Down the Shaft
A downloadable game
Welcome to the mines
War, death, pestilence, and famine are words one can use to describe our world as it is now. While this is damning for us humans, something grows stronger in the shadows. Waiting, just waiting, for their opportunity to strike and be freed of their chains.
For centuries, this place has been guarded from the peeping eye. Hidden in plain sight to protect everyone on the surface from what lies below. Now it's your turn to work the shift and face the horrors down the shaft.
Your first shift
Welcome to the mines, rookie. Let's hope you survive your first day.
You knew when you signed. You kept repeating it to yourself: "This is no normal mining operation".
You know your duty. You know why you are here: "I'm here to protect everyone else outside this shaft from the Elder God."
You know what will happen. You know it all too well: "I won't make it out. But they won't either."
Your job as an engineer is to keep the machines running. You will have to keep them on as long as you can. Fail to do this, and the god will get off its slumber in no time, prematurely ending your shift. Fix machines, get new upgrades, and defend yourself from the creatures that lurk in the mines.
Your shift ends at 06:00 AM. That, of course, if you survive that long.
The clock is ticking
The machines are rumbling down there, but the noise of creaking metal and twisted flesh is not everything audible in the mine. With the recent tragedies out in the world, the Elder God is more active than ever, and so are their obedient minions. Don't let them wake up, or the whole world will be gone in mere seconds.
Midnight is approaching. If the clock reaches it, doomsday is nigh. Your survival is pointless if you let the Elder God unchecked. Even surviving the shift might end up killing you and everything else. Keep all the machines working at all times, even if that means taking risks. Learn from your mistakes. Adapt to your enemies. Be a better worker in the shaft.
Maybe, just maybe, your effort won't be as pointless as it might look.
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Bienvenido a las minas
Guerra, muerte, peste y hambruna son palabras que se pueden usar para describir nuestro mundo tal como es ahora. Mientras esto es terrible para nosotros los humanos, algo se hace más fuerte en las sombras. Esperando, pacientemente, su oportunidad para liberarse de sus cadenas.
Durante siglos, este lugar ha estado escondido de ojos indiscretos. Oculto a plena vista para proteger a todos en la superficie de lo que yace debajo. Ahora es tu turno de trabajar el turno y enfrentar los horrores [i]del pozo[/i].
Tu primer turno
Bienvenido a las minas, novato. Esperemos que sobrevivas a tu primer día.
Sabías a lo que te estabas metiendo cuando firmaste. Te lo repetías a ti mismo: "Esta no es una operación minera normal".
Conoces tu deber. Sabes por qué estás aquí: "Estoy aquí para proteger a todos los demás fuera de este pozo del Dios Antiguo."
Sabes lo que va a pasar. Lo sabes demasiado bien: "No saldré de aquí. Pero ellos tampoco."
Tu trabajo como ingeniero es mantener las máquinas en funcionamiento. Debes mantenerlas encendidas el mayor tiempo posible. Si fallas en hacerlo, el Dios despertará de su sueño, terminando prematuramente tu turno. Repara máquinas, obtén nuevas mejoras y defiéndete de las criaturas que acechan en las minas.
Tu turno termina a las 06:00 AM. Eso, por supuesto, si logras sobrevivir tanto tiempo.
El reloj sigue avanzando
Las máquinas siguen retumbando en el pozo, pero el ruido del metal crujiente y la carne retorcida no es lo único audible en la mina. Con las recientes tragedias en el mundo exterior, el Dios Antiguo está más activo que nunca, al igual que sus obedientes secuaces. No permitas que despierten, o todo el mundo estará perdido en cuestión de segundos.
La medianoche se acerca. Si el reloj la alcanza, el día del juicio está cerca. Tu supervivencia es inútil si dejas al Dios Anciano sin control. Incluso sobrevivir el turno podría terminar matándote a ti y a todos los demás. Mantén todas las máquinas trabajando en todo momento, incluso si eso implica tomar riesgos. Aprende de tus errores. Adáptate a tus enemigos. Sé un mejor trabajador en el pozo.
