Turn of Taurtarus

by firellon

co-authored: @kutase

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.66

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.69

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.72

Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.42

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.52

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.31

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.96

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.59

Story

You are Hades, the god of the Underworld, and quite frankly... you’re bored.

Tartarus, the deepest pit of your domain, has grown dull, and you need something to entertain you. But suddenly, inspiration strikes! Why not toss a few dead mortals into one of your infamous labyrinths, throw in a hungry Minotaur or two, and see what happens?

In Turn of Taurtarus, you get to spin the maze to your heart’s content and watch the chaos unfold as helpless humans scramble for escape. But it’s not all fun and games (well, mostly it is). You’ll need to guide these puny mortals out of the maze before your beloved pet Minotaurs gobble them all up.

After all, you need their sweet, tormented souls intact for your personal collection!

Gameplay

- Rotate the labyrinth using the A/D keys or Arrow buttons to shift the entire maze
- Guide your humans to the exit while avoiding traps and hungry Minotaur(s)
- The more humans you get out and the less rotations you do on the way there, the higher your score will be (which is reflected by your star rating and an accompaniying description)

How many souls can you save before the Minotaurs get to them first?
Get all the stars and prove you're the true master of Taurtarus!

Credits

Design:
@kutase
@firellon

Code:
@kutase
@firellon

Art:
@firellon

Large Scale Arts:
Chat-GPT4

Audio:
https://leohpaz.itch.io/minifantasy-dungeon-sfx-pack

Also, huge thanks to all of our friends for the support, testing and feedback! We wouldn't make it that far without you!

Updates

07-10-2024 - Jam version for Windows and WebGL released

08-10-2024 - a micro fix released to return the missing functionality of "Invert Controls" button on the top right, allows players to choose their favored direction of rotating the maze

10-10-2024 - added a mini-animation for the falling characters, fixed up some panels and background on various resolutions, got the maze closer to the camera so the players could enjoy the art :)

16-10-2024 - added maze lighting, character idle animations and a victory score formula

P.S. If you'd like to play the game as it was originally release, use the Windows build download.

Tags: #2d, #arcade, #maze, #minotaur, #pixel art, #short, #singleplayer, #unity

Genres: puzzle

Tools: Unity

Comments32

Heretic7 Oct 2024, 22:24

cool concept, I like the gloomy pixilated atmosphere, I don't know if it's a bug or a feature, but when you turn the labyrinth quickly many times you are given frames of vulnerability and thus you can speedran some levels
It would be fun to play this with any gyroscope device)

frostblooded8 Oct 2024, 19:57

I personally preferred having the inputs reversed and it was pretty confusing for me to play with the current controls but I still played the first 5 levels.
Very interesting game and mechanic. It was pretty cool when I realized that the Minotaur falls slower than the humans and you can use that to help you with the puzzles.
Good job with making a cool game! :)

Gaalsien8 Oct 2024, 20:01

Cool game! Really finished and somehow polished! Like it!

multiplexor8 Oct 2024, 20:02

Very neat! simple concept with a lot of added twists and turns!!

Levels also felt like they have a lot of different options to be completed whcih i personally like (And there's sooo manyyy!)

My only nitpick would be that the theme doesn't shine much

Keep up the great work!

Roitchie8 Oct 2024, 20:02

I really enjoyed this. It pulls of that 80s dark fantasy vibe and aesthetic really well. It all comes together nicely. The art style and the music. It took some time but I managed to complete all the levels. It was really fun and I kept wanting more. There's a good variety of game mechanics and challenges to keep things interesting and making 20 unique and fun levels within 3 days is really impressive.

Great job and well done.

ArcadeEleven8 Oct 2024, 20:14

The pixel art is great, especially on the main menu.
Nice puzzle game. Well done !

Phobos0018 Oct 2024, 20:18

Very fun game! I love the over-dramatic text you get based on your ranking in a level. I think the loose physics system adds a lot of depth to the gameplay! I found myself thinking about how I can 'trick' the physics system to get people to land in a certain way. This adds a layer of agency that's very dynamic, and a lot better than if characters were to fall only after the rotation was finished. It goes from 'What set of rotations did the developer set to solve this puzzle?' to 'I bet if I time this right I can get the guy to fly past the Minotaur without taking damage!' Great work guys!

firellonauthor8 Oct 2024, 21:04

@heretic thank you, the gyroscope's a nice thought! We may see about mobile version if the game gets traction :)

@frostblooded thanks for your feedback, now the inverted controls option is there in the WebGL version,
in the level options menu on the right (also, we had this during the build but most of the players had preferred the non-inverted inputs... it got lost on the way)

@multiplexor Glad you like it! I agree, we'd prefer the theme to be a bit more prominent - what we could fit in is the background story and the potions that do change the size of your fellow humans (also, imagine the giant godly hands that rotate the maze around ;)

@roitchie wow, you've made it! Congrats!!! It means a lot to us devs

purplexy8 Oct 2024, 22:15

Until my first death I thought it's gonna be a piece of cake, but then I started to feel the challenge, took me a bit to beat all 20 levels, but it was totally worth it!

