TowerFall

TowerFall is an archery combat arena game where players kill each other with arrows and head-stomps until only one player remains. It is also possible to play in cooperative mode. In multiplayer, up to four players fight in an arena using a limited supply of arrows. Players replenish their arrow supply from those shot about the arena.

The players can also catch other players' arrows. "Treasure" power-ups give players shields, wings, and arrows with increased power. The game's rules can be customized and saved for future use. Kotaku's Chris Person described the gameplay as "[Super] Smash Bros.

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.

Multiple reviewers cited TowerFall as the standout game for the Ouya microconsole at the time of its launch. The Penny Arcade Report's Ben Kuchera called the game "the Ouya's killer app", Polygon's Russ Frushtick and Chris Plante said that TowerFall was the reason to purchase an Ouya. Destructoid's Spencer Hayes said that he did not consider purchasing the Ouya until he played TowerFall. He added that the game had a "deceptive level of depth".

Eurogamer described its reputation as "the only thing worth playing on Ouya". The added cost of additional controllers (for four-player local multiplayer) exceeded the cost of the new console itself, and was cited as a negative for the game, though later offset by its support for Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers. Plante later described the original release as "critically beloved, humbly sold", "punching way above its weight class" with recognition on the yearend lists of Ars Technica and Polygon.