This game was programmed during Ludum Dare 48.
What is Ludum Dare?
Short version: You have 72 hours. Build a game!
You can find the original submission here!
DOWN - The Descend is a first person shooter that places you in a bottomless tower filled with weird creatures that thirst for your blood. You don't know how and you don't know why, but somehow you have to fight your way down...
The number in the top left corner tells you how far you have already descended.
There are 3 different modes of how reloading is handled.
- Manual
You have to reload manually (see the controls section for inputs) - OnEmpty
The weapon automatically reloads after you have fired your last shot.
Might be useful if you tend to forget reloading your weapon, but also makes you less flexible. - OnShootEmpty
The weapon automatically reloads when you try to fire it while its empty.
You can choose which mode you want to use in the game's settings menu (or the settings.ini file).
Of course when using any auto reload mode you can still reload manually.
There are pickups scattered across the whole tower.
They supply you with the health or ammunition you need to survive.
Apart from shooting projectiles you can also use explosions to damage your enemies.
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The barrels scattered around the arena explode when shot and deal heavy damage. |
| But beware, they also damage you, if you stand too close | ![]() |
| Additional bloodstains at the border of the screen indicate the direction from where you took damage. | ![]() |
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When taking too much damage you die. |
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Portals are a fast way to travel around an arena or evade enemies. Every portal (apart from the silver one) teleports you to another portal of the same color nearby. But keep in mind, that enemies could be lingering around on the other side. After using a portal it has a 3 second cooldown before it can be used again. As soon as the colored area is completely filled the cooldown has worn off.
| Action | Keyboard | Mouse | Controller (XBox / Playstation) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walk | W,A,S,D or Arrow Keys | - | Left Stick |
| Turn | - | Move | Right Stick |
| Jump | Space | - | A / Cross |
| Double Jump | 2x Space | - | 2x A / 2x Cross |
| Shoot | - | Left Button | Right Trigger (RT / R2) |
| Reload | R | Right Button | X / Square |
| Pause | Escape | - | Start |
| Restart (if dead) | Enter | - | Y / Triangle |
| Switch Weapon (Previous) | Q | - | Left Bumper (LB / L1) |
| Switch Weapon (Next) | E | - | Right Bumper (RB / R1) |
| Quick Switch (Shotgun) | 1 | - | - |
| Quick Switch (Rocket Launcher) | 2 | - | - |
| Quick Switch (Slingshot) | 3 | - | - |
| Take Screenshot | - | Back / Share | |
| Main Menu - Start Game | - | Menu Button | A / Cross |
| Main Menu - Settings | - | Menu Button | X / Square |
| Main Menu - End Game | - | Menu Button | Y / Triangle |
| Pause Menu - Start Game | - | Menu Button | A / Cross |
| Pause Menu - to Main Menu | - | Menu Button | X / Square |
| Pause Menu - End Game | - | Menu Button | Y / Triangle |
Apart from PlayStation and XBox controllers, every HID conform controller should work, but some may mix up some buttons.
This game was programmed using C# as a programming language, our own game engine, OpenGL 3.3 for graphics and OpenAL for audio.
The game comes with a settings.ini file that allows you to customize some settings. You can also access these settings from the settings menu within the game. If you're having performance issues you can lower the solid world resolution as well as the transparency resolution. Transparency usually has a way larger impact than the solid world. You can also lower the number of correctly sorted layers of transparency, which has an even greater effect on performance.





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