GOING UNDER
Level up or die trying in this slapstick dungeon crawler
It can be hard to get your first foothold on the career ladder… especially when even entry-level positions are asking for masses of experience. This is a pain protagonist Jackie knows all too well; the ad said it was a marketing internship but unfortunately the newest employee at Fizzle, a carbonated drinks company, is set to work fighting monsters instead.
In the city of Neo-Cascadia failed startups don’t fade from existence, they sink beneath the Earth. Jackie’s bosses are keen to repossess these failed businesses’ assets and so you must thwack cursed colleagues down below with whatever office junk is lying around.
At college, Aggro Crab Games’ Nick Kaman and Caelan Pollock spent a lot of time surrounded by the hunger to become wealthy from one killer idea and wanted to make a game satirising this aspect of startup culture. Pollock tells us, “The monsters in Going Under’s dungeons all share that same hubris – they all believe that any day now they’ll shake off their curse and get rich. But that hubris is what led them to be cursed in the first place.”
Pairing roguelite mechanics with the grind of the gig economy is perfect. “When Jackie, the unpaid intern protagonist, is assigned the task of reaching the bottom of these dungeons, that represents a seemingly impossible chore for both her and the player,” Pollock says before reassuring, “But given enough time and practice, they’ll both triumph over adversity.”
CAREER BADDER
That means you’ll excavate dungeons and batter baddies with brooms, run over enemies with smart cars, and even hurl body pillows at dungeon denizens. Your slapstick armoury is inspired by other games that aren’t designed to be comedic but still have systems that facilitate comical moments, such as blowing yourself up or indulging some latent pyromania. Pollock admits, “When we design a new weapon or ability, we’re often thinking about the stupid situations it could get the player into before we even consider important questions like ‘How do we balance this?’ Like, screw it, just put the funny thing in […] The comedy always comes first.”
“THWACK CURSED COLLEAGUES WITH WHATEVER OFFICE
JUNK IS LYING AROUND.”