Downwell is an tight vertical shooter in which no single part of the game is wasted. I’ve tried many times to explain exactly how smart its design is, as has Adam, but it can be hard to appreciate the beauty of a clockwork machine by someone describing cogs and pendulums to you. This recent video from GDC 2016 might help: its Downwell designer Ojiro Fumoto explaining how he designed the game around its “one key mechanic,” the gunboots.