The Tartarus Key

Do you like murder houses? Want MORE murder houses? Pick this bundle up for double the horror escapes at 90% of the price.The Tartarus Key: There’s no way out for Alex Young who wakes up to find herself locked in a strange mansion filled with puzzles, traps, a…

Hi everyone, just a quick update to let you know that a whole bunch of community items just went live! We've got trading cards, badges, emotes, backgrounds, and even animated avatars for each character, complete with a custom radio border. ːthumbsup_ttkː If yo…

Following on from the lovely space highjinks of Citizen Sleeper, Katharine has unwisely allowed me to take the wheel on this month's RPS Game Club , and thus I am steering this baby right into fiendish puzzle town. Next stop: The Tartarus Key ! It's only recen…

After years of development, we are incredibly proud (and nervous!) to say that The Tartarus Key is now available! We hope you enjoy yourself, as much as anyone trapped inside a mansion with elaborate death traps and obscure motivations can. Don't forget to gra…

If you woke up in a mysterious mansion, with no memory of how you got there and only a walkie-talkie and a bunch of security cameras for company, how d'you reckon you'd handle it? Personally I know, sure as eggs is eggs, that I would absolutely go to pieces. I…

We wanted to take a moment to talk further about some of the design choices we made in The Tartarus Key that we think adds to the game's charm and appeal, such as the deliberately low resolution of the game's graphics and textures. We made a conscious decision…

In The Tartarus Key, we take great care to ensure that every aspect of our game is designed with the player experience in mind. One detail that we're particularly proud of is the map system, which we've designed to be both functional and immersive. Early in th…

The Tartarus Key is an upcoming horror game that channels the mansion setting of Resident Evil, PS1 cutscenes of Metal Gear Solid, and puzzles of Silent Hill to create something totally new, and it has a demo, trailer, and impending release date you should abs…

A dark and stormy night, a group of strangers, and one seriously strange house... The Tartarus Key reveals its mysteries when it launches on May 31st for Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and XBox! It's been a long road getting to this point, and we're so e…

Music is a vital element in setting the tone and atmosphere of any game, and developing the soundtrack for The Tartarus Key was one of the pivotal processes in bringing our vision to life. Working alongside the incredibly talented composer, Josie Brechner, was…

We put a lot of thought into the design aspect of gating access to the mansion and opening it up, as well as puzzle difficulty, to create the best possible player experience. Initially, the player is only allowed in a small set of rooms, which unlock one after…

Today, we'd like to take a moment to share some insights into the puzzle development of The Tartarus Key. During the early stages of the game's creation, we experimented with many different ideas of varying complexity and depth. One of these concepts was a puz…

In The Tartarus Key, we place a lot of emphasis on story and narrative, which means that players will be reading a lot of text throughout the game. As a result, we wanted to make the reading experience as comfortable and accessible as possible for as many play…

We are thrilled to reveal further details on The Tartarus Key, and delve into the mysterious and enigmatic world of Sigil design in the game. The Tartarus Key is infused with Symbols, Sigils, Magical Circles, and other esoteric drawings. Our designs are rooted…

One of the most interesting aspects of our game, The Tartarus Key, is the implementation of reflective mirrors. While most modern games rely on screen space reflections or render targets to achieve realistic mirror effects, we decided to take a different appro…

Hey everyone! We thought this was a great opportunity for us to talk a bit about how we approached some of the scarier elements of The Tartarus Key, and why we often went with creepy vs cacophonous when it comes to our scares. When we first started developing …

Hey everyone! Dora here, your friendly neighborhood producer. While the team is hard at work polishing puzzles and blasting bugs, I thought I'd step in to share an update. The Tartarus Key has been in development with us for over a year, and in that time I've …

CW: flashing lights Hi there, Tartarus Key fans–Leo and Kevin here, and happy holidays! Vertical Reach has been hard at work on the game, so we wanted to give you a closer look at our progress throughout development, starting with the decisions and considerati…