LudumData

The Only Way is Down by Roka Josh

[raw]
made by Roka Josh for Ludum Dare 45 (JAM)

title.png

IMPORTANT NOTICE

A version of the game has been released after the deadline of Ludum Dare. This new version only fixes a few fairly large bugs listed in the changelog below and does not add any new content to the game. The fixing of these issues after the competition deadline goes with the rules of the competition, however, if you take issue with this I have left up the original files marked (OLD) so you can play the game as it was if you should desire. Thanks for your understanding.

Changelog: - Stopped story dialogue from appearing every level. - Stopped player starting with a gun on the second go at tutorial. - Menu settings carry over between runs. - Fixed gun layer issues causing an invisible gun. - Stopped tutorial stats from carrying over to start of a new run. - Balanced painfully loud audio. - Fixed shooting issue causing the player to float. - Changed tutorial colliders to stop the player from being stuck at times.

The Game

The Only Way is Down is an action, roguelike game set in the dangerous depths of Mars' expansive underground caverns. As an architect hired by Mars Mining Co. it's your job to figure out the mystery that has been plaguing the mines. After a strange occurrence at work, you are left without your stuff and trapped underground. Traverse through complex and winding cave systems, fighting off enemies and collecting items and upgrades to delve deeper underground. What lies at the centre of the planet? There is only one way to find out...

Our 6th entry into Ludum Dare and once again potentially a bit over-ambitious. The theme immediately made us think of roguelike games like the binding of Isaac and how you start with nothing but the base weapons and have to collect items and upgrades throughout the game, and we thought it would be great fun to try and make one of our own drawing influences from both games. Of all Ludum Dare games we have created, we believe this has the most promise for further development as roguelike games lend themselves well to more content being added to increase playability. Feedback is greatly appreciated both on bugs that need to be fixed and things you would like to see added wether items, enemies or other. Follow us on twitter if you want to keep posted about a post-jam version with features we didn't have time to implement within the competition hours.

The tutorial and story in the game can be disabled in the settings menu on the main menu if you want to start a quick run, however, if you have never played before I recommend keeping both enabled!

How to play

There is an ingame tutorial which is the best way to learn how to play, however here is a brief overview of the controls: - 'A' and 'D' to move left and right. - 'W' to jump. - Hold 'Shift' to sprint. - Hold or click 'Left Mouse Button' to shoot. - Press 'F' to drop dynamite.

Notice

Please don't spoil the game for others, there is a special surprise for those good enough to make it through all 3 areas and complete it!

Screenshots

All screenshots are taken from the first area and item room only to not spoil too much of the game!

1.png 5.png 4.png 2.png 3.png

Credit

  • RokaJosh: Programming & Art
  • Thomu: Art & Music

Links

  • Our Company Website: http://www.jagtekgames.co.uk/
  • Our Company Twitter: https://twitter.com/JaGTeK_Games
  • RokaJosh Twitter: https://twitter.com/RokaJosh
  • Thomu Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/thomuofficial

Tools

  • Unity 2019.1.12f1
  • Photoshop CC
  • Piskel
  • Ableton 9.5

Future Development

If you are interested in the further development of the game, then feel free to subscribe to the devlog here: https://theonlywayisdowndevlog.wordpress.com/

Youtube https://jagtek-games.itch.io/the-only-way-is-down
Youtube https://jagtek-games.itch.io/the-only-way-is-down
Youtube https://jagtek-games.itch.io/the-only-way-is-down
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/the-only-way-is-down

Ratings

Overall 443th 3.565⭐ 56🧑‍⚖️
Fun 537th 3.296⭐ 56🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 751th 2.935⭐ 56🧑‍⚖️
Theme 714th 3.132⭐ 55🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 556th 3.518⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Audio 414th 3.273⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Humor 468th 2.906⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Mood 358th 3.594⭐ 55🧑‍⚖️
Given 51🗳️ 58🗨️

