DESCEND with CAUTION by LightningST



A silly platformer about exploring the depths of a mountain
You are an explorer traveling into the "depths" of a mountain. This platformer is more about falling than jumping. Every drop is an obstacle, and you must carefully control your movement if you want to make it to the bottom!
Controls
- Use the Arrow Keys or WASD to carefully descend, if you hit anything too hard you will die!
- Use Z to toggle the CRT effect, and X to toggle the music (please consider leaving the music on, as I spend a lot of time on it)
Tools
- Art: Aseprite, PAINT.NET
- Music: Ableton Live
- SFX: Recorded in Audacity
- Engine: Godot 4.4
~~For anyone wondering, my best time so far is 7:56.58 with 18 deaths~~
My best time is now 5:31.11 with 8 deaths, the video is in my LD profile

Join my discord if you'd like access to the Post LD playtest with some fixes, I will also be posting other demos there. You can scan the QR code or use the link in my profile!
| Link | https://github.com/LightningStorm0/ld57-depths |
| HTML5 @ Itch.io | https://lightning8113.itch.io/descend-with-caution |
| EXE in description | https://lightning8113.itch.io/descend-with-caution |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/descend-with-caution |
Ratings
| Overall | 31th | 4.019⭐ | 235🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 21th | 3.953⭐ | 235🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 130th | 3.406⭐ | 235🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 56th | 3.97⭐ | 235🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 92th | 3.778⭐ | 236🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 74th | 3.65⭐ | 229🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 62th | 3.41⭐ | 219🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 107th | 3.626⭐ | 228🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 26🗳️ | 28🗨️ |
also the level design was good with great introduction at first and a challenge at the deep levels.
great job!
around 1100m there is a hack to jump directedly into the water and escape a save point, that was cool lol.(Also too hard I cant make myself through that water cave that was painful
Also, what did you think of the dark matter section?
Loved the game! glad to be your 20th review :)
I made it! Man, it was hard! But I made it!
Very nice and accomplished game! Thank you!
2576m
I didn't want to add any air control for the jump, but I wanted more variety in obstacles. It's not a perfect solution, but I ended up lowering the acceleration to give more control of jump distance.

(I left the game in the background for dinner xD)
Boy I enjoyed this game! Perfect amount of difficulty, nice atmosphere and fun to play! Congrats!
Really, really enjoyed this. Controls were spot on. Difficulty scaled nicely. Sounds were really satisfying. Death effect was really enjoyable. Really liked the variety in the terrain, especially the end.
I agree that the first water/spike navigation was a big spike in difficulty. Maybe placing the checkmark right underneath it would help ease the pain?
Only feedback I have is the propelling rocks+long jump. These felt a bit unintuitive as far as how much momentum they gave based on their speed. I wasn't sure how to time the jump in order to get the boost. Maybe consider leaving them out, especially since they're a one-off?
Great job!
The propelling rocks are definitely a bit confusing. I wanted to add a tiny bit of upwards platforming just for fun, and that was what I ended up with. They don't actually push you, they are just moving platforms that add their current velocity to yours when you jump (or step off). While making them I had to slow them down and make the path they take longer to give you 0.4 seconds to make the jump opposed to 0.2 seconds. I definitely agree they could use another rework though.
When you say the first water/spike navigation, do you mean just the set of spikes underwater where they are on the ceiling and floor? And by right underneath it do you mean before or after, 'cause moving the checkpoint closer is a really great idea to make that part less frustrating!
Amazing job!
I also ended up basing the death off of the velocity direction and magnitude compared with the direction the surface you hit is facing, this makes it feel more fair, since sliding down a steep wall and hitting a flat floor are two very different things!
For the water/spikes– yes, the first part where they are on the sides and ceiling. It's the first place the game got difficult, I'd say, so I think a more forgiving checkpoint can go a long way without making the actual platforming too easy.
There were a few parts towards the end where I was really laughing/cursing the distance between checkpoints, but I think it was actually a really nice balance! Gotta work for it!
For some reason the simplicity of this reminded me of: https://daz.itch.io/apollo
Did any games inspire this?
I just downloaded your source code, I believe I can learn a lot from your design and implementation.

Also I feel like most players are going to get stuck here and not understand what to do but that's just a guess.

