Indie Game Spotlight: Going Under

Ready to become an intern all over again? Going Under is a satirical dungeon crawler that explores the cursed ruins of failed tech startups. You play as Jackie, an unpaid intern in the dystopian city of Neo-Cascadia, whose assignment it is to fight monsters in the dungeons beneath the company campus, and repossess their powerful, business-enhancing artifacts.

We chatted with Caelan, who is the writer and programming lead, and art director Nick, about the wondrous world of start-ups and more. Read on!

What’s the story behind the game?

Caelan: Nick and I have always been pretty attracted to the idea of a satire game. I think our exact phrasing was “This will be a game we can throw all of our stupid memes into and call it content.” We’ve both lived our lives in Seattle, and we’ve seen it change quite a bit. We saw a great opportunity to make fun, not only of the startup culture around here, but also of what it does to the city, its inhabitants, and the people involved with those companies who aren’t the ones getting rich.

Are there any personal stories that inspired particular levels in the game?

Caelan: All the dungeons in Going Under are themed after different startup concepts that have blown up in the past decade or so. There’s a freelance labor app which enables you to hire a goblin to do your bidding, a dating site run by demons, and a cryptocurrency called “Styxcoin” which is mined by the undead. So while the concepts behind them aren’t really personal as such, they’re all based on premises that are very familiar to anyone making their way in the modern age. We can’t name names, obviously, but the nods towards real-world inspirations here aren’t exactly subtle. Subtlety is for cowards.

What types of weapons can we use?

Caelan: Pretty much everything you can think of! The combat in Going Under is supposed to feel like a goofy office brawl. Pretty early on, we realized we weren’t gonna get that feeling without letting the player pick up and use random junk they find lying around in the office. There are real weapons, such as swords and spears, but you’ll frequently find yourself scrambling around making use of whatever you can get your hands on. You might wind up tossing mugs at a succubus from behind a desk or smacking a goblin with a broom. Sometimes you can drive a car.

Which other games does Going Under take inspiration from?

Caelan: Between the physical interactions and the fragile weapons, Going Under’s combat could be described as a bite-sized, faster-paced Breath of the Wild. The weapons you find in the dungeon break quickly—you’re not meant to get too attached to them, but instead constantly be picking up something new, depending on the situation. The game also has rogue-lite elements, with dungeons generated procedurally each time you play, so we took a lot of design inspiration from popular games of that genre, such as The Binding of Isaac, Enter the Gungeon, and Dead Cells.

Out of all the characters in the game, who is your personal favorite?

Caelan: I think my favorite character is Marv—the Project Manager and Jackie’s direct supervisor. He’s a huge dickhead (can I say that here?), but like, the kind of dickhead who’s always smiling, and appears charismatic to most people, while you absolutely hate his guts. So it might be weird to describe him as my favorite but I just really get a kick out of writing characters that I know people are gonna love to hate.

If you could have any character from any cinematic or game universe appear in Going Under—who or what would it be, and why?

Nick: Definitely Fat Yoshi from the Super Mario Bros. series. Not regular Yoshi, you know the one I’m talking about. He’s cute like our game, he’s funny like our game, and his extreme girth echoes the themes of capitalist gluttony prevalent in our game. Nintendo, if you’re listening, I think we have an opportunity here to give this character the prestigious treatment they deserve. Our DMs are open.

Well, time to get to work! Going Under will be available on Steam and all major consoles in, like, a year. Yes, that includes Switch. Keep up to date by following things over on their website.

Indie Game Spotlight: Stratospiel

We’re exploring the colorful and mysterious world of Stratospiel in this week’s Indie Game Spotlight! Stratospiel is an upcoming turn-based RPG that follows the journey of a child who awakens on a strange planet with no memories and is faced with a vast array of enemies and the choice to either destroy or befriend them. The choices you make will impact the tone and outcome of this story. We caught up with Stratospiel’s designer, writer, programmer, and composer, Vaughn Haynes, to learn more.

Stratospiel is reminiscent of other turn-based RPGs like Earthbound and Undertale—was Stratospiel inspired by either? Were there any other games that inspired you during the development process?

It’s funny—I’ve been told by my friends that the game has a lot of Earthbound vibes, but I’ve never actually played any of the Mother games. I’ll definitely have to as soon as I’m finished making this game :) I can say with confidence that this was very much inspired by Undertale, though. I played that for the first time on my Switch back in February 2020 and was absolutely blown away. I’ve wanted to make a video game forever but always backed down when I saw how much of an undertaking it is. Once I found out that Undertale was primarily made by one guy, I was like, “yeah, I can do this,” and finally got to work learning how to code and all that fun stuff. Undertale has a huge influence on Stratospiel, with its defining mechanic—acting/sparing the monsters—being implemented here. In a broader sense, though, I’d say the Mario & Luigi RPG series has had the biggest influence. I played Bowser’s Inside Story as a kid, and I loved how fast-paced the battles were without losing that feeling of RPG strategy. I also liked how the items you used in battle were also used to manipulate the overworld. Stratospiel’s battle system is a happy marriage between those two games’ battle systems. Other games that influenced Stratospiel are the WarioWare and Ace Attorney games—absurd humor is my favorite, and that has definitely worked its way into Stratospiel.

What made you choose pixel art as the art style for Stratospiel?

Because it’s the cheapest! Also, because it complements the tone of the game as well. A lot of the humor in Stratospiel is derived from fun visual gags. The further away you are from the uncanny valley, the less likely it is that your brain will get weirded out and go, “Hey, this isn’t real!” and will be more accepting of the silly things happening onscreen and hopefully laugh along with the game. The same goes for the more serious moments, too. By having a simple art style, you’re forced to make each character as distinct as possible, which helps people form closer bonds with them, which is great for eliciting a powerful emotional response.

What types of enemies can we expect to see in the game? Can you tell us a little about the main antagonist and how they fit into the game’s narrative?

I’m really happy with the enemies. I think, aside from composing the music, designing the enemies has been my favorite part of making the game. The enemies you fight can range from cute, to silly, to fearsome. They’re all unique, with their own wants, needs, goals, likes, dislikes, etc. You’ll meet a cast of fun characters along the way who accompany you on your adventure, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. As for the main antagonist? You’ll have to solve the mystery to find out who that is :)

In what way will players’ choices impact the story of Stratospiel? Will the game have multiple endings?

Your choices impact two big things in the game: the plot and the tone. In terms of plot, I can’t really say too much because of spoilers, but the basic idea is that if you defeat someone in battle, then they’re dead. They’re out of the picture forever now. Their friends’ and family’s lives have been forever changed. But if you befriend them, then they’ll contribute their skills and resources, and that just may take you to different places. The same goes for tone—killing people is pretty dark, I would say. And of COURSE, the game will have multiple endings!!! I love it when games do that, so you bet I’ll implement that here :) You can see a little bit of that in the demo right now.

What do you hope players will take away from Stratospiel?

I hope players take away an appreciation for the themes that are in there. Each character and area has a central idea baked into them, and how you as a player interact with them determines their direction and arc. Like I said earlier, the game is very personal to me and is sort of like my own “shout into the void.” With everything going on in the world today, it can be hard to feel heard, getting drowned out in all the terrible things happening. Everyone has something to say, and this is my way of doing so. Choices in video games are nothing new, but having players think about the consequences of choices is something that I think games really excel at, and Stratospiel is no different. I can guarantee that fans familiar with the genre will be surprised with how things turn out!

Stratospiel will be available on Steam for Mac and Windows in Fall 2023. Follow @stratospiel for updates and other announcements, and check out the Kickstarter here!

This interview has been edited for clarity.