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From Tartarus They Came's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Metroidvania | #32 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Overall | #41 | 2.659 | 2.659 |
| Sensory | #43 | 2.818 | 2.818 |
| Enjoyment | #48 | 2.545 | 2.545 |
| Execution | #53 | 2.273 | 2.273 |
Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Engine
Unreal
Team/Developer
Matt Chandler, Áiron Bruce, Alex Norfleet, Spencer Pham, Noah Jezyk, Jonathan Rhee
External assets
A Modular Gothic Fantasy Environment -https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/modular-gothic-fantasy-environment MuzzleFlash VFX Pack - https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/muzzleflash-vfx-pack Battle Royale Game FPS Sound Effects - https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/battle-royale-game-fps-sound-effects 150 Impacts and Hits VFX Packs - https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/50-impacts-and-hits-vfx-pack SCI-FI GUNS & GEARS SOUND EFFECTS - https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/high-tech-weapon-gear-sounds 3D model Classic toy train - https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/vehicle/train/3d-model-classic-toy-train Input Prompts Pack - https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/input-prompts-pack Dreamscape: Stylized Environment Tower - Stylized Open World Environment - https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/dreamscape-nature-tower-stylized-open-world-environment Basic Pickups VFX Set (Niagara) - https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/basic-pickups-vfx-set-niagara Photo by Şiba - https://www.pexels.com/photo/facade-of-a-church-7524059/
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Comments
The visual are nice, the environment is fitting. The boss fight are cool too, tho it pretty easy to beat. The map looks big too which is nice.
Really wished that I could play more but the game doesn't seem to working properly at the moment. I see the control said tap c to use grapple but I cannot use it in both the movement playground and the main game. Also evertime I get the yellow key, the game will crash very soon. The furtherest I can get is getting the scythe upgrade.
Two more thing, the wall jump upgrade will reappear after getting the yellow key, and the enemies didn't seem to deal any damage.
But still, I can see this game being really interesting after some bugfixing. Anyways, nice game.
Hope this helps
Hey Dan, thank you so much for the detailed feedback! I'm working right now to fix the issues with the build and submit it to SMVM, but not really expand it. First things I'm gonna do today are fix the game page, and add some juice to the save sign like you suggested.
This video was really helpful, thank you again!
No problem!
Hey Dan, now that uploads are allowed again I've uploaded a new build that I believed has addressed all the major issues. If you're interested in giving this a second look, your feedback would be really appreciated! I really appreciate how much work you put in to not only seemingly rate every submission, but also do it with video. Thank you so much for helping all the teams out!
No problem! I enjoyed doing it. I've got a few things to take care of, but I'll definitely give the new build a go!
I like the concept and level design.
the game looked very fun but I couldn't go very far because the game crashed.
Here's an issue that I found.
the basic enemy not attacking and can't do any damage to the player.
I got an error and the game shut down after I got a scythe (at the train after killing the boss)
The game crashed after I started the game for the second time and the popup show "LowLevelFatalError"
Overall the game has the potential just needs a polish and bug fixing.
Looking forward to the post-jam.
Thanks for the feedback and giving us a try Falass! I'm working on trying to figure out what exactly the cause of the crashing error is and get a fix uploaded as soon uploads are unlocked! Really sorry it cut your playtime short.
I wanted to get to the part where i get the grapple upgrade cuz that mechanic seems pretty funny in the gifs (and as you know i made something similar for my game), but the game crashed 3 times on completely different sections and always had to start right from the beginning so i got sad about that. This was a really ambitious project for a month jam, the 3d scenarios look amazing but in my personal opinion it would have been better to polish the gameplay and the character controller more before adding that much visual polish. I am not gonna mention the combat for obvious reasons, and because i think the platforming and exploring alone would have carried the game if the character was a bit more satisfying to control. If you plan on making this a full release, definitely go for it.
Hey Boqui, thanks for the honest feedback!
If you're still interested in giving the grapple a try, if you download the first file 'Movement Playground' that's a stripped down, greybox room with just the movement upgrades and a place to try them. I havent seen the movement playground crash, it seems like just the normal map. I'd love your opinion on how the grapple and swing feel and any other suggestions you might have for making a more satisfying controller!
I downloaded the playground. Tried pressing C on my keyboard but it wouldn't work so i had to use a gamepad to test it. I love that the grapple feels kind of elastic/bouncy, the aiming was a bit weird cuz sometimes it locked on to walls i didn't want to.
Now keep in mind that what i am gonna say next is based on my personal taste with 2D platformers so someone else might disagree. And now that i mention it, i realized your game controls would make more sense to me in a 3D platformer.
First the speed upgrade i think wasn't necessary, but the base acceleration from 0 to top-speed should be a little bit greater. I would have liked the minimum jump height to be lower, cuz initially i don't feel much difference between just tapping the jump button and holding it. I don't know what to say about the jump upgrade cuz jumps feel floaty but at the same time feel better than the normal jumps (maybe because there is more difference from tapping/holding the button but i don't know).
The main problem right now is wall jumping, it instantly sticks to walls before i have reached maximum jump height, and instantly starts sliding down, also requires the jump input to be super precise or else it won't jump from some small walls (input buffering could help with that).
Then there were some specific parts were it wasn't clear what was just decoration and what was a platform i could stand or a wall but there weren't many. And lastly coyote time and input buffering, these two are subtle but really necessary. Hope i could help.
This is incredibly helpful, thank you for the detailed suggestions Boqui! I'm planning to implement all of these.
I loved the grapple and swing mechanic! Super fun to play around with!
Really cool game!
