Tomas Martinez Portfolio

Tomas Martinez PortfolioTomas Martinez PortfolioTomas Martinez Portfolio

Tomas Martinez Portfolio

Tomas Martinez PortfolioTomas Martinez PortfolioTomas Martinez Portfolio
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Escape From Tartarus

Game Info

  • Name: Escape From Tartarus
  • Genre: 2D Lane Runner
  • Platform: PC
  • Game Engine: Unity 2D
  • Scripting Language: C#
  • Team Size: Three person team
  • Background Information: Made for the Brackeys Game Jam 2023. We had one week to make a game using the theme "An End is a New Beginning"

Play on Itch.io

Roles and Responsibilities

In the early stages of production Tomas' primary role was that of game designer. Along with fellow designers Franco Lee and Anas Abu-taha, Tomas designed the game's gameplay structure, core mechanics, and narrative elements. In the mid to late stage of production, he programmed the game's mechanics in Unity2D.

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Another important part of Tomas' job was facilitating the coordination and communication of team members, as well as keeping the team on track and in scope. With his leadership, "Escape From Tartarus" was successfully completed and submitted to the Brackeys Game Jam 2023.

Ideation Phase

Using a Mind Map, we brainstormed a variety of concepts related to the theme, including: "Seasons", "Life and Death", and "Resetting".


We decided to focus on the concept of "Life and Death", specifically Greek mythology's realm of the dead: The Underworld. The result is a fresh take on the expected progression of life and death: The player starts "dead" with the goal of returning to the land of the living. 

Game Concept

Play as a soul trapped in Tartarus, Ancient Greece's underworld, who has made a deal with Charon the Ferryman of souls. Avoid obstacles and collect enough coins to pay the Ferryman as he drags you along the river styx through Tartarus, Asphodel, and Elysium.


Inspired by games like Subway Surfer, Temple Run, and Club Penguin's Hydro Hopper, Escape from Tartarus has you switching between 7 lanes to avoid colliding with oncoming obstacles and collecting coins of different values.

Key Features

Player Movement

We wanted a very particular style of movement, wherein the player can move freely up and down, but is restricted to moving laterally between set columns (called lanes). After moving, the player character slowly 'springs' back to their starting y position as if held there by a rope.

Obstacle Spawning

Obstacles are spawned at set intervals, at the top of one of the 7 lanes (chosen randomly). Each obstacle has a different sprite, speed, and size, which creates variation in the gameplay.

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Notice the scale of each obstacle changing as it comes closer to the camera.

Post-Mortem

What went well

What went wrong

What went wrong

After a small struggle with the player movement, the rest of the coding went at a steady pace. Despite other time commitments, the team was able to work together to finish right on time.

What went wrong

What went wrong

What went wrong

The team started this jam immediately after finishing a different two-week jam, which created some fatigue. This, as well as other commitments, meant we weren't able to dedicate as much time as we wanted to the project.

Continuing Development

The following tasks are to be completed, in no particular order, to finish polishing this game.

We want a bit more indication for when the player gets hit, we found that simply losing a heart in the UI was simply not enough. We will also give the player a brief period of invincibility after taking damage so that they do not accidentally die from a single obstacle.

Create patterns for obstacles to spawn e.g. 2 obstacles at once, sprites randomly flipped, different obstacle speeds per round.


Also add a small chance for hearts to spawn, giving the player one heart per round.

Currently there are few animations in the game due to time constraints. To polish the game and make it more visually appealing, our artist is going to work on creating animations for the player, Charon, and some of the obstacles.


I will also create some particle effects and implement them in the game for key events, such as collecting a collectible or taking damage.

The buttons on the title screen need to be resized, the dialogue scenes can use some reworking, and a tutorial overlay would be helpful for new players.

Currently the game has no sound; we will add sounds to the gameplay and narrative scenes.

Play "Escape From Tartarus" in Browser

Downloads

Escape from Tartarus Design Document (pdf)

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