Grotto Down by xtacobaco
Grotto Down is an endless runner, heavily inspired by DownWell. In Grotto Down you play as Jerry, a hard at work miner. Jerry uses his trusty pickaxe to get around as his body is not what it used to be.

Control schema: Point and click! - Jerry will follow your directions (Hopefully :P)
Grotto Down was made using Game Maker: Studio 2, Pyxel edit, Audacity and tons of caffeine.
Ratings
| Overall | 109th | 3.952⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 89th | 3.952⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 231th | 3.619⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 19th | 4.405⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 113th | 4.071⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 227th | 3.55⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 185th | 3.263⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 284th | 3.524⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 14🗳️ | 14🗨️ |
- This is how to gamejam! A nice simple game mechanic polished well
- good music and sound
- love the graphical theme
- fun play mechanic
- glad that you keep a high score; so many who try similar implementations didn't do this
Improvements:
- I really can't think of any improvements other than maybe a 'best run ghost' that a player can chase to try and beat their own time and progress.
Bugs:
- didn't find any
The thing I like the most is the minimalistic approach to the controls.
If you are going to continue to develop the game I would say keep the grappling hook mechanic but also add to it in some way as you progress... maybe limit your ability to use it at the start or make it able to blow up walls later... something like that.
Keep up the good work!
Really well executed and the mechanic really works. The "eye" ennemy is quite a nice idea to counter balance the obvious "slide along the walls" strategy, everytime I saw him while sliding that's where the game really shines and become a way more dynamic.
My only frustration would be the balance between such an agressive and dynamic mechanic (the hook) and how overall the game plays, it feels a little too calm sometimes. Now that I think of it, it is quite a difficult thing to balance without become plainly frustrating.
But overall it is a really solid game, I enjoyed it a lot. Congrats on your entry !
"Flying monsters" is a really nice addition, could have been more special enemies to add more challenge, but as an overall, very good entry!

Really good job!