Twisted Tower's Thomas Brush: Atmos Games, 3D Realms & BioShock

“Twisted Tower Thomas Brush” is a breakout search this week, so here is the verified picture of who made the game and why everyone keeps mentioning BioShock.

Who is Thomas Brush?

Thomas Brush is an independent developer best known for Pinstripe, the hand-painted adventure through a haunting afterlife. His studio is Atmos Games (atmosgames.com — “Games by Thomas Brush”), and he also runs the Full Time Game Dev YouTube channel, where years of Twisted Tower devlogs document the project in public.

Reviewers and players sometimes describe Twisted Tower as a one-person vision, but the accurate statement is narrower: Brush is the credited creative force behind art, music, and code across his projects, and Twisted Tower shipped with a small team around him (including voice acting, covered in his devlogs). We stick to what the credits and interviews actually say.

Who publishes Twisted Tower?

The publisher is 3D Realms — yes, the Duke Nukem house, now a veteran indie-friendly label. Their game page is the second canonical fact source after the Steam page.

How was Twisted Tower made?

Two well-documented threads:

• From 2D to 3D. In a GameRant interview, Brush described the hardest shift as players getting lost in 3D spaces, plus the usual optimization, lightmapping, physics, collision, and UI work. The art direction evolved from an Art Deco “Happy Hotel” concept toward Art Nouveau mixed with carnival kitsch. The toy weapons were modeled on real toy guns — rubber bands, marbles, wooden grips — with real gun audio layered under light toy sounds so the guns feel punchy instead of plastic.
• The character pipeline. A Reallusion case study details the workflow: Character Creator for rigged bodies, hands, and faces; iClone 8 for character/camera/lighting animation; then Unity Auto Setup and Data Link into Unity as real-time scenes rather than pre-rendered cutscenes. (Reallusion sells the tools, so read the marketing framing accordingly — the technical specifics check out.)

Is Twisted Tower really “like BioShock”?

Careful wording matters here, because “twisted tower bioshock” is a real search intent with real confusion around it:

• The developer’s own marketing invites the comparison — an abandoned mid-century utopia, a lighthouse-like icon, story-driven linear FPS design.
• Reviewers broadly agree the comparison fits the atmosphere and structure, while noting the game is more linear and lighter on systems.
• The r/ImmersiveSim debate is the sharpest version: players who expected Deus Ex-style systemic freedom came away calling it “BioShock-inspired but linear.” That is a fair frame for expectations, not a defect verdict.

What the game is not: a BioShock sequel, spiritual successor with any official standing, or connected to that franchise in any licensed way. If you like faded-grandeur dystopias with mascot horror on top, the comparison tells you something true about mood; if you want immersive-sim mechanics, read the review roundup first.

Where does the AI question fit?

There is community discussion about AI use around this title. We keep that on the support & controversy FAQ with strict sourcing rules — short version: discussion exists, an official player-facing disclosure was not found as of August 19, 2026, and we do not turn forum threads into facts.