Edit: He's using sennheiser hd560s, so he's probably right. If I do a post-jam release I will definitely tone down the drums a bit.
This is very impressive! I actually liked it more without the music, I felt the subtle sounds went well with the constant fear of death :laughing: The launchers were the hardest part for me, I spent a long time doing it wrong and discovered there was a much easier way later on.
I went in expecting something much less polished. The gravestones where you die were a nice touch. I feel like you accomplished exactly what you were hoping for with this, well done.
no real complaints though gg
No action required
Really enjoyed the game! Thanks!
The music is soothing, art is charming, the gameplay itself is challenging just enough to be fun but not tedious. Checkpoints are well spread so you don't ragequit. One of the mest optimized games I've played so far. Well done :)
I threw my arms up in the air and yelled in victory when I beat the game. It took a bit to get used to the controls, but I really appreciated the finesse of the momentum based movement once I got a hang of it. I felt really skilled, and the levels were really well put together to suit the physics and control of the game.
The music was excellent, the visuals were really nice. Overall great variety of content throughout the progression of the game.
Crazy that this is a compo entry!!! I'm super happy to see it was made in Godot, I look forward to browsing the source code, as I've been wanting to get to know the engine a better.
Proper jam entry, you're going to score very well with this.


It's the furthest I can got man it's wayyyy too hard. I love the game design and level design. The level design seems to be carefully adjusted to give players the hardest experience. The audio is fit. I recommended this game to my team. Really fun!!!
Just challenging and frustrating enough to keep me spitefully playing to the end! Well placed checkpoints, no death felt insanely punishing. Well done.
Loved the gameplay, my only critique would be explaining the slow/air control zones a bit better. Lots of fun
Great level design, reminds me of Celeste, but the sliding is annoying.
IF you did more levels ( more mountains ? ) - would be cool to see a little air control even if not totally realistic.
Also, definitely some friction/sliding on the sloped walls like this section here would be amazing :scream:
.
Also, the walls do have a bit of friction, but I didn't have time to get it working perfectly. It's the reason you can slide down them without dying in the first place.
@sam-flemington @wo-ri-gou-le @akkadion @lipski
^You guys all mentioned the water section being difficult and annoying. I've removed the above/below spikes in favor of a checkpoint, and removed the water from the pointless and slow empty downward swimming sections. I'd love to get some feedback from you four on how effective those changes are!
@outish @bongard22 @leorean @arthur-tang
^You four mentioned the end section. While I haven't really decreased the difficulty, I've added an extra checkpoint, and reorganized the obstacles so the difficulty is more of a curve. I would love to see what you guys think of it now!
The QR to the discord is in near the bottom of the game page. There's also a link to it in my LD profile.
As an aside, the music is very good. Don't feel like you have to add an option to turn it off!
The difficulty escalation felt just right.it gets pretty difficult at the end but not to the point where it becomes frustrating
The level gimmicks and hazards are introduced really well, it all felt intuitive
The minimalistic presentation ahs a lot of charm, the CRT is a very nice touch

So many lovely details:
* The death 'ragdoll' is very satisfying
* Love what the 'graves' add to the experience
* Honing the jumps is very satisfying
* Funny to see spikes at the bottom of the tall death-drops
* It even has an underwater spikey level!
* Swapping between the 'smoke' physics and 'normal' physics at the end to prove your mastery - great stuff!
Great work with this - I had so much fun!
No, thank you!
This is really cool, extremely polished, great level design, great music, simple yet stylish graphics, amazing all-rounder! And thank you for that little pool at the end, I almost had an heart attack :)
Nice job! :thumbsup_tone1:
Oh, and here's my time. If I knew we were getting graded at the end I wouldn't have paused to chat with my friend on Discord, haha.

If I have to find a critic about it, I would just say that the first level was a little harder than the second or the third, so I would have probably switch them.
But that is just me being a prick.
The music was really nice, the art fantastic, and I love the CTR effect.
Please, continue to make games !
The only blemish I noticed is that the audio (SFX+MUSIC) is glitching a bit from time to time (HTM5 on itch.io), do not know if i'm the only one with this issue or not. Very nice job ! Congratz !
What browser are you on?
Really fun game. The level design is great I only died a few times :)
One minor thing: It would be cool, if you would see the timer ingame while playing not just at the end. Apart from that everything was done really well. The little gravestones are a cool visual choice. :)
I will probably add this if I do a full release, but I will probably make it hidden the first playthrough.
I loved the music and the overall vibe.
and honestly this game is better than most of the jam submissions haha
it shows that you dont need fancy graphics or fancy mechanics and that just getting a fun gameplay loop and polishing it works super well!
great job 👍