Thank you very much Feared Fox! I spent a lot of time bug fixing and trying to make the grapple and swing feel good. Still not perfect but it makes me happy to hear you liked it!
This is some gourmet shit right here I'm not gonna lie to you. Yeah there's bugs everyone else has said that (if you want a list of what I found I can provide) but what really stands out to me is the theming on everything. I love the art direction! This game has character, it's got soul. That's not easy to do. Even down to simple things like smoke break signs being save points and the tutorial modal having a gear on it, the whole environment just feels great. I can get behind a game that might be bumpy at times if it's themed like this. I also appreciate having a stripped down movement demo that I could play to get used to things. +1 for that.
Thank you very much Dozambique! I'm working on fixing a lot of the bugs and submitting it for Super Metroidvania Month, so I hope you come back! If you liked the touches on the tutorial prompts you'll love the rest of the UI. Alex's UI work is amazing, but unfortunately we ran into a packaged build only error that made it not work and I couldn't fix it in time for submission.
it's pretty clear ya'll ran out of time so i'm not gonna beat a dead horse there but just want to mention the bugs i ran into were the same as others: enemies didn't attack, the music stopping and starting, etc. i feel like maybe this was an issue of scope? maybe 2d and a smaller map would have helped but it's hard to say. it feels very castelvania for sure and i enjoyed that since most of the games in the jam have been much more metroid or hollow knight than vania. please though, don't make it to where you have to switch between mouse and controller. there should be something in unreal that will autograb focus when a certain piece of ui comes up on the screen. in godot it's like one or two lines of code but i'm not familiar with unreal. i still enjoyed this even given the bugs and i liked the bit with the train, that was fun. good luck to ya'll!
Hey Stealthnachosgames, thanks for the detailed feedback! I have the UI bug finally fixed, so the HUD, main menu, pause menu, tutorial prompts work and with controller too. Just waiting for uploads to unlock now and push a new build with fixes. I'm glad you enjoyed your time despite the bugs!
i will take another look when ya'll upload the new version!
Very castlevania-esque.
The map was interesting to explore, but other than that, a lot of things felt like they need a lot more polish.
The wall jump was a bit uncomfortable to use on keyboard, and the lack of any grace period before beginning to slide, combined with the relatively fast sliding speed made it a bit frustrating.
Enemies - other than the boss guarding an upgrade - don't seem to attack or do any contact damage so I can't really say anything about the combat.
The train taking you to another section was surprising, but fun. The ruined tower was fun to explore, but the intended path, and what constitutes as a platform was very much a guesswork.
Hi GDeavid,
Thank you very much for your specific feedback! What do you think would feel good for a grace period before the slide begins? The character stays at the contact point for a moment before beginning to slide down?
There is certainly a lack of polish right now, after fixing the bugs that broke the UI and music I'm hoping we can get some more polish and juice into some aspects of the game.
Thank you very much for your time!
Enemies were functional but broke down in the shipping build, we were already on our extension fixing other bugs and couldn't see it until it was too late :(
The tower was hard to guess as I feared... The brighter areas were supposed to be platforms/landable in general, but yeah, I prioritized the looks there.
Next time, for sure we're gonna use really specific assets for platforms and traversable space.
I am a bit confused. Why are there two downloads?
Update: Okay, one of them was the tutorial. The other one is the game-.
As to feedback: The tutorial messages should be closable via gamepad. It really ruins the flow to put away your game pad and grab the mouse just to close the window. And a map would go a long way. I got lost after getting the blue key.
I also encountered a couple of bugs. The music would turn on and off again over and over. Also, I could pick up the power ups multiple times.
One can tell that you run out of time for this one. But I sense potential here. I hope you keep working on it post-jam.
Hey Pandoria Falls, thank you for your specific feedback, I plan to address all of these points.
Do you remember when you got the blue key? Originally it was supposed to be the next to last mandatory upgrade, but a slight change to the level design made it so you can get it FAR earlier just after the dash.
I'm wondering how common that is. If you got the blue key before the scythe you got it early. I think potentially keeping the sequence break is cool, just would need some tweaks.
Thank you again for your time!
Oh, sorry, I do not remember that.
After an extra 5 mins of downloads and having to restart computer to play. The game had an over kill of tutorial stuff that was more confusing to me then helpful. The music kept coming in and out, and it was hard to understand I had to go back up, after basically just falling down to start. I am not sure if its fair to rate because my computer had a hard time trying to run the game after all the installs and graphic updates.... maybe I should come back on my high performance MAC and see if I have better luck playing what looks to me a much more extensive game than I could bare with the lag and such. Not sure if its available to also play on MAC but will come back to this later....
Sorry looked interesting, just a lot hassle getting it going from what I tried
Hey there, thank you so much for (trying to) play our game!
Yeah, we went in with a lot of ambition, and in the end we didn't have time to fix these errors (even with an extension!!)...
There's no mac version, sorry. We had no idea about these additional installs, nor about the performance; unreal engine games are quite demanding and we don't have much experience with smoothing things over for players nor about performance :(
It was a splash of cold water for us to realize how demanding a game is to make it good for the user's end, and not just having it working in our devices. Your immediate feedback is really valuable - we wouldn't know if the tutorials are good at their job or if the map's flow made sense at the eyes of someone else. Thanks again!
Thank you for your valuable feedback! Hoping to address these issues soon.
Do you remember specifically where you felt confused about having to go up? Was it at the very start, or after getting the wall jump?
Thank you again for your time, I really appreciate it. I'll give your game a play too!
It to me a minute at beginning to realize that the tilted platform at the beginning was something I could jump onto
Understood. Thank you again!