 The game was developed and produced by Matt Thorson , who previously made Planet Punch and browser games . TowerFall was his 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 " . They intended to add multiple weapons , but chose to keep their 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 . They also added levels , items , a store , and a story based on ascending a tower . Along with progress , players would gaining new items and skills . Thorson originally intended to send the game to Adult Swim for " easy money " , but changed his mind upon developing a multiplayer version after the jam . 
