Big changes with DTRH 0.0.3

Published on October 9, 2025

In my last update I told that Down the Rabid Hole was going through a complete rewrite. I am glad to announce that the rewrite is now complete, and therefore I am releasing a new pre-pre-alpha version of the game: version 0.0.3!

(By the way, said last update came just under 6 months ago! My previous record was 10 months, so that’s a personal best!)

So, what’s in this new version?

Let’s start with the bad news: there is currently no Mac support! I did some work to add Mac versions back, and I hope to eventually support Mac again. No promises, though, especially since I don’t have easy access to a Mac currently.

Fortunately the good news are plenty! To begin with, the game looks much nicer. I am now using pixel art for the graphics, and worked to make almost everything look at least half-decent (while the previous release had only placeholder graphics).

Screenshot showing the new pixel art for the game Down the Rabid Hole — Pixel art!

Several important details that were not properly animated (or animated at all) in the last release now look quite nice. I am talking about things like Armadillo drilling to the next stage, bomb throwing, the Tornado Attack, and Player and Armadillo deaths.

Screenshot showing the tornado attack in the game Down the Rabid Hole — The Tornado special attack!

Screenshot showing an explosion in the game Down the Rabid Hole — Armadillo going boom!

You can also see in these screenshots that we have a much nicer HUD. This still needs more thought, but the previous HUD was more like a bunch of debug texts. Now we have an initial honest attempt to have a real HUD.

The Loadout Screen is much improved. The previous version was really a mess, pretty much impossible to understand and use. This new version might not be award-winning yet, but it is way better.

Screenshot showing player stats in the game Down the Rabid Hole — Player stats in the new Loadout screen.

Screenshot showing player items in the game Down the Rabid Hole — Managing items in the much improved Loadout screen.

I implemented a new upgrades system, including the latest iteration of the Stats design (not to mention a much cleaner implementation, which shall make it easier to add new items to the game).

Finally, I simplified the design here and there, especially for embarking to and disembarking from Armadillo. The previous release had a the concept of “Armadillo’s platform” as an intermediate step between embarked and disembarked. I had reasons for that, but that was cumbersome. Now it’s all much simpler: just get in or out as you wish!

I hope you enjoy the changes! For the next release, I want to focus in expanding what the game offers in terms of enemies and items. Also hope to improve the character control.

Get Down the Rabid Hole at itch.io!

See ya! Down, down, and away!