STAVROS by designernap

ESTIMATED PLAY TIME: 10 Minutes with a few deaths
Enjoy, and please leave a comment!
Trapped in the castle, STAVROS must learn about his surroundings and try to escape

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-_rJ79uSH0
EDIT: BUGS FIXED AS OF 00:55 - 06/10/25 - Full playthrough now possible
Had some struggles with this one, so went for the audio in the end! Put a lot into this, including smashing jars in my garden to get the sound of the pots breaking!

| UNREAL EXE | https://drive.google.com/file/d/18iQ47gP6Euu2-sy0LP-v_AwCWy5trpGq/view?usp=sharing |
| UNREAL PROJECT | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w92HLmjWJFiRuyibxgFM9KMqXmf7bYtZ/view?usp=sharing |
| YouTube Walkthrough | https://youtu.be/lprLcbA6iwI |
| Itch.io Link | https://xopsx.itch.io/stavros |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/stavros |
Ratings
| Overall | 70th | 3.594⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 145th | 3.078⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 95th | 3.324⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 124th | 3.471⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 77th | 3.736⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 32th | 3.794⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 25th | 4.029⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 38🗳️ | 53🗨️ |
Very solid and polished game with great ending
Glad you enjoyed it @baluj but to this day I still haven't found a way to host or share an unreal.exe via html or web. If you know a way though, I would love to try :)
All in all, solid compo entry!
The game is impressive! The theme is achieved, the style is maintained. I liked the graphics. It's somewhat reminiscent of the Half-Quake trilogy. I like games like this. Congratulations on the release!
Great experience design! And I was able to understand what to do without any in-game text, which is the dream. On that note, your chapter title hits were also great. Really impressive work, kudos!
At the start of a level, the game kind of repositions the player / loads into a new scene maybe? It's a little immersion breaking. Although, you're pulled right back in with the sound accompanying the title ba-bum! So good.
@maimai nearly no sleep! That's how! :D but also, I take two days off afterwards to recover and catch up on sleep :D thanks for the kind words and really glad you liked it.
@kapricorn-media I saw some other entries start to make trailers a few aroundLudum Dare 48 so started to make them a day or so after submitting:D
@pincushion you are right! The level loads are not quite aligned as I needed to chop up the levels last thing and ran out of time to smooth it out. And yeah, those pot sounds came together quite well :D thank you!
Very atmospheric horror game! The level where the demon first appeared got me good, that was super scary. I think your work with the sound effects paid off, the sound effects in this game are all superb, they were something that really stood out to me while playing it. The noise when text appears on the screen (I loved this between levels, it was such a good way to set the theme of the level!), the containers breaking, the demons, and the ambience where something seems to be out there. Just amazing stuff. Super well done horror-game, great job!
and thanks @skiddings, I do tend to throw as much of myself as I can into a game jam :)
nice job! :D
The demons were interesting, although not really a threat after being murdered by the first one to see what happens.
The platforming mechanics in the first two levels seemed to be forgotten about after that.
I feel it could have more puzzle elements to it as the gameplay was very straight forward.
@someone Thank you! and cool username there! :D yes, I very much ran out of time to explore each mechanic. The plan was to introduce each one and then make a few levels that showcased combinations.. so that ended up translating into one level... and I made the platforms too subtle on that level so no-one sees them! But thank you for playing and yes. if I was to develop this further I would absolutely take it in that direction.
@le-don Thank you! Glad it all worked out! I tried to use the titles to guide the function a little, but not sure how effective that was in the end.
Thanks everyone!

But I took a look at the walkthrough-vid and I liked what I saw (and heard). Quite atmospheric! Very good sound design. Gotta love all the screaming and gasping which was surely fun to record. :ghost: :microphone2:
I usually like to record and modify real-life sound-samples myself as well, but had to skip on that aspect this time.
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@d3kryption I could definitely see some resemblance to Soul Reaver with the soul-orb collecting. Been reminiscing that particular game/series a lot in the recent years.
Cheers!
Anyway, that's just nitpicking, because it's excellent for a jam! I hope you continue working on the game.
By the way, if you like games with a strange atmosphere, you might want to check out our game too 🥴
I will most certainly check out your game too :) Thanks again!