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Teardown is a 2022 sandbox, puzzle and action game developed and published by Tuxedo Labs. The game features levels made entirely of destructible voxels. Each mission features a set of objectives to be completed within one minute. During the setup phase, which has no time limit, a path to complete these objectives as quickly as possible can be created by reshaping the game world.

Teardown
Developer(s)	Tuxedo Labs
Publisher(s)	Tuxedo Labs
Director(s)	Dennis Gustafsson
Designer(s)	Dennis Gustafsson Emil Bengtsson
Programmer(s)	Dennis Gustafsson
Artist(s)	Emil Bengtsson John Kearney
Writer(s)	Dennis Gustafsson
Composer(s)	Douglas Holmquist
Platform(s)	Windows
Release	21 April 2022
Genre(s)	Sandbox, puzzle, action
Mode(s)	Single-player

Teardown uses a proprietary game engine developed by Dennis Gustafsson, who, in conjunction with Emil Bengtsson, used it for several game prototypes. After settling on the two-part heist format, Gustafsson announced the game as Teardown in October 2019. It became available as an early access title in October 2020 and was met with positive reviews. The campaign was completed with a major update in December 2021, and the game was released in April 2022. Teardown received favourable reviews.

Gameplay

Teardown is a sandbox game with puzzle and action elements.[1] The player can freely navigate the game's nine open-world levels, which consist entirely of destructible voxels.[2] Different material require different tools to destroy.[3] The player starts out with a sledgehammer and a fire extinguisher and spraycan.[2][4] The spraycan can be used to mark points of interest, while the fire extinguisher can put out fires.[5][6] Later tools are unlocked throughout the campaign, including a blowtorch, a shotgun, bombs, and a rocket launcher, which have limited uses.[7] New structures can be erected using planks.[8][9] Acquired tools can be upgraded using cash earned from collecting valuables scattered throughout levels.[10] Ridable vehicles—such as trucks, cranes, excavators, and boats—can be used for traversal and destruction,[1][9] as well as explosives, such as propane tanks.[6]

Each mission comprises one or more objectives, of which some are required and some optional.[1][8] In most missions, the player is tasked with stealing or destroying a predetermined set of objects connected to a security alarm.[2][11] Once it is triggered, the player has sixty seconds to complete the required objects and reach the getaway vehicle.[12][13] Failing to do so results in a helicopter spotting the getaway vehicle and the player losing.[1][8][14] The initial setup time is unlimited to allow the player to plan and create a fast route between the objectives.[15] A top-down view gives an overview of the level and a completed mission shows a replay of the taken route.[4] In other kinds of missions, the player must raze buildings to an indicated height,[13] move heavy objects to a central location,[15] avoid an attack helicopter,[16] pass by security robots without being detected, or extinguish fires started by a thunderstorm so as not to trigger a fire alarm.[2][7] Multiple missions take place in the same levels with slight alterations and all missions are accessible via a hub world.[3][17] Missions can be restarted or previous progress loaded from a quick save.[1]

Outside of the campaign, the Sandbox mode puts the player into any of the unlocked levels with all tools and their upgrades unlocked but without objectives.[1][2] Three challenge modes can be played on each unlocked level: In Mayhem, the player must destroy as many voxels as possible within sixty seconds; in Hunted, the player is tasked with collecting randomly appearing items while being chased by an attack helicopter;[2] and in Fetch, the player has to collect as many items as possible in a sixty-second time frame.[18] Through accessibility options, the player can adjust the game's difficulty, such as by increasing the time they have to complete a level after triggering the timer.[19][20]

Modding

Custom levels and structures can be modelled using the program MagicaVoxel and imported into the game.[21] Teardown includes a level editor and integration with the Steam Workshop.[22][23] Most game elements are scriptable using the Lua programming language.[24][25] Early on, players created art using the in-game mechanics,[26] while mods had appeared by November 2020.[27][28] More than 1,100 mods had been submitted to the Steam Workshop by May 2022.[11] The game highlights select mods in a categorised list curated by the developers.[29][30]

Plot

Teardown's story is primarily told through emails that the player character receives. The game takes place in the fictional Löckelle Municipality and the player controls the unnamed owner of Löckelle Teardown Services, which is facing financial hardships due to a lack of clients.[lower-alpha 1] In desperation, they accept a suspicious job from Gordon Woo, who requests an old building to be destroyed during the night to make way for the construction of his Evertides Mall. The morning thereafter, Tracy, the owner's mother and Löckelle Teardown Services' head of sales, alerts the owner that the building had been under cultural heritage protection and that a traffic camera had caught the company vehicle entering the site. While she persuaded the officer in charge—Löckelle Police Department criminal investigator Parisa Terdiman—not to pursue an investigation, Terdiman in return asks for help investigating Lawrence Lee Junior and his company, Lee Chemicals. Under Terdiman's guidance, the owner repeatedly breaks into the Lee Chemicals premises and Lee's private properties at West Point Marina to retrieve information about a mystery client.

