Rock Bottom

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Rock Bottom Title
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Inspiration

Soon after deciding to participate in the hackathon, I knew I wanted to create what I would describe as a “community ladder.” The idea of players contributing to each other’s progress by leaving checkpoints genuinely excited me. Progressing this way makes it feel like you are sharing your journey with other people rather than climbing alone.

At some point, we have all hit our own rock bottoms in life and had to climb out. Along the way, we rely on friends and family as veritable checkpoints who help us push forward. I wanted to capture that feeling in game form.

What It Does

Rock Bottom is a vertical climbing game where you push as high as you can and embrace the many falls along the way. Each fall is an invitation to learn, regroup, and try again until you finally reach the top.

Along the climb you will see orange player flags. These act as checkpoints, but only after you faceplant from a sufficiently hard fall. You can also place your own flag at any time (one at a time), which becomes a checkpoint for other players. The higher you climb, the fewer flags you will see, making the ascent increasingly perilous. Placing a flag in a dangerous location helps ease the pressure for players who have a long way to fall.

How I Built It

The game was built in GameMaker, with passive multiplayer elements managed through Reddit’s API. All art and animations were drawn by me in Aseprite using a custom three color palette that I designed specifically for this project.

Challenges I Ran Into

There were many challenges during development. A bug between GameMaker and Reddit (outside my control) made iteration painfully slow and forced me to create a workaround just to keep momentum. This put me behind schedule and led to many all nighters fueled by peanut butter M&Ms.

As the deadline approached, the stress and anxiety mounted. I was genuinely trembling while finishing everything on February 12th. It was one of the most intense development crunches I have ever experienced.

Accomplishments I Am Proud Of

I am especially proud of the pixel art and overall visual direction. I challenged myself to stick to a strict three color palette of my own making, and I love the ominous mood it creates. Working within that limitation while keeping a low resolution felt creatively rewarding and allowed me to push character and creature animations further than expected.

I am also proud of the community driven mechanic. Seeing other players’ flags scattered throughout the climb gives the world a shared history. I believe this system works well already and has a lot of potential for future expansion.

What I Learned

I learned that pulling all nighters and skipping meals is exactly as unhealthy as it sounds. If I ever feel like that level of crunch is “necessary” again, it is a strong signal that I should reconsider the project scope.

Technically, I learned that convenient built in helpers like GameMaker’s move_and_collide can be great for prototyping but may cause problems when polishing later. By the end, I replaced most of it with my own movement and collision handling, which gave far better control. A few edge cases still use the old approach and can cause occasional issues that I plan to fix in future updates.

What’s Next for Rock Bottom

There are several bugs I want to resolve as soon as I am able to update the game, to make the experience as polished as possible. The title screen, tutorial, and other non gameplay scenes were added in a rush near the end, so those will likely receive a full overhaul.

I also want to deepen the community aspect. One idea is to show players who helped you along your climb, and who you helped in return. Another idea is a flower currency awarded whenever someone uses your flag as a checkpoint. It would be a simple, feel good progression system without affecting gameplay balance.

Finally, I am considering expanding the vertical height of the world and adding more difficult alternative routes to the top for players seeking an even tougher challenge.