“This is just the beginning” is an arcade-style minigame roguelike where you navigate a gauntlet of fast-paced challenges — each inspired by some of the most iconic video game intros.

Every completed minigame earns you points, but every mistake costs you valuable HP. The only way to recover? Spend some of your hard-earned score at one of the shops scattered along your path.

Will you make it to the end? And if you do... how much of your score will survive the journey? Post your highscore in the comments!

This game was created for the Inbound Shovel Jam 2025, themed: “Just get started!

CREDITS

Programming — Jonas André
Art — Sebastian Würtz

Music and SFX:
“A Journey Awaits” by Pierre Bondoerffer (@pbondoer)
“Day & Night in Summerset” by edwinnington @wyver9
“Briefing” by wyver9 @wyver9
“Melancholy Melody” by Patrick Maney
“Questing Loop” by Patrick Maney
“Lines of Code” by Trevor Lentz
“Space Dimensions” by Matthew Pablo
“Game-Game” & “Green Forest” by Metaruka
“Life Pickup (Yo Frankie!)” by Blender Foundation
“NES Sounds” by Baŝto
“8-bit/NES explosion sound effecs” by TeamAlpha

All music and sound effects are available on opengameart.org.