The machines keep their best things in a tower in the middle of the city, and you are going to take them. One floor at a time: stay in the dark, crawl through the vents, let the guards walk past, crack the safe and take the lift up. At the very top is the Core. Take it, and every machine in the tower wakes up.
Press play
The game opens full-screen on this page. It is a mouse-and-keyboard game first: click the game and the mouse looks around. It also has touch controls for tablets and phones. If it is slow, it switches itself to Low graphics. New visitors first choose Home or School and accept the Rules, Terms and Privacy Policy.
Controls
W A S D: move. Mouse: look.
C: crouch. Quieter, slower and much harder to see. Shift: run, which is loud.
E or click: use. Take loot, open doors, hide in lockers. Hold it to crack a safe or hack a terminal.
Q or right click: throw the gadget you picked (hold to aim, let go to throw). 1 2 3 or the mouse wheel pick a gadget.
F: the zapper. It knocks out the guard or camera you aim at. Three shots a floor.
M: the big map. Esc or P: pause.
Touch: left thumb moves, right thumb looks, with Use, Crouch, Run, Gadget and Map buttons.
Staying hidden
The Seen meter at the bottom left shows how easy you are to see. Under a ceiling light you shine; in a dark corner, crouched, you are almost invisible.
Every guard and camera throws its sight on the floor as a yellow fan. Keep out of it, or keep to the dark when you cross it.
Arcs around the middle of the screen point at anything noticing you, and fill up as it gets sure. A yellow ? means a guard is coming to look. A red ! means it saw you.
Desks, crates and counters hide you if you crouch behind them. Tall shelves, racks and walls hide you standing up.
Noise: running is heard across a room, walking a little, crouching not at all. Opening doors makes a small noise too.
Vents: crouch and crawl in. Nobody can see you inside, and they lead around guarded rooms.
Lockers: step inside and nobody can see you. Unless a guard saw you get in.
The machines
Watchmen: tall guard robots that walk the same rounds over and over. They see a long way, but not behind them.
Sniffers: low, fast robots on four legs. They cannot see far, but they hear every step.
Cameras sweep side to side. If one sees you, the alarm goes off and every guard comes to that spot.
Laser gates blink on and off. Cross while they are off. On the top floor they never blink.
A terminal on some floors switches off every camera and laser on that floor, if you can hold E long enough.
If a guard catches you, it grabs you. Mash E to break free and run. Each grab costs a heart; lose them all and you are busted.
Lockdown: when the alarm goes off, every door slams shut for a while and the lights go red. If the alarm goes on too long, Enforcers come up in the lift: heavy machines that hunt you.
The getaway: from the second floor up, the safe has a silent alarm. Once it is open you have under a minute to reach the lift.
Some floors have laser beams that sweep up and down. Crouch under them when they are high.
Tricks
Switch off a guard: sneak up behind it and press E. If another guard finds it, the alarm goes off.
Keycards: keycard doors (with yellow lights) need a card. Some lie on desks; some guards carry one on their back, and you can lift it without them noticing.
Every floor has another way round a keycard door, if you look.
Gadgets and upgrades
EMP charge: switches off guards for 7 seconds and cameras and lasers for 12.
Decoy: lands and beeps, and guards go to look at it instead of you.
Cloak: seven seconds where nobody can see you.
Padded vest (one more heart) and big battery (more zapper shots) help when it goes loud.
Upgrades stay for good: soft soles (quieter), quick hands (crack faster), dark suit (harder to see), the scanner (see guards through walls) and a good fence (loot sells for more).
Everything is bought with the money from your jobs. Get busted and you lose what was in the bag.
The eight floors
Lobby, Offices, Server Hall, Kennels, Archive, Assembly, Executive and The Core. Each one adds something new.
Three stars on a floor: get out, with no alarm, and never seen. A clean job and a ghost job pay extra.
How it is made
Tower Job has no game engine. It uses the same small 3D renderer as Pendar Run and Dead Orbit.
Each floor is drawn as a map of letters, square by square. The walls, desks, racks and robots are built from boxes by code.
The light from every ceiling lamp is worked out when the floor loads. The same numbers tell the guards how well they can see you, so a dark corner really is safe.
A test bot walked every floor before release, to make sure the safe and the lift can always be reached.
The music and every sound are made by code. The music gets tense when something notices you.
Your progress is saved on this device only. Nothing is sent anywhere.
