Tartarus was intended to allow the player to choose from multiple character classes. This would allow each life to supply the player with different abilities; some of which may interact with their echoes (ghost selves). For this prototype we focused on creating the movement and style of combat for one preliminary class: the hoplite. This class was intended to be a close quarters combat class capable of quickly strafing an enemy.

The second prototype the team chose to approach was a boss rush style of game that “uses time as a mechanic”. We chose this concept from a series we had generated at a preliminary meeting. As we moved forward we decided to translate “time as a mechanic” to mean playing with past versions of yourself. In this case the player uses ghosts of their lives as allies. The ghost plays out each move previously made by the player and then defaults to an AI behavior determined by its character class.