Pimping9 Oct 2024, 05:49

Good game but i`m sucks in this type of games beat only 8 levels =)

victor_reiner9 Oct 2024, 09:50

A very interesting idea. Good job!

Corrochano9 Oct 2024, 17:34

Very fun game with a lot of mechanics that keep you playing until the end!
The last puzzle is crazy but also funny.

Mantsje9 Oct 2024, 20:45

oaaah 20 levels, really? wow! very nice and addictive, before I new it I was hooked and halfway through. Getting to kill the minotaurs is so funny with those sprites xD

Very nice puzzle game, sometimes you really need to think about how to tackle this, great job on the puzzle design!

Ecaterina10 Oct 2024, 07:45

Here, I absolutely have to praise everything—the graphics, the sounds, the mechanics. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite make it to the end, but I still enjoyed the process- it is very addictive. I’ll definitely try a few more times. Well done!

evindor10 Oct 2024, 20:02

Cool concept, reminded me of a toy I had in childhood, a sealed maze with some metal balls inside. Is the game supposed to be played logically turn by turn, or it's no accident you can quickly rotate the maze around to avoid minotaurs and get places. Felt liek cheating giving up on logic solving and just rotating it like mad :D Great submission!

bhashimoto10 Oct 2024, 20:09

I enjoyed the game! It has a simple concept and fun gameplay. The only thing I would add is a reminder of the direction each key rotates.

Awesome!

skbadger10 Oct 2024, 20:11

A really excellent entry, manages to squeeze out a lot of depth from the central mechanic, very effective audio and visual design. Congrats!

Lussard Studio10 Oct 2024, 20:21

Great concecpt with a very polished result especially for a game jam !

Bigstrongddoge10 Oct 2024, 20:33

Cool puzzle for the brain. It's like multitasking when you have to keep an eye on everything, but you are not allowed to fail. On some levels I just thought it would be easier to fit all characters in one spot.

asfdfdfd10 Oct 2024, 20:44

Pretty hard puzzle for my tired head, but it's superb. Completed several loveble levels!

woona11 Oct 2024, 06:13

I liked how short the levels are and how they explored all the possible combinations of game mechanics without much repetition. I think I solved some of them by accident though. The difficulty curve is well done, I didn't feel stuck or big spiked in difficulty.

My favorite game mechanic here is making spikes walkable by covering them with a corpse.

Great job! Good luck with your future projects!

erasemenot11 Oct 2024, 07:33

It took me some tome to figure out that I don't have to wait for a full 90 degrees rotation. And I was alway confused which way to rotate, with both default and inverted control. But it was hell of a fun puzzle! Good Job!

TheSmellofOxygen11 Oct 2024, 20:30

A generous amount of levels! Simple concept, but allowed to really get fleshed out. I couldn't get past the Drawbridge level despite my best efforts. I liked the squish effects and a lot of the writing, though some of it was a bit too lengthy.

LDJam user 23591512 Oct 2024, 07:05

A very Nice game. I liked the graphic design!)

shir0o2312 Oct 2024, 19:54

sweet concept, i liked the amount of diversity in the levels presented, keeps you going with the walkthrough. sweet game, good job!

LDJam user 37103013 Oct 2024, 10:37

This is a full-fledged puzzle game! Went through it all. Enjoyed the mechanics and how the potion works : )). The humans seem to be the *tiny* ones here, so it actually fits the theme. When seeing the minotaur I thought initially *this is biggy creatures* xD but then, *no, that's right*! You also have Hades who *set up* the stage, so it very much makes sense! Art and music are perfectly fitting. The gore adds to the *doomish* atmosphere. Congrats!

LDJam user 22156113 Oct 2024, 17:21

nice, I imagine a puzzle game with all these levels would be hard to finish in the time allowed, that's very impressive! The rotatino messes with your head, and that's a brilliant thing! Very impressive!

LDJam user 017 Oct 2024, 18:52

Your credits imply you didn't make the audio. You will have to opt out of the audio category, then.

milq17 Oct 2024, 19:02

Very fun game! Honestly, it's quite original, and for me, the most spectacular part is the puzzles, which have a really, really good design! Maybe the music is a bit repetitive, but other than that, all I can do is give my congratulations, it's a solid entry! Great game!