NOCLIP Pocket E36 - Above My Play Grade - Downwell

This podcast was recorded in “Arm Swing” style. Welcome back to
NOCLIP Pocket, where this week, we’re going to be talking about
Downwell, a Rougelike platformer where your goal is just to fall
all the way down to the bottom. Obviously this is more difficult to
do than it sounds, but even with as difficult as this game is, it’s
that simplicity that makes it stand out. You only ever need to move
left and right and press a single button, making the game
incredible easy to learn and putting you immediately into the loop
of getting better, rather than having to take the time to teach you
everything you are capable of doing. This also means that the first
area of the game never needs to be so easy as to be a tutorial,
meaning that your runs begin nearly as intense as the previous one
ended. Combined with the short length of most attempts and how
quickly you can restart and try again, it makes the game an
extremely frantic experience. We’re going to be talking about how
the audio and visual elements of the game play into making the
mechanics as smooth as possible, how the different powerups and
styles affect your decision making, and our overwhelming lack of
skill. Thank you for listening again this week! This is our first
Roguelike, though admittedly it’s fairly atypical of the genre
mechanically, and it immediately butted up against the idea of how
much of a game needs to be played before you can make a judgment on
it. For fans of the genre, how much time do you put into a
Roguelike before you know you like it? As a genre designed to be
difficult from the start in order to make the die and restart flow
meaningful, sometimes it’s hard to tell. Let us know in the
comments or on Discord! Next time, we’re going to be talking about
A Short Hike, which you could argue is more our speed.