ULTRA-INDIE DAILY: This is My Holey Hell.

Rating: 0
Author: Rosy Joan

Rosy Joan |

Jul 31, 2021

Hello, you glorious gluttons for all things indie horror! Are you just starving for the newest of the new, the most unknownest of the unknown? If so, you’ve come to the right place. Welcome to the Ultra-Indie Daily Dose! In this series, we’re going to pick a new game every day from an indie horror creator you’ve probably never heard of. No million-dollar budgets or factory productions. This is the space for the little guy with not but a developer toolkit and a dream. So if you’re down to roll the dice on something different, then stick around and check it out!

Holey Hell is a small platforming game made by managore for the Ludum Dare 48 “Deeper and Deeper”.

This game is a unique mix of 2D platforming and endless runner with the player running and jumping around the current tunnel layer to grab the key and return to the door to proceed a level. There’s a nice variety of enemies with unique projectiles and movements so you never get bored with the same jump timings.

The surface of each tunnel layer is alive and flowing with movement. Intersecting and offset waves morph through the floor. This makes enemy and player physics extra tricky to calculate but it also makes for some slick maneuvers. This does however make this game trickier to jump into and somewhat demanding. Being an endless game there are few moments for rest between the tension.

The pulsing of the tunnel walls and the game’s progression endlessly into its depth is the most visually spectacular part of this game. Based on the length I played, I didn’t perceive any changes to suggest that the game had a narrative progression. It’s not something to fault it for considering this was a game jam after all. Even without progression, the blinded advances the player makes further and further into the cave is itself a wonderful indulgence in morbid curiosity and obsession. The game itself isn’t styled to be typically scary but the implications of this deep living hole and an undying will to sink into it effortlessly evokes the hunger of abyssal horror.