Play Station Official Magazine - UK (2019-12)

PREVIEW

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.”

FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2020 / PUB TEAM 17 / DEV AGGRO CRAB GAMES

Above Jackie has a long road

ahead of her before she can

gain the rights and benefits

of a full-time employee.

Jackie, your pitiful unpaid

intern protagonist, is tasked

with cleaning up the lower

levels of startup Hell.

“THWACK CURSED

COLLEAGUES WITH

WHATEVER OFFICE

JUNK IS LYING AROUND.”