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first effort at professional writing, and it took him five months. He and
Wohlwend would conference after each chapter for coherency. Boxleiter wanted the story to explore the "questions ... floating around the national consciousness" rather than be "heavy-handed" and prescriptive. Despite this work, Boxleiter felt that the story and the gameplay "don't necessarily interact with each other", with the story serving to drive those less interested in puzzles through the rest of the game. They
266:
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308:, the player swipes the screen to move pieces that redirect incoming beams, symbolic of phone signals, into specific locations. The waveform beams are displayed in different solid colors and must be matched with the destination "node" of the same color by passing through moveable pieces that reflect and split the beam. The pieces do not move individually but as rows and columns in
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Shaun
Musgrave wrote that the game's "striking" visuals and "politically charged" message were not completely reconciled but were "individually strong". He described its art style as similar to Wohlwend's previous work and its political statement as indicative of Mikengreg's strong opinions. Musgrave
485:
in mid 2013, as
Mikengreg felt they could provide satirical commentary through the "hacking" element of the game. The story shed its jocular tone as it and its political content grew deeper and more serious. Boxleiter wrote most of the script, which totaled over 20,000 words in length. It was his
327:. The player must pursue multiple branches to further the story. Optional, side-story branches do not advance the main plot but have the hardest puzzles. The story is told through chains of emails, which are unlocked by completing puzzles. The player assumes the role of an American Muslim
494:, though they acknowledged difficulty in playtesting the story's private experience. Mikengreg decided against including an option to skip puzzles, which they felt would spoil the game and the player's capacity to adapt to increasing difficulty. They attribute this
242:
reviews as generally favorable. Critics praised the game's visual style and story but criticized the way the game did not allow players to skip puzzles. Reviewers found the light-bending puzzle premise unoriginal but appreciated its thematic connection.
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considered the story one of the game's strong points, and unusually so for a puzzle game. He wrote that there was sufficient "intrigue" to want to finish the story, and that the reward of more story encouraged him to get through the harder puzzles.
299:
program, the player monitors phone calls to find public threats. Apart from infrequent interaction with their handler, the player is left to solve puzzles in pursuit of one such lead. The puzzles are based on the "reflection puzzle" popularized by
184:. The player monitors phone calls as part of a government surveillance program to find public threats. They unlock chains of emails by completing a series of puzzles in which a beam is reflected around a room to a set destination.
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turned out to be a "financial flop", and so
Boxleiter wanted to use the jam to create "something new, ... something really small and perfect". By the end of the two-day jam, the core mirror reflection mechanics of
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Reviewers did not like the inability to skip puzzles. Musgrave wrote that moments of being "stuck on a mandatory stage" detracted from the player's investment and sense of immersion in the story. Grannell of
728:. Despite the game's similarity to "countless light-bending puzzle games", he found Mikengreg's implementation "fiendishly clever" in the way the player moves rows of tiles rather than one at a time.
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linearity was its "only downside", though he also wished for options to "undo" mid-game choices and to save puzzle progress upon leaving the game. Multiple reviewers appreciated the game's story.
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were in place, though it would take two years of sporadic work to finalize the remainder of the game. During this time, the two also worked separately, and
Wohlwend released the well-received
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aesthetic "chillingly appropriate" for the theme's tension. He also chided the puzzles for not being "a reward unto themselves" and the gameplay's "monotony" for being similar to that of
285:, the player rearranges the items onscreen to redirect a beam of light to its destination. The player is at the center of a story about government surveillance told through hacked emails
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Kyle
Vanhemert felt that the act of determining whether messages were pertinent to national security was a "powerful experience". Squires of
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Craig
Grannell appreciate how the game "often forces a kind of upside-down thinking" and compared its message to that of
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974:"'TouchTone' Developers Mikengreg on How a 48-Hour Game Jam Game Took Two Years to Become a Politically-Charged Puzzler"
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1005:"TouchTone is a game about future technology, big brother, and the power of the individual in society"
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nascent theme of light, lasers, and prisms. They felt this direction was unsuccessful, like a "boring
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is "perfectly designed for a certain set of mobile gamers" and compared its gameplay to the 1987
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Reviewers praised the game's aesthetics and criticized its unoriginal puzzle concept.
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story grew from satirical to serious over the course of the game's development.
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wherein the player moves mirrors to reflect a beam of light about a room. In
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Jordan Minor found the "clinical, minimally-colored cyberspace" and 1970s
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praised the game's writing but thought the actual puzzles were weaker.
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release, Boxleiter and
Wohlwend planned a celebratory road trip to a
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received "generally favorable" reviews, according to video game
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on March 19, 2015. It received a front page feature on the
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without serving the same dehumanizing point. Minor called
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of government surveillance are a core theme of the game.
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678:"essentially a series of the hacking minigames ...