Feedback

RetroBarbare
08. Oct 2019 · 20:55 UTC
A cool little game i liked it
🎤 Roka Josh
09. Oct 2019 · 08:51 UTC
@retrobarbare thank you for playing our game!
Alxertion
10. Oct 2019 · 18:14 UTC
Fun little game; liked the sound effects & the dynamite destroying the map :v: best of luck!
Koge
10. Oct 2019 · 18:29 UTC
Nice mechanic with the dynamite but tutorials didn't appear in the right order so i had to try all my buttons until i find the right ones.
There's also an invisuble collider in the first platform.
🎤 Roka Josh
10. Oct 2019 · 18:37 UTC
@alxertion Thank you for playing our game and we are glad you enjoyed it!
🎤 Roka Josh
10. Oct 2019 · 18:40 UTC
@koge Hi thanks for playing, we will try to fix these bugs. There is a collider at the start of the tutorial which is used to progress the tutorial messages and that sometimes doesn't trigger so the player just hits off it if that is what you are talking about?
Balance686
11. Oct 2019 · 20:59 UTC
Nice job on this! I dig the pixel work and the audio really sets the mood. I especially like the color choice in the subterra levels. It fits in well with the theme, is fun to play, and the cutscenes are a nice touch! I ran into that collider issue in the tutorial as well. Maybe just set it to being a trigger rather than a collider so you always penetrate it (triggering the message) and not holding the player back? Also I think in the spirit of start with nothing you should probably start with 0 dynamite as well. Great work! Lots of content for a short period!
🎤 Roka Josh
11. Oct 2019 · 22:05 UTC
@balance686 Thanks for playing and for the kind words! The collider issue has been fixed but will be held back until the first post-jam version is released as we have already released an updated version post-jam. And the whole dynamite system is due a change post-jam as currently we believe their isn't a great enough motive to use it. Once again thank you!
fiwon123
13. Oct 2019 · 12:41 UTC
Nice work, I liked the concept. I make a imilar game, but not working too well haha. Congrats dude
gamefive
13. Oct 2019 · 13:15 UTC
It's a great game. The weapon is too small to see. I think it'd be nice to have the weapon a little bigger. Is there any way to get up there? There are times when you want to go down because you see an enemy or a path at the top.
🎤 Roka Josh
13. Oct 2019 · 14:25 UTC
@fiwon123 Thanks for playing I'll check it out!
🎤 Roka Josh
13. Oct 2019 · 14:28 UTC
@gamefive Thank you for playing and I agree that the gun is on the small side! There are a few areas in the game that are only accesible if you use certain items, for example having more than 1 jump or lessened gravity effect.
TORT60091
13. Oct 2019 · 18:37 UTC
I really like the mood of this game. Great atmosphere! Good luck in further development!
🎤 Roka Josh
13. Oct 2019 · 18:47 UTC
@tort60091 Thank you for playing!
NinjaCatz
13. Oct 2019 · 19:03 UTC
Colors are very well chosen, and there are no "jagged" lines. But the font is a little hard to read (as if the word consists of letters of different registers: lower- and uppercases) But this does not interfere with playing!
CiaranW
13. Oct 2019 · 19:54 UTC
Nice atmosphere, was kinda creepy! I thought the controls could be a little awkward to use, sometimes the player acted a little strange - fun little platformer though! (Also, every level seemed to have a very similar layout, would have been good to have a little more variety!)
asfdfdfd
13. Oct 2019 · 19:56 UTC
Return my dynamite that you took from me between tutorial and first levels!
🎤 Roka Josh
13. Oct 2019 · 20:03 UTC
@ninjacatz Thanks for playing and for the kind words! For the future versions of the games, font is without a doubt something we will be changing and I agree the fonts style of random capitalisation can be hard to read.
🎤 Roka Josh
13. Oct 2019 · 20:05 UTC
@ciaranw I'm glad you thought it was creepy, you can thank @thomu with his amazing soundtrack for that. For next future version, a big player movement overhall is something we would like to do and due to time restraints there are only actually 12 different room possibilities, so that is something else we will be expanding on.
🎤 Roka Josh
13. Oct 2019 · 20:08 UTC
@asfdfdfd It used to be the case but we decided it wasn't fair that you got more dynamite if you played the tutorial before a run, it also used to occur that if you got hit in the tutorial you would remain damaged in a run so silver linings! :smile:
AndrewPatton
14. Oct 2019 · 15:21 UTC
Fun game, I also had the collider issue on first level but after that its fine. Marsquake cutscene was very cool.

