Maze Guard

Keyfacts:

Engine: Unity
Platform: PC (Windows)
Controls: Keyboard / controller

Genre: Reverse mazerunner
Perspective: Third person
Setting: Greek, Kreta
Style: Stylized low poly


About the Game:

Players take on the role of the Minotaur, who houses his half-sister Ariadne. As her beauty