, where someone (usually a new employee) receives a strange and ominous list of rules. Failing to follow them is often dangerous. I thought that could be a great concept for a narrative game.

What I learned#

This was one of those projects I kept working on right up until midnight. Not because I was procrastinating, but because I kept getting more ideas, and fitting them into a branching narrative was a real challenge. The ending isn't quite as polished yet, and I plan to fix that.

It was a great lesson in how branching narratives give stories a different perspective: the idea of what could have happened if you had made different choices. That's something I want to keep exploring in future game projects, on an even deeper level.