Hi! This is Game Maker's Toolkit, I'm Mark Brown
So a few months ago I made a video about controllers, and when I said "there is incredible elegance
to be found in games designed around a single mechanic" I showed this game.
And way too many people didn't know what the game was.
So let me introduce you to Downwell: a stylish and brutally difficult arcade game, about
plummeting down a randomly generated well. And it's also one of the most elegantly designed
games I've played in a long time.
And the reason I say that is because almost everything in the game serves two, or even
three purposes.
The game's creator, Ojiro Fumoto, was inspired by a Shigeru Miyamoto quote that goes "A good
idea is something that does not solve just one single problem, but rather can solve multiple
problems at once" - and boy, does Fumoto run with it.
Take the jump button. Downwell was made with mobile in mind, so Fumoto only wanted three
buttons: left, right, and jump. But because the jump button can do something else when
you're in mid-air, that same button also fires bullets out of your boots.
These gunboots serve multiple purposes as well. Not only do they kill enemies, and not
only do they carve paths through blocks, but they also slow your descent and help you maneuverer
in mid-air.
Enemies are, well, enemies. They try and kill you from all different directions and you
can blast them with your gunboots. But they also serve two other purposes.
Your gunboots have a limited charge, but if you land on an enemy's head you'll instantly
reload. And this will also start a combo chain: bop a whole bunch of enemies in a row and
you'll get special bonuses like extra gunboot charges and more gems.
Landing on the ground also serves a couple functions: it reloads your gunboots, and it
finishes off your combo.
The game is full of gems, which are used for a bunch of different things. Gems collected
during that run can be spent in shops, and your overal collection of gems is used to
unlock new game modes and visual styles.
Plus, collecting lots of gems in quick succession unlocks "gem high" mode, where your bullets
are bigger and do more damage, for as long as you continue collecting gems.
These sub rooms give you a chance to breathe - especially if you're in the middle of a
frantic combo. But they also let you pick up some more gems or, sometimes, get a new gun.
If you've been paying any attention so far, you won't be surprised to learn that the gun
pickups serve two purposes. They not only give you a new weapon to play with, but the
pickup also boosts either your gunboot charge or your health. And getting health not only
boosts your hit points but, if your health is full, starts building up towards boosting
your max HP, too.
You can also look at things outside of the main game. The styles, which are alternative
ways of playing, make the game both easier and harder to play. Boulder style gives you
more HP but fewer upgrade choices. Arm spin style gives you more gun upgrades but shops
are now ultra rare.
And the aesthetics don't just give the game a quirky, retro style but also make the game
immediately readable at 100 miles per hour. Foes and obstacles show up in red, and enemies
can also be all red if you can't jump on them, or just red on the bottom if you can.
So, as you can see, pretty much everything in Downwell is working at least two jobs.
And this carries some substantial benefits.
For one, Downwell can offer a huge amount of depth with, essentially, half the number
of moving parts. It doesn't need separate buttons for jump and shoot. It doesn't need
a reload button or ammo crates. It doesn't need separate items for gun, health and charge pick-ups
And this means you don't need to learn loads of obtuse systems and have to figure out what
everything does because as long you understand the basics, the rest will flow.
And it also allows Fumoto to nudge you towards playing Downwell in his intended way. Which
is to play the game at top speed, turning the levels into a barmy dance of jumping from
one enemy to the next.
So if you collect gems to use in the shop, you'll also enter gem high mode which encourages
you to act fast and quickly collect gems to keep that meter going. And if you bop on a
few enemy heads to reload your gun, or because these jerks turn into evil nightmare skulls
if you shoot them, you'll want to keep doing this to get a bigger prize, which makes you
go faster and take more risks.
These combo systems also act like a difficulty mode, without making you select it from the
main menu. Want to make Downwell more difficult? Try getting a combo over 20, 30, 40 points.
And they make the early levels more fun on your 50th go. Oh, Downwell is a roguelike
with permadeath. Did I forget to mention that? It's basically Spelunky:
four different worlds and then a boss. And like Spelunky, the first world eventually
becomes so easy that it's a bit of a chore to work through. But in Downwell, you can
use this first world to practice your combo skills, and build up a nice stockpile of gems
and goodies for later stages.
Fumoto also wants you to make tough decisions and, again, this is reinforced through the
game's dual purpose design. You might not want to pick up the unpredictable noppy weapon,
but you do want the health boost that comes with it. Hm! The styles come with tricky trade-offs,
as do the upgrades collected between levels. Making your bullet casings deadly sounds good,
but it could screw up your combo game.
Downwell shows how a game can do a lot, with a little, as long as every part of the game
is working over time. And it shows how a game can provide a lot of depth without being overly
fussy and complex. And so all that, is why you really should have heard of Downwell.
Thanks for watching. Game Maker's Toolkit is funded entirely through Patreon. Thanks
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