Quizás, solo quizás, tu esfuerzo no sea tan inútil como parece.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $4.66 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Version 1.2.140 days ago
- Version 1.143 days ago
- Launch!45 days ago
- Pre-launch fixes and Spanish supported56 days ago
Comments
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Love the idea and vibe! It was a bit rough at first and I died to almost every enemy before being able to deal with them, but the backstory and how everything looks is great!
I didn't get to the end yet but I think I've seen all the threats and gameplay elements unless there are surprises later on, so here are some thoughts:
- The first time dealing with the voyeur is a bit awkward, I was still looking around and reading notes when it appeared and killed me.
The guides you unlock are nice but having the first enemy needing you to not move and look at it makes for a pretty likely and confusing first death when it appears so early.
- Also with the voyeur, I died multiple times because it spawned right on top me. It wasn't instant but it's like the game didn't register me looking at it from being so close?
- I only played on the "intended" difficulty but the enemy appearances feel a bit too front-loaded. They all become active in pretty quick succession and in less than one in-game hour.
It might be more interesting if it was more progressive throughout the night?
- Control rebinds would be nice. I have an azerty keyboard, I can switch it to a qwerty mode but I have to switch back everytime I get the code writing mini-game as the letters are changed around overwise.
- The more or less mini-game could use a bit more clarification.
It's kinda difficult to see which numbers you have selected, the unselected numbers should have a darker colour and become brighter when you select them. Right now they get slightly darker when you click on them?
- The code writing mini-game doesn't feel worth bothering with compared to the other two.
I don't type too fast but even if you do, I think the other two mini-games would still be much faster to complete, making the typing one not worth doing.
- Unless I've missed something, you can't skip the game over cutscene, which makes restarting another attempt much more annoying since you have to alt f4.
Hello! Thanks for all of this awesome feedback! I'm so glad you liked it.
- Yeah, I'm getting some feedback about Voyeur, and I might rework it a bit. Since it was the first, the testers and I got used to it, so we missed-calibrated it.
- About the pacing, yeah, I'm fixing the enemy appear in the next patch. I'll try to make it so they appear more or less every hour :)
- The mini-games cover different aspects of gameplay, and yes, in intended difficulty you might be "picky" with the puzzles and still win, but in hard (Which is a Steam Achievement) you might not be able.
- And yeah, the skip button is awaiting the next patch.
Thank you so much for all this valuable feedback. I'll make sure that in a couple of days, everything will be fixed!
Just played through the update and all the changes seem good!
I managed to get to the end on my second attempt, first run died to the voyeur after I didn't spot it quickly enough.
It definitely feels better while still being stressful to do deal with.
Outside of that, some things that I came across/ thought about:
- Sometimes, the yellow highlight on interactable items stays and you can see it across the map. It disappears when you interact with it again.
Not sure about the cause, but both times it happened was when I stopped what I was doing and quickly left.
- After 3am, the angel completely disappeared and the cyclops only appeared once. Not sure if I was just lucky or if something wasn't working correctly?
- What do the upgrades do exactly? I got all of them through the run but it still felt pretty rng as to which area would need repair next.
- The lore mentions things happening the longer the machinery stays off, haven't tested myself but is it a gameplay mechanic or flavour text?I had an area with an upgrade active that I had to go to multiple times in a row while others were fine.
Could be interesting to have some environmental obstacles like that appear around later during the night.
I'm so glad you enjoyed and got to the ending!
About the stuff you point out:
- I've notice that once during all the playtest o-o I could not replicate it, so I don't really know. I'll check what you said.
- I think you were really lucky! There's a chance that every time a machine breaks one of the two (If able) will spawn. But there is a small chance of neither appearing! I think that's what happened.
- The upgrades reduce the amount of "punishment" for keeping a machine in a broken state. They reduce the rate at wich the clock advances towards the bad ending.
- And yeah, it's flavor text and lore. In Shaft-10 (The free game I launched with DtS) there are some more lore pieces and even some references to the eyes, for example. But yeah, mainly flavor text in there. In upcoming games within this lore might not be tho... :)