TowerGirls: A Choose Your Own Adventure By /tg/ Who will you Save?

Posted by: Jason Silverain / Category: , , , , , , , , , , ,



You may remember last month I mentioned a new project that Duke was working upon named TowerGirls: Subtitle Pending, which is a mix of JRPG and Grand Strategy video game.
Now Dukes rendition is not the first or only version of Towergirls and in fact its main iteration is a Choose Your Own Adventure forum game created and still updated by /tg/ over at 4chan and like Chapter Master can be considered one of the more successful projects of /tg/.

Now before I continue be please note that since I am talking about 4chan and similar communities this post will have strong language and sexual references, if this offends you read no further.

Towergirls initial development had several inspirations and actually originated over at /v/ (video games) in a 2014 thread featuring a comic meme of a knight bursting through a door with the text "Princess, I've come for you!"

The meme that helped start it all and its later alternative gender swapped version

Though the creator of the meme is unknown, this meme is still quite popular with the responses ranging from the cute:

The Strange:

And the outright hilarious:

This is where accounts grow a little hazy on what happened next, some sources state that a comic based on the meme created by the artist "Guoh" (see below) in which a knight accidentally rescues a kobold princess was posted shortly before an anonymous user asked other users which of four princesses they would save: a kobold princess, an insect princess, a human princess, or a skeleton princess. Other sources claim it happened the another way around but as the thread has been lost due to damage to the archive its anyone's guess.

Guoh's comic:



The First TowerGirls Page Illustrated by Gats: (Click image for original size)


From this starting point the artist for the first three major iterations of the TowerGirls CYOA (not including 'fan characters', edits, etc.) is "Gats" known for his work in the adult flash game Corruption Of Champions (and is now doing art in Dukes TowerGirls game). 
These iterations include 2 Safe For Work Versions and 3 "Lewd" versions of the CYOA and has since has shown no interest in making further iterations though he still creates fan art on occasion and has stated Golem princess is the best princess under his own personal preference.

The Expanded TowerGirls Page Illustrated by Gats and edited by unknown artist: (Click image for original size) 


"Gats" has also been seen as the original Lorekeeper for TowerGirls in the community although he has stated repeatedly that the chart and perks are more suggestion than canon and can be interpreted any way you see fit.

This freedom has allowed the TowerGirls community to continue to develop further charts and variations even though several of the original contributors have since moved on to other projects, the community tends to respect the wishes of any contributors but the project itself seems to be under new management that wasn't there originally, for lack of a better expression and many choices are done on a community consensus.

The general rules of the CYOA differer slightly between generations and iterations of the game (and are explained on each sheet) but in general the player takes on the role of a knight, who much save a princess/prince/companion of his choice. 
Each princess comes with a number of advantages and disadvantages, as well as rankings for Love, Lust, Wealth, and Power. Princesses typically come with some other form of benefit in the form of dowries, which give miscellaneous boosts, or Idols and Companions. “Lewd” versions of the game features the princesses’ different fetishes and items which give sexual advantages. 
Many in earlier incarnations have an army option, although this comes as both an advantage and a disadvantage at times (for example Ant Princess is very poor but has a very large army but they are loyal to her instead of you, or Fish Princess whose army cannot fight on land) although later versions dropped this.

While /tg/ is its traditional home the game has far-reaching popularity due to its ever increasing cast and variations, with boards like /co/ and /vg/ adding related Princesses (like Krogan Princess, or McDuck Princess) to their charts. Tumblr has also developed a Towergirls community of artists.


Furthermore notable projects include a Tumblr user called “Bupi” began a project to craft a figurine of each princess, while a user called “FicFicPonyFic” created alternate costume variants.
In addition to Dukes Non Lewd TowerGirls video game there is a older project named Towergirls: Kingdom Conquest produced by a user known only as "Towerfag". An RPG Maker game using the Towergirls concept, this focuses upon the lewd version  including adult artworks made from professional artists under commission. While the game has a Patron page the author has said the game will be free and the funding is basically for music and art commissions.

Other spin off include an attempt to make a basic d6 System for roleplaying alongside a Master List of knights to select or roll randomly a character from:  (Click image for original size)

Various forum post games though the largest I've seen is: (Click image for original size)



Finally in these last 2 weeks I found myself charmed by the game and took some time to create some of my own fan characters:



Inn Knight: Based on one of my old roleplay characters he admittedly requires a bit more work to be ready.


A whole sheet of bonus Pokemon themed boss characters, I had a bit of fun making a double pun with Garys name as Ser Gareth was an Arthurian knight and I wanted to move the characters to a more fantasy style. 
The entire boss sheet can be downloaded here.

Finally I created my own Princess Invisible Princess however as she was for the various lewd editions of the game there is no preview but you can download her here.

I've personally found the community very open and welcoming in the last 2 weeks and in fact when asking the community if there was any particular skill sets they were searching for or etiquette to be aware of I received this reply.

>Skills you are looking for
Pretty much anything, art, music, ideas guys, people who like to chat, whatever. We like having plenty of people around.
>Etiquette
Keep an open mind, we may be waifufags, but we should still be courteous about ideas.

So to wrap things up if you decide to try your hand at creating your own characters or want to learn more the following links should help you.

Resources:
/tg/ TowerGirls Thread: http://boards.4chan.org/tg/thread/47777438/twgg-towergirls-cyoa-general (This is current at time of writing but check bottom of thread for link to further threads)

Original Brush (Artists, please use these):
Photoshop: http://stumpypencil.blogspot.com/2009/11/return-of-stumpy-pencil.html

Fonts:

sphinx princess is the best princess. <3 


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