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840:"'TouchTone' Review - Tricky Puzzles, Touchy Tone"
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920:"Become an NSA Spook in This iPhone Puzzle Game"
19:For the telecommunication signaling method, see
1128:"TouchTone Review: Puzzling Is Your Civic Duty"
335:emails are pertinent to national security. The
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223:The game was released on March 19, 2015, for
8:
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195:immediately following their 2012 release of
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1383:Video games developed in the United States
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1040:"TouchTone Critic Reviews for iPhone/iPad"
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490:the game in public at the theater in
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1003:Willington, Peter (March 18, 2015).
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984:from the original on April 29, 2015
798:from the original on March 25, 2015
537:
21:Dual-tone multi-frequency signaling
1056:from the original on March 4, 2016
918:Vanhemert, Kyle (March 19, 2015).
838:Musgrave, Shaun (March 18, 2015).
784:Grannell, Craig (March 23, 2015).
14:
1140:from the original on May 27, 2015
1096:from the original on May 11, 2015
972:Dotson, Carter (March 24, 2015).
936:from the original on May 11, 2015
894:from the original on May 10, 2015
850:from the original on May 12, 2015
331:agent who determines whether the
191:core concept grew from a two-day
124:
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1084:Minor, Jordan (March 19, 2015).
1017:from the original on May 4, 2015
370:Mike Boxleiter and Greg Wohlwend
360:
351:
264:
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1126:Squires, Jim (March 20, 2015).
876:Kuchera, Ben (March 20, 2015).
483:global surveillance disclosures
437:in 2014. Wohlwend tried to fit
207:global surveillance disclosures
478:found its theme following the
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205:theme following the mid-2013
176:developed and published by
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416:Victoria, British Columbia
383:duo of Mike Boxleiter and
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1373:Single-player video games
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329:National Security Agency
302:role-playing video games
129:March 19, 2015
634:review score aggregator
518:universal app for both
297:government surveillance
718:Jim Squires said that
492:Logan Square, Chicago
1388:Game jam video games
387:, released the 2010
381:indie game developer
319:are displayed in an
1348:Hacking video games
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544:
514:was released as an
310:cardinal directions
201:but only found its
1368:Puzzle video games
1245:Ridiculous Fishing
1086:"TouchTone Review"
786:"TouchTone review"
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323:with a branching,
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530:upon its release.
229:review aggregator
174:puzzle video game
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543:Aggregate score
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456:from a bigger
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1010:Pocket Gamer
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64:Publisher(s)
52:Developer(s)
25:
1363:Indie games
1325:Video games
1224:Puzzlejuice
978:TouchArcade
844:TouchArcade
736:wrote that
651:TouchArcade
617:TouchArcade
573:Publication
496:game design
343:Development
106:Platform(s)
74:Designer(s)
1337:Categories
1266:TumbleSeed
1231:Gasketball
1217:Solipskier
1045:Metacritic
930:Condé Nast
761:References
693:Watch Dogs
637:Metacritic
557:Metacritic
548:Aggregator
488:playtested
460:game like
450:Flash game
420:Gasketball
405:Gasketball
396:Gasketball
390:Solipskier
233:Metacritic
198:Gasketball
172:is a 2015
133:2015-03-19
1353:IOS games
1283:Mikengreg
1259:TouchTone
1060:April 30,
898:April 30,
888:Vox Media
738:TouchTone
725:Deflektor
720:TouchTone
676:TouchTone
630:TouchTone
539:Reception
534:Reception
512:TouchTone
476:TouchTone
443:TouchTone
425:TouchTone
401:TouchTone
393:and 2012
377:Mikengreg
321:overworld
306:TouchTone
276:TouchTone
237:TouchTone
215:TouchTone
186:TouchTone
178:Mikengreg
169:TouchTone
96:Writer(s)
84:Artist(s)
68:Mikengreg
57:Mikengreg
34:TouchTone
1298:Vlambeer
1238:Hundreds
1138:Archived
1133:Gamezebo
1094:Archived
1054:Archived
1015:Archived
982:Archived
934:Archived
892:Archived
848:Archived
796:Archived
754:Gamezebo
712:Gamezebo
706:Blackbar
681:BioShock
593:Gamezebo
582:148 Apps
505:Spelunky
500:Derek Yu
463:BioShock
454:minigame
412:game jam
281:puzzles
247:Gameplay
231:website
193:game jam
145:Genre(s)
45:App icon
1276:Related
1090:148Apps
883:Polygon
687:Deus Ex
659:148Apps
287:(right)
156:Mode(s)
131: (
117:Release
1311:Portal
1252:Threes
1144:May 2,
1100:May 2,
1021:May 2,
988:May 2,
940:May 6,
854:May 2,
802:May 2,
750:'s
741:'s
716:'s
701:'s
662:'s
654:'s
644:'s
561:84/100
520:iPhone
446:'s
430:Threes
408:'s
337:ethics
333:hacked
317:levels
283:(left)
279:'s
240:'s
218:'s
203:hacker
189:'s
150:Puzzle
1209:Games
925:Wired
746:Wired
690:, or
576:Score
551:Score
433:with
379:, an
1146:2015
1102:2015
1062:2015
1023:2015
990:2015
942:2015
900:2015
856:2015
804:2015
610:8/10
524:iPad
522:and
315:The
696:."
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598:5/5
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