Attacking the Tower

Attacking the Tower is an upcoming fangame in the Henry Stickmin series, started by Kejayco and developed by Strobe Interactive. The game is set after the events of Stealing the Diamond and before the events of Infiltrating the Airship, and is also known as Episode 2.5. It will feature Henry Stickmin confronting a criminal organisation known as the Tower Gang, a group of thieves second only to the Toppat Clan.

The game is being made in Adobe Animate and will be playable on Newgrounds and available for download on GameJolt. Though slated for release in 2022 (which was moved from an original launch date of Late 2021) this deadline is blurred by the scope of the project.

It is one of the most notable fangames, with the game's trailer becoming one of the most viewed Henry Stickmin videos of 2021, with over a million and a half views.

Plot
Set after the events of Stealing the Diamond, Henry returns home to find his house trashed and the Tunisian Diamond stolen by a criminal organization known as the Tower Gang, a group of thieves second only to the Toppat Clan. Seeking revenge, Henry accepts a challenge from The Towerhead, their leader, to take them down himself.

Early development
On January 16th, 2020, the Henry Stickmin Wiki was vandalized and misinformation was inserted referring to a sequel for Completing the Mission, being "Attacking the Tower". Shortly after it became a small little meme within the Innersloth Discord server's Henry Stickmin channel, where fans would be a joke about it being a real Henry game.

On April 13th, 2020, Kejayco grouped some friends together to make a "small" fangame based on this joke. A group chat on Discord was created, with Tandi, Tomás Ferrer, LegoBoy, and bateBANE joining the team. It was originally intended to be a small project with only around 24 fails, made in an effort to kill time while waiting for The Henry Stickmin Collection. The Strobe Interactive team settled on it chronologically beginning between Stealing the Diamond and Infiltrating the Airship.

Scope growing in size and trailer release
As release of the Henry Stickmin Collection drew closer, the scope of the fangame also grew in size. In early-mid August 2020, after the release of the Collection, Arguswastaken joined the team to help with art, and Dungeonation also joined to help with voice acting, programming, and music. What was originally intended to be a small project has grown to a supposedly larger-sized game, with the art style changing to reflect that of Completing the Mission rather than the original legacy games' art styles. The Step Back button was removed in favor of the Map feature, and collectable bios were in development.

In August 2021, the Strobe Interactive team released the trailer for Attacking the Tower, which gained significant attention from the Henry Stickmin community and went viral. As of September 2021, the trailer for Attacking the Tower has over 1,000,000 views, making it the most viewed Henry Stickmin video released in 2021. On October 10th, BioPlant (creator of the fangames Surviving the Snowstorm and Hunting the Felons) also joined the team.

False 9/11 comparisons


After the release of the trailer, the Strobe Interactive team received some comments on YouTube and the Henry Stickmin subredddit falsely stating that the title of the game is a reference to the September 11 attacks. Over 500 comments referencing 9/11 on the trailer have since been flagged and deleted, and a notice was added at the start of the game, stating "dedicating the game to making fun of tragedy or terrorism would be an extremely disrespectful, facetious, and heinous act."

In the aftermath of the comments, a plane was removed from the game and replaced with something else, and the title of an ending route was changed. Strobe Interactive developer Arguswastaken confirmed that when people play the game, they're going to see there's no resemblance to 9/11 whatsoever. In the Strobe Interactive Discord Server, Argus stated that jokes about the attacks are "a serious insult to everyone who was murdered and their loved ones".

Reception
In August 2021, PuffballsUnited and Two Left Thumbs showed their support for the game after watching the game's trailer. Puffballs stated to Strobe Interactive that he was avoiding content until the game's release, so he could play the game blind. The Innersloth YouTube channel commented "LOOKS SOOO GOOD!" on the game's trailer.

Two Left Thumbs called the trailer "excellent", and stated it had "top tier animation throughout". He also said that the game looks "totally in line with the series" and up to the standards of Completing the Mission, and also praised the game's music. He and most commenters stated that the game looks like a genuine game in the series.

The majority of the people in the Henry Stickmin community, including admins from this wiki, are looking forward to its release. The background of the Henry Stickmin subreddit was changed to the promotional picture for Attacking the Tower. The trailer also inspired fanart. A picture of a leek with Henry's yes face photoshopped onto it was jokingly posted on the subreddit and Strobe Discord server as an "Attacking the Tower Leek", a deliberate joke on leaking the game.

Characters

 * /Henry Stickmin/
 * /The Towerhead/
 * /The Lieutenant/
 * Center for Chaos Containment

Trivia

 * None of the events that transpire in this game are based on events that have occurred in real life. Any apparent relations between Attacking the Tower and real events or locations are purely coincidental and not intentional by the Strobe Interactive team.
 * Originally, the primary antagonists were meant to be a "Tower Division" of the Toppat Clan, but this was changed due to the team's decision to not have Henry interact with the Toppats before Infiltrating the Airship.
 * Before Attacking the Tower, the Henry Stickmin Wiki had a strict canon-only policy. Following the trailer going viral and receiving significant attention, wiki admin Kirby Bulborb thought it was too important to not include on the wiki, and added it to the wiki (while making sure people knew it was non-canon). He and other wiki admins would later reach a decision to allow other notable fanmade games to be added on the wiki.