TARANIS by Strange Nebula

Earth, 3554. At this time humankind depends entirely on an advanced technology called « TARANIS » which handles almost all human activities (Internet, security, army, transportation, ressource management...). Suddenly, at the dawn of the new year, the magnetic poles switched, causing a dysfunction in most computer systems on Earth and gravely damaging TARANIS. The bugs caused by the deficient system thus entrained terrible consequences everywhere in the world. You incarnate in an experimental android conceived specifically to counter this catastrophe; you are then sent to the core of the TARANIS system to stabilise it, saving the Earth from a calamity sans precedent.
Controls:
| Action | Player 1 | | --- | --- | | Move left | Left arrow | | Move right | Right arrow | | Jump | Space | | Activate | C |
Credits:
Anthony Choquard - Programming, Level Design
Quentin Garnier - Programming, Level Design, Writing, 2D Graphics
Brice Graulier - Programming, Level Design
Barthélemy Passin-Cauneau - Programming
Puddy (N. D) - Underrated Sound Designer
Ulquiro - 3D Modeling, VFX, Great Teacher





| Link | https://strange-nebula.itch.io/taranis |
| Link | https://strange-nebula.itch.io/taranis |
| Link | https://strange-nebula.itch.io/taranis |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/taranis |
Ratings
| Overall | 1002th | 3.325⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1043th | 3.15⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1098th | 2.975⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 611th | 3.675⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 800th | 3.55⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 486th | 3.5⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 610th | 3.156⭐ | 18🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 909th | 3.263⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 15🗳️ | 18🗨️ |

Soo, where to start. Let's pick the controls. They weren't great. Jumping was floaty, movement was slippery and the character got stuck on everything. The ground detection for jumps was also very fiddly. You pretty much had to be standing still a good length away from the edge to be able to jump properly. Trying to do a running jump? Forget about it, impossible! I'd rather have the C power be a toggle and not need hold it down.
The camera work wasn't perfect either. Loads of blind jumps and the camera moved too much vertically with jumps so it was needlessly hard to see where you'd be landing. When running the camera also lagged behind so you'd only be able to see 1/3 of the screen forward as it should do the exact opposite. I highly suggest Cinemachine which makes camera stuff a whole lot simpler to deal with (especially for non-programmers).
The forced waiting points were awful. Waiting is never really fun in a game. The horribly slow moving platforms (especially the one near the beginning that needed to move for ages and then suddenly change direction, mess your jump and make you wait for another cycle) and the "retry punishment gates" on the final section.
And speaking of the final section, that was pretty much breaking all these "rules". The first part was just fine actually. The second part however was kinda annoying as the camera moved too much up for you to see the platform underneath so you pretty much have to guess the landing. And then for jumping again you gotta remember to jump straight up first. And don't you dare hit near the corners when landing on a platform as you'll just get stuck there. And if by some luck you manage to wiggle your way up from such a position, the huge acceleration and sticky inertia will surely kick you off the other side.
The final jump on the final section was the worst. You have to just do it by faith and hope that the platform is moving the direction you think when you materialize them. And still the high speed they're moving is highly likely to mess up your jump. Well at least the music in the final bit slaps!
There were quite a few visual glitches which I don't think were part of the glitchy look. The character sometimes disappeared when moving left. The legs kept getting stuck on platform corners as the body kept moving.
And this looked annoyingly like something you should pick up.

We are aware that the game can be improved a lot and I thank you for all the things you've noticed. Some members of the team were learning Unity during the jam, and much time was spent teaching them how to use the engine. Even with the issues you mentioned we are proud of what we accomplished here.
Anyways thanks for playing and finishing the game, and thanks for the comment :D
PS: The things that "looked annoyingly like something you should pick up" are just some kind of easter-egg!
But yeah, you definitely should be proud. Just completing a fully working game in a weekend isn't something everyone can say they've done. Sure it has some issues but 100% playable without any game breaking bugs and at least it was balanced enough that I didn't feel the urge to give up. 👌
I appreciate the kind words about the music, which was the role I played in this group! Hopefully I can work on even better pieces for many days to come.
Overall great game! Well done!
Took me a while to realise that 'You can now glitch the environment' meant that I could bring back the red walls with C. I found this out by accident when I go stuck at one point.
Over all, very impressive work.