Stairway to Silence by Talops

made by Talops for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

For Earth to yell and belch, it needs a mouth.

and now, it wants to scream.

Open agape, the chasm invites the most curious of all.

Of which, the tenacious yet reckless, soon discover...

...that the Earth screams in the most dreadful of silences.

You are a rescue corps officer sent to save whoever didn't come back from this hole, after one too many lost signals. Inside of your exoskeleton and standing atop this claustrophobic, moving platform with none but your arsenal to keep you company, you will have to fight whatever abomination crawls back from hell in order to survive.

Stairway to Silence is a difficult and methodical, vertical side-scrolling survival action game on a moving platform. Your mobility is limited, so make every decision count! It is infinite and gets linearly harder as you play. The difficulty soft-caps below 2km. Try to reach at least a kilometer! This was originally a Compo submission, but I decided at the end of the first day to switch to Jam in order to keep my scope intact since I liked this concept a lot.

Useful tips are available in the Readme.txt file if you want to take things to the next level.

THE ENEMIES

The Fly will harass you from above, its projectiles are difficult to deal with when it flies at a low altitude, do not get overwhelmed!

The Crawler spits in an arc, its projectiles are easy to dodge but hard to parry. It sometimes dwells a bit too close to the platform, right in range of your sword.

The Jumper is a bulky attacker who will deny you part of the platform with its powerful slash attack. Safety at a distance or up close and personal, choose your strategy wisely to deal with it!

You hear a voice...

(For those of you who have played the game extensively, I have a question for you. What does hell look like? I am waiting for your answer :smirk:)

Tools used: - Unity 2020.1 - Aseprite - A lot of Bfxr

+ MacOS & Linux	https://talops.itch.io/stairway-to-silence
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/stairway-to-silence

Ratings

Overall	184^th	4.023⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Fun	129^th	4.023⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	267^th	3.841⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Theme	48^th	4.409⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	317^th	4.205⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Audio	643^th	3.5⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Humor	1371^th	1.975⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Mood	468^th	3.841⭐	24🧑‍⚖️
Given		14🗳️	9🗨️

Feedback

stewthepoo

28. Apr 2021 · 11:17 UTC

I love this. Some of the aesthetics made me think of old timey Spectrum style visuals. ~ the dithering and white graphics on a black background.
The audio made it feel very gloomy and cave like.

todward

28. Apr 2021 · 15:49 UTC

Nice game with great graphics style. You have to get used to the intentional slow moving of the character. But had gread fun killing some revenants.

Dandala88

01. May 2021 · 04:47 UTC

The main character sprite was well done. I love the turn around animation and just the overall look. Where you lost me is the controls. With the aim being restricted to 45 degrees it can make it hard to hit the enemies. Couple that with the slow movement and if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time you are going to get wrecked. I totally understand the intention of wanting to create difficulty but I would have appreciated a bit more control over the character. Appreciate the entry!

Hojaverde

06. May 2021 · 12:48 UTC

Woow this is just a hidden gem for me. The art and atmosphere is very good. The gameplay is kind of slow but interesting and challenging. It has a nice variety of enemies and weapons. I felt very intrigued to see what comes next. This is a very solid entry.

GoogleFrog

06. May 2021 · 12:57 UTC

I love the way it escalates and the simple set of enemies and weapons.

3079

06. May 2021 · 14:18 UTC

Enjoyed the game even though my record was only about 1000 meters. The only complaint I had was the controls. I wasn't a big fan of having to hit a button twice to turn around because sometimes it just felt like some of my inputs didn't register correctly. I think I just felt that just because the controls are so slow and heavy and the inputs aren't buffered though. Still it adds to the clunkiness of the exoskeleton guess. Other than that, nothing to criticize. Great art, nice sound effects, the theme is obviously there and the game is a lot of fun to play. Great job!

zimny11

06. May 2021 · 15:23 UTC

Nice game! All: the art style, sound effects and concept are really well made. The design especially for the enemies is amazing! My only complain is controls. Also (I was playing on the Windows build) sometimes I couldn't turn right and tried to press all the buttons but nothing helped and I had to restart the whole game. Besides that, well done!

notApollogising

13. May 2021 · 18:32 UTC

I think it was fantastic, great mood and atmosphere, has a mystery to it. The controls are clunky, I don't know if that was intentional or not but it fit the game perfectly. It's like in old shooter games on the Playstation like resident evil where the clunky controls made it take precision and skill to survive. When I first faced the voice of death and died to him I felt determined to try again due to the mystery of the game. I got to around 1300m. It was an excellent game and you should be proud.

Shimonster

13. May 2021 · 18:42 UTC

The controls didn't feel very good and it was hard to dodge the bullets because of that. It would have also been nice to be able to aim the gun where you want. That way, it would be easier to kill enemies and it wouldn't get so hard. Other than that, the art was really nice and detailed.

lilkrit

13. May 2021 · 21:32 UTC

Very cool game... It's true that maybe movement is clunky, but damn. The game allows you to moonwalk while shooting skeleton lizards with a railgun.

I liked the 16bit vibe and the whole idea. GJ man, GJ.

Knatt

13. May 2021 · 21:34 UTC

Great game! I liked the graphics, the sounds effects fit well, and its fun to play once you get a hold of the controls. The aiming of the gun is a little awkward

Chris15686989

15. May 2021 · 19:21 UTC

Hi there,

The game is cool. It would be nice to have a piece of music, and a few extra sfx. I found a bit awkward to control the player. Overall, a decent try. Cheers!!!

Bobafett89

15. May 2021 · 19:52 UTC

This game is fantastic, i like "git gud" games, it is well balanced, also i like art and sound design. Also i found a bug, when you turning around if you looking up or down you get stuck and can't move until being hit, also i accidentally pressed "K" a few times and died(I was able to reach 2500km by the way). Fantastic job!

🎤 Talops

15. May 2021 · 20:45 UTC

@bobafett89 Well done reaching 2.5km and thank you for the review! Perhaps the bug you've found was the same @zimny11 experienced? I will try reproducing it and fixing it as well as removing the suicide button for v1.3.

LDJam user 250426

16. May 2021 · 00:22 UTC

For having a character that moves really slowly with limited space to move around, this is a surprisingly balanced and hectic game that rewards skillful play! I also love the art style especially for the enemies <3

Well done!

LDJam user 2331

16. May 2021 · 02:56 UTC

Once you got used to the controls, this was really good! Like others have mentioned, the suicide button was easy to accidentally press if you used J to shoot- each of my runs (one in the 2000s) ended from pressing that while still having plenty of health. :'( Apart from that, I really enjoyed each run prior to hitting the key, and appreciated what each enemy type brought to the table- I absolutely loved the design of the jumper in particular, visually and mechanics-wise. :D

dpmzi

16. May 2021 · 12:47 UTC

Lots of creative mechanics here! Being able to destroy projectiles was exciting. The limited ammo for the powerful railgun really added to the feeling of being alone in a deadly situation, along with the moody visuals. Well done on making a great entry!

ColeSlaughter

17. May 2021 · 06:03 UTC

[Thanks for submitting this to the stream!](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1023830637?t=01h18m35s)

I'm downright shocked you were in the Danger Zone when we played this. This was a super novel yet simple concept that was a blast to learn and get better at. It's pretty much exactly what I look for in a well-designed game. And with such awesome visuals and sound design as well, you've got yourself a jealous dev over here. 😤