In the meantime, Woo makes further requests to Löckelle Teardown Services, including the stealing of classic cars from Lee, who, in retaliation, orders the company to sink several of Woo's cars. The alteration between them escalates and Woo eventually orders Löckelle Teardown Services to destroy the power generator at Lee Chemicals with a bomb he provides. Unintentionally, the resulting blast also destroys the nearby dam and floods the area. By this point, Terdiman has discovered that Lee Chemicals' client was BlueTide, an energy drink producer run by Mr Amanatides. As no official records exist on Amanatides, Terdiman asks the owner to break into the BlueTide premises on Hollowrock Island and retrieve communication data by hacking into satellite dishes. She then hears of the flooding at Lee Chemicals and additionally requests the retrieval of accounting data from that company.

Months later, having heard of Löckelle Teardown Services from Woo, Amanatides contacts the company because he requires better security for BlueTide. RoboSec, a producer of autonomous guard robots, offered him a discount in exchange for information on its competitor, Quilez Security. Amanatides thus requests Löckelle Teardown Services to break into the location of Quilez Security and take photographs of the in-development robots. Meanwhile, Tracy buys a new van for the owner. Thereafter, Terdiman states that she found that BlueTide's drinks contain an unknown, highly addictive substance and she requires clean samples thereof to be retrieved from the Hollowrock Island facilities. A leftover shipping label leads Terdiman to uncover that the Evertides Mall is also controlled by Amanatides and is being used as a repackaging hub for the unknown substance. The owner recovers the shipping logs from the Evertides Mall, which reveal the distant Muratori Islands as the intermediate shipping target. Terdiman sends the owner there and instructs them to steal several barrels of the substance as evidence and then destroy the local supply chain before returning to Löckelle.

As a result of the disruptions on Hollowrock Island, at the Evertides Mall, and on the Muratori Islands, Amanatides fires Woo as the mall's manager and begins a revenge plot against who he believes disrupted BlueTide's businesses. Under his orders, the owner retrieves a truck and steals autonomous robots and nitroglycerin from Quilez Security. While Terdiman and the Löckelle Police Department raid Hollowrock Island and apprehend Amanatides, he reveals to the owner that the machine that he built from the retrieved components, the Truxterminator, is being deployed. He located the former Löckelle Teardown Services company vehicle in Tracy's driveway in Cullington and thus intends to destroy the town using the machine. Tracy is unaware of her fate as she is trying out her new tanning bed, so the owner arrives in Cullington and safely guides the Truxterminator through the town and into the sea.

Development and release

Teardown was developed by Tuxedo Labs, an indie game studio founded by Swedish programmer Dennis Gustafsson.[31][32] Gustafsson had previously been involved with companies developing middleware for game physics.[16] Together with Henrik Johansson, he had founded the mobile game studio Mediocre in 2010, where they worked on games like Smash Hit, PinOut, and the Sprinkle series.[33][34][35] After shutting down Mediocre in 2017, Gustafsson began working on technology for destructible environments using voxels, an idea he had been looking to pursue for some time.[33] Voxels appeared easier to implement because regular polygons would have led to arbitrary geometry with overly complex collision detection.[16] Inspired by MagicaVoxel, he implemented the voxel technology alongside real-time ray tracing, which the simplicity of voxel-based scenes made possible.[16] Reflection colours use screen space reflection instead of full-path tracing "for performance reasons".[36] Smoke is simulated using a fluid animation system Gustafsson had authored for Sprinkle as is rendered with stochastic transparency. Unlike traditional voxel engines that manage all voxels in a single volume, Gustafsson chose to use several volums that contain a smaller number of voxels to allow for local rotations.[37] The resulting game engine and custom tools are written in C++.[35] In the engine, voxels were implemented using an 8-bit colour pallette, where each material determines voxel's colour, roughness, emissiveness, reflectivity, and physical material type.[38] Levels were designed with MagicaVoxel.[35] Gustafsson did not add material stress to the engine, feeling as though predictable behaviour would be more beneficial to the player.[33]