Menu is very bright in contrast to game, and menu text is too big & does not contrast well itself. Ingame text was fine, though.

Not necessarily an issue maybe personal preference: Jump should be tied to space rather than W. Would be a lot of fun on a controller, too.
Sprotex
14. Oct 2019 · 16:58 UTC
Really nice game :smiley:

I personally think that I would like to zoom in the camera a little, to appreciate the art (because I think it is too small now). But that would hinder the players view a lot, which I struggled at first.

The enemies started to follow me very soon and I felt that the game was being very punishing. But after a few attempts I managed to beat the game.

I enjoyed the AI scripting, they were a little smarter than the simplest "follow player" but not too complicated that you couldn't run away from them. I was very frightened when in the later stages I was surrounded by enemies, trying to escape.

I laughed at the end bit, nice touch. :laughing: Overall a very enjoyable game. :slight_smile:
🎤 Roka Josh
14. Oct 2019 · 17:26 UTC
@andrewpatton I'm glad you liked it, as mentioned in a previous reply the font is something we will change and in the first full post-jam version, rebindable keys and controller support will be something we are looking into.
🎤 Roka Josh
14. Oct 2019 · 17:26 UTC
@sprotex Thank you for playing and I'm glad you liked the ending!
philomory
16. Oct 2019 · 00:28 UTC
I played it, but I don't really feel competent to rate it because each time I played I died to like the second or third enemy I encountered, so I didn't really get to see any of the content. I'm not sure if there's something I don't understand about the gameplay, if I'm just bad, or if some sort of performance problem on my elderly Mac made it harder than it was intended to be (the controls felt kinda unresponsive, but I interpreted that as being due to the low gravity giving everything a floaty feel).

Regardless, it looks and sounds pretty nice, so I'm rating in those categories, but I don't really feel I have enough information to rate in any other category.
🎤 Roka Josh
16. Oct 2019 · 09:48 UTC
@philomory Sorry for the problems on your end and thank you for rating the way you did. The game is rather hard, so that may be a factor however the Mac and Linux builds are untested as neither of us have the means to test them so there could be another issue. Once again thanks for your understanding!
kaeveris
18. Oct 2019 · 19:08 UTC
Very nice game! I like the sounds and I really like the graphics and artstyle! For some reason with restricted vision and enemies suddenly appearing I got scared a bit XD The mood somehow reminded me of an old game PP Hammer, where the enemies were chasing you XD (I also got scared then a lot)
🎤 Roka Josh
18. Oct 2019 · 20:54 UTC
@kaeveris I'm glad you liked it!
itsdanidre
20. Oct 2019 · 04:20 UTC
The levels were repetitive but the difference in artwork made up for it. It's simple and nice, but with all due respect...I'm not about to go over the entire game to make it all the way back down there. It'd have been better if there was compensation as in checkpoints, or extra health gained over time.

It's really easy to get hit by them, and controls are difficult.

With your right hand on mouse, and left on wasd, there's no space to hold shift to run. Spacebar (free for the left hand's thumb) would have been easier to use for running. I like this game too much, that's why I'm mad at it's lackings! >:[

Maybe even a score would be nice when hitting enemies. But it's just a 3 strikes you're out, see how far you can go game. :sleepy:

It's really fun! But that death after all that progress left a bitter taste in my mouth. :confused:
🎤 Roka Josh
20. Oct 2019 · 11:00 UTC
@itsdanidre Thank you for playing the game, I appreciate it may not be a genre for all but a key feature of the roguelike genre is permanent death so we believed it to be a must for the game. I agree about the repatativity as we ran out of time to add more levels to the world generation, so perhaps by increasing the difference between runs, the game would be better for those who do not like the permanent death side of it. Also in terms of the controls, it was the intention to use your left small finger to press shift as is common in a lot of games, although rebindable keys is something we are looking into for the first post-jam version. Our two main insperations were the binding of isaac and spelunky, which if you have played either are brutally difficult and reset player progress every run. Once again the roguelike genre is not for everyone and it is generally very hard, but we will take your criticisms into account to hopefully make a better and more user friendly version for the first post-jam release. Thank you very much.
Jonno
20. Oct 2019 · 13:36 UTC
Just finished playing. I managed to reach the third cavern before meeting my ultimate demise, but definitely had fun along the way. There feels like a nod to HERO in this with the space man exploring the caverns and using dynamite to reach other areas - so a game like that as a roguelike will be great to see. I look forward to seeing if you take this any further.
mharring
20. Oct 2019 · 14:14 UTC
Neat game! Unfortunately I ran into a situation where I couldn't continue. I had used all my dynamite to get down there, and then I couldn't retrace my steps to get out. Perhaps a jetpack of some sort to move back up would have solved the issue, or having unlimited dynamite (which would have been really fun to just blast your way through the caves). It also would have helped to have some sound effects for the enemies - having sounds elsewhere and not for them made it really stand out that they were missing. That said though, this was a fun entry and I can see a lot of potential here. Well done!
🎤 Roka Josh
20. Oct 2019 · 20:32 UTC
@jonno Thanks for playing, I'm glad you liked it!
🎤 Roka Josh
20. Oct 2019 · 20:34 UTC
@mharring This never should have occurded and is an oversight on my part when desigining the levels, and you can get items which increase the amount of jumps but a jetpack sounds good as well! Also the enemies do have sound effects but you have to be close to them for long enough for them to play so this will be tweaked as well! Thanks for playing!
Darkwing00Duck
20. Oct 2019 · 21:14 UTC
I liked the graphics, everything is well designed! Great starting cut scene. Please add a "repeat" button after death so that the game starts without a tutorial
🎤 Roka Josh
21. Oct 2019 · 08:50 UTC
@darkwing00duck Thanks for playing, we probably should have made it clear but you can turn off the tutorial and intro cut scene in the settings menu.
Bungalow
21. Oct 2019 · 09:33 UTC
Nice little game with cute graphics and tight, intuitive controls. Awesome job!
🎤 Roka Josh
21. Oct 2019 · 10:35 UTC
@bungalow Thanks for playing!
jkoftekian
21. Oct 2019 · 20:21 UTC
great game! i loved the cutscenes and the dynamite breaking walls. i have to admit, i repeatedly landed on enemies on big drops, and that often led to me dying pretty quickly. the most i was able to go was the subterranean level 2. hopefully if i have more time between classes i can try again and hopefully i will git gud lol.
🎤 Roka Josh
21. Oct 2019 · 20:52 UTC
@jkoftekian I'm glad you liked it, and the game is pretty hard!
sorlok
27. Oct 2019 · 13:17 UTC
Lots of fun, and pretty cool to see a LD game with an intro cutscene. Combat was pretty difficult, given how many enemies there were.
🎤 Roka Josh
27. Oct 2019 · 13:23 UTC
@sorlok Thanks for playing, and we probably spent way too much time trying to make that!
BrokenMirrorMedia
28. Oct 2019 · 05:42 UTC
This is a pretty fun game, and everything seems quite decently polished. One thing I wish is that on collision with enemies I wish there was some knockback in addition to iframes, since if they get stuck on top of or underneath you you can die quickly. The cutscenes were cool, and the atmosphere was pretty good, and would have been awesome with more ambient sound. Good work!
🎤 Roka Josh
28. Oct 2019 · 07:34 UTC
@brokenmirrormedia Hi thanks for playing, there is actually a brief invulnerability after you get hit but the actual eye frame length is super short so that is something we will adjust for full release!