Stairway to Silence
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
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 methodical, vertical side-scrolling Shoot'em up on a moving platform, made for Ludum Dare 48 (Jam), in 72 hours.
Made in solo and from scratch, originally for the Compo bracket.
It is infinite and gets linearly harder as you play. The difficulty soft-caps below 2km.
Try to reach at least a kilometer!
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...
Possible post-jam version could contain:
- The VFX I initially wanted to put in there, I was too short on time to scratch that particle itch of mine!
- Upgrade rework the way it was planned at first without scope cut, and its supply system
- Revenant music and an ambient track; having no music was intended but I still have mixed feelings about not having opened reaper this weekend :upside_down:
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Comments
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So:
1) You put the "instantly kill myself" button (K) right next to the "fire gun" button (J),
2) You gave the railgun limited ammo, but not an ammo counter, nor do you tell the player this until after they've gotten the first upgrade,
3) Can't hit "esc" to exit fullscreen,
4) You made it double-tap back to turn around, which would make sense... except that you can't fire while backing up,
5) Every action takes so, so long,
6) You expect people to pay $2.00 for this.
This game is less "horror" and more "horrible."
Shame, because it's a cool idea.
Thanks for the harsh but useful criticism!
1) Indeed I completely forgot to remove it
2) There is an ammo counter on the top left. I figured the player wouldn't immediately be using the railgun until ~300m so that's where I placed that part of the tutorial. Guess I should trigger it earlier?
3) I could add that, these three points are enough to justify a v1.3. While I'm at it, how was the difficulty ramp-up (spawn rate, mob HP), too slow? Too linear?
4) This is however completely intended as StS is not a run and gun; knowing when to move and when to shoot is everything, which is why I specifically highlight this point in the tutorial and recommend the player to destroy projectiles coming from the front with their sword.
5) Can you be more specific?
6)
^This is what I expect you to click on ;)
(This screen + the 2$ suggestion are itch's default thing)
If this really does bother you, I've deactivated the prompt.
Now don't forget that this is a jam game, made solo in three days, from scratch. Making something even remotely decent with such a scope is extremely difficult.
I was in a bad mood when I wrote that review, forgive me. I've actually fiddled with making a game so I know how much knowledge you have to have in order to pump something this good out in so little time. Like I said, the idea is good and the art and music are cool.
I only played through once, so I can't speak too much to the difficulty ramp-up. It seemed alright - if you get really good at the sword it probably helps. I used the railgun first because it insta-killed; on another playthrough I'd probably upgrade something else because you don't get enough ammo/I never knew when more ammo was coming. I actually didn't see the ammo counter, totally my bad.
You can leave the tipping system up. That was unfair criticism. If people like it they should throw you some money.
On retrospect, I don't mind the pace of the game too much. It just doesn't always feel justified... like maybe his spelunking suit doesn't look heavy enough for how slow every action is. It's like the movement/camera controls in the original Resident Evil... you get the feeling that it's done purposefully for effect, but also it's just so frustrating.
I like this game more than I gave you credit for. It just didn't solve my bad mood at the time.