After creating a voxel sandbox, he worked alongside former Mediocre designer Emil Bengtsson to come up with gameplay concepts.[16][33] Like with Smash Hit and Sprinkle, Gustafsson wanted to model the gameplay around the technology, this time using destruction as a key element.[14] Gustafsson described this process as difficult "because any traditional game objective could just be solved by the player creating a straight line from A to B", with walls and doors unable to restrict the player.[36] Several ideas were floated, starting with a driving game in which the player would drive into and topple objects. This concept appeared unfavourable because the destruction was merely used as an effect rather than as part of the gameplay. Several stealth game prototypes followed over the span of several months, but Gustafsson and Bengtsson were unable to construct stealth gameplay where the enemies were insensitive to the sound of the player's destruction.[16][34] One survival game prototype that was explored featured giant spiders, but Gustafsson and Bengtsson were generally not content with the use of enemies, as they would disrupt the destructive gameplay.[16][39] Lastly, Gustafsson and Bengtsson toyed with a heist concept, requiring the player to steal a predefined set of objects. The task in that concept was considered too trivial, while using limited tools and caches was found too restrictive.[16][36] Seven months into the development, after the two could not come to a mutually liked gameplay variant, Bengtsson left the project in early 2019.[16][33] Gustafsson further experimented with the technology on his own, refusing to drop the work he had already done.[16][33] He stated that it was difficult to find a justification for the possible destruction in the game without resorting to a shooter game or violent gameplay in general.[33] He considered the design process his most frustrating yet.[14]

Gustafsson shared the progress of his technology via Twitter from 2018 onwards.[40][41] Early commented gameplay was later released by Bluedrake42 on YouTube.[32][42] In August 2019, Gustafsson announced that he would be creating a game from the technology.[32][42] He came up with the two-phase heist structure, which he said was "compatible with all the limitations (or lack thereof)" of a fully destructible environment, while "offering an interesting challenge".[14][43] As a result of the destructibility, obstacles within levels could only be designed with elevation, distance, water and unbreakable objects, though Gustafsson intended to use as few unbreakable parts as possible, limiting them mostly to the levels' lower bounds. He also avoided overly large maps, initially due to a technical restriction and later because he felt like it would have made navigating them tedious.[14] Within the second phase of the structure, Gustafsson weighed several methods to impose a time restriction—such as setting the level in a cave that is slowly flooded—and eventually settled on a simple timer.[16][14] The initial levels Gustafsson designed for this concept were long, straight corridors that the player would have travelled down to obtain an item, then take the same route backwards to reach the getaway vehicle. After Bengtsson re-joined the project, the two discovered that the game played much better when it featured multiple objectives in a non-linear open world, which became the final design.[16] For the quick save system, he used run-length encoding to compress world data at high speeds, seeking to encourage the system's use by eliminating long load times.[44] A popular request was to have the helicopter not spot the getaway vehicle when time runs out and instead chase after the player. Gustafsson disliked this idea, saying that it "would introduce an element of randomness that would discourage the strategic thinking and careful planning".[14] He once looked into procedurally alter levels to reflect damage the player had inflicted earlier but scrapped this idea due to time and scope constraints. Adding multiplayer was not planned as the engine was written for single-player gameplay, and the team considered the networked synchronisation of all voxel physics technically infeasible. Anticipating that players would want to mod the game, much of the game's gameplay logic was moved from C++ to Lua. Gustafsson cited as the ultimate goal that modders should be able to create entirely new gameplay mechanics within the game's framework.[37]

The game was revealed as Teardown on 1 October 2019.[45] The announcement was coupled with the release of a walkthrough video, a website, and a preparatory Steam storefront entry.[46][47][48] Later development updates by Gustafsson documented dynamic weather, further vehicles and levels, and other content being added.[49][50] The game's online presence grew its pre-release popularity substantially and the development thus chose to not use any other marketing techniques.[37] Teardown's music and sound design were composed by Douglas Holmquist, who had worked on many of Mediocre's games, starting in November 2019 before joining the project full-time in February 2020.[51] For each of the seven materials processed by the game engine (wood, metal, glass, plastic, masonry, foliage, and dirt), Holmquist created impact and break sounds in three sizes and with multiple variations of each size. He also created looping squeak sounds for metal and wooden joints. Foley for each material were recorded in conjunction with Mathias Schlegel, a sound engineer and friend of Holmquist. Further sounds by Holmquist were made for a shotgun (using a Benelli M4), a handgun (with a Colt M1911), vehicles, and ambience. During the development, unused sounds he had created for Smash Hit were recycled as placeholders.[51] The soundtrack for the game was created using a Minimoog Model D, Fender Jaguar, Fender Deluxe Reverb, Fender Jazz Bass, Gibson Hummingbird, Neumann TLM-103, Neumann KM-184, Shure SM57, Shure BETA57A, Korg SV-2, Way Huge Pork Loin, Rogers 70's drum kit, and Logic Pro X. It was performed by Holmquist with Andreas Baw on the drums, Hans Kristian Durán providing vocals for the song "Löckelle", and Håkan Åkesson mastering the songs at Nutid Studio. The soundtrack was released via Bandcamp in two parts: Part 1 on 1 December 2020 and Part 2 on 29 December 2021.[52][53]

Gustafsson formally founded Tuxedo Labs in Malmö in 2019.[54] Teardown was revealed anew in a trailer shown during Gamescom: Opening Night Live in August 2020.[40] The game was planned to be released as an early access title for Windows later in 2020.[55][56] In October 2020, Gustafsson formalised this release date to be 29 October 2020, and made the game available as scheduled.[57][58] By this time, the development team comprised Gustafsson, Bengtsson, and five contractors.[37] John Kearney was later added as Teardown's art director.[59] The early access phase was to last approximately one year, subject to change depending on player feedback, to allow for the addition of more content.[37][60] to The initial release included one half of the game, Part 1, with the second in development by January 2021.[16] Part 2, released on 2 December 2021, added further missions and tools, as well as enemy robots.[61][62] The update was given the version 0.9, with Tuxedo Labs commenting that it would prepare the game for its full release.[62] The game was released on 21 April 2022.[63] The announcing trailer published earlier that month compiled the updates made during the early access phase.[64]

Reception

In early access

During its early access phase, Teardown received positive reviews. Graham Smith of Rock Paper Shotgun lauded the game's voxel destruction mechanics and their intrinsic value to the gameplay, considering the technology to excel that of foregone games like Red Faction: Guerrilla.[9] GameStar's Christian Just praised the game's sandbox approach to level destruction and the technology's level of detail.[65] Rick Lane of Bit-Tech called the game's puzzles "highly open ended yet beautifully challenging".[6] Smith regarded the game as "rarely frustrating" due to its use of quick saves, which was echoed by Andy Kelly of PC Gamer.[1][9] Smith also regarded the successful completion of a level within 60 seconds, after having spent up to an hour planning the route, as an "enormous reward".[9] Likewise, Nathan Grayson of Kotaku stated that "it felt amazing" to complete a level with little time left.[8] Connor Sheridan of GamesRadar+ regarded the game's music as "slick".[5] Lane noted that the visual style was "splendid".[6] Eurogamer's Robert Purchese was amazed by the existence of a story.[66] PC Gamer's Natalie Clayton praised Teardown's ray-traced lighting implementation and overall art style as "something utterly gorgeous". She believed that its mod support had transformed it "from a fun curiosity into a worthy successor to the king of physics sandboxes, Garry's Mod" and gave it longevity.[67]

Just felt that, despite its technical prowess, the game was lacking in varying content, making it feel "lifeless and dull" after an initial "wow effect". He called the game's worlds "oddly cold and empty" and further cited a perceived lack of optimisation.[68] Smith criticised some imprecise interactions between the game's elements, such as the player colliding with "glitchy" object edges or large, partially destroyed structures being supported by very few voxels due to a lack of stress.[9]

Post-release

Teardown received "generally favorable reviews", according to the review aggregator website Metacritic, which calculated a weighted average rating of 80/100 based on nineteen critic reviews.[69] Clayton, who reviewed the game for PC Gamer, labeled the game "the most creative sandbox platform since Garry's Mod" and an "endlessly delightful destruction sandbox".[7] Stefania Netti of Eurogamer.it similarly called it "the interactive fulcrum par excellence, that twisted gratification that never tires".[71] According to Dawid Biel of CD-Action, described "starting and putting out fires, causing explosions, or watching great structures crumble and collapse" as "mesmerising".[11] Teardown's physics were praised as "superb" by GameSpot's Alessandro Barbosa, who felt that "the chaotic nature of its physics are a consistent source of joy".[2] Game Rant's Dwayne Jenkins regarded the game a "technical marvel" with "a startling amount of detail" in its physics.[4] However, Netti and Annika Menzel of PC Games lamented that buildings could remain unrealistically supported by very few blocks.[17][71] John Cantees of GamingBolt found the interactions with some objects "finicky" and lamented "floaty" controls while jumping, while Jenkins faulted poor controls for vehicles.[3][4]

Cantees found the voxel art style apt for the game and its destruction-based gameplay.[3] Jenkins wrote that it was "deceptively beautiful" and Biel regarded it "extremely visually attractive".[4][11] Jarrard reviewed Teardown for Shacknews and called the game "an absolute stunner", citing the use of ray tracing for lighting, shadows, and reflections with "stupendous" results, while "super-realistic bounce lighting, proper ambient occlusion, and diffuse reflections work in tandem to sell the world as ‘real,’ even with the simple, blocky aesthetic." He believed that the fire propagation exceeded that of Far Cry 2, which had previously had the best.[13]

Barbosa criticised the campaign for the pace at which tools are acquired, which we felt hindered the "ability to tear maps apart in entertaining ways" and prevented drastic changes in mission objectives.[2] Menzel cited monotony in returning to the same maps with different objectives.[17] In contrast, Jason Coles of NME found satisfaction in finding new shortcuts on previously played levels after unlocking the planks.[70] "Barely escaping a well-thought-out heist with only a second or two to spare is a legitimate rush."[13] The campaign's narrative was considered unnecessary by Jenkins, especially due to a lack of voiced dialogue and missing ability to meet the characters in the game.[4] Jarrard said the story was "paper-thin".[13]

Barbosa felt that the challenge modes had no lasting appeal.[2] Clayton bemoaned a lack of multiplayer and found the modding scene to be the game's "enduring lifeblood".[7] Coles similarly believed that mods would be Teardown's legacy.[70] Jenkins, Menzel, and Netti warned of possible motion sickness,[4][17][71] and Cantees faulted an inconsistent performance.[3]

Sales

Teardown was among Steam's best-selling games in the first few days of its early-access availability. In the same time frame, the game received more than 1,800 reviews by players, of which 96% were positive, indicating an "overwhelmingly positive" reception.[72] Gustafsson attributed the early success to the popularity of his Twitter videos.[36] As of August 2022, Teardown has sold 1.1 million copies.[54]

Accolades

Teardown received nominations for year-end accolades at the Independent Games Festival and Golden Joystick Awards, winning "Excellence in Design" at the former.[73][74] Shacknews named Teardown the best early access game of 2020.[75] Rock Paper Shotgun's editors cited the game as one of their favourite games of 2020, and it ranked #25 on PC Gamer's list of the "top 100 PC games" in 2022.[76][77]

Year	Award	Category	Result	Ref(s).
2021	Independent Games Festival	Excellence in Design	Won	[73][74]
		Seumas McNally Grand Prize	Nominated
2022	Golden Joystick Awards	Ultimate Game of the Year	Pending	[78][79]
		PC Game of the Year	Pending
		Best Indie Game	Pending

Legacy

On 1 July 2022, Tuxedo Labs was acquired by Saber Interactive as part of Embracer Group. Saber Interactive justified its acquisition by arguing that Teardown's technology could be expanded into a larger platform and compete with Minecraft and Roblox. By August 2022, Gustafsson had hired Marcus Dawson, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Illusion Labs, as Tuxedo Labs' CEO, and the studio's staff count grew to six people. Gustafsson assumed the title of chief technology officer.[54][80]

Notes

References

External links

• Official website

На других языках

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[de] Teardown

Teardown ist ein Computerspiel, das vom schwedischen Studio Tuxedo Labs für das Betriebssystem Windows entwickelt und seit 2020 vertrieben wird. Das Independent-Game vereint Sandbox-Spielelemente mit Rätseln, Überfällen und Action.

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- [en] Teardown (video game)

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[es] Teardown (videojuego)

Teardown es un sandbox, rompecabezas y juego de acción desarrollado y publicados por Tuxedo Labs. Los niveles del juego están hechos enteramente con vóxels destruibles. Cada misión presenta un conjunto de objetivos para ser completados en un minuto. Durante la fase de preparación, que no tiene ningún límite de tiempo, el jugador debe crear un circuito que seguirá en la fase de huida para recoger todos los objetivos posibles evitando los obstáculos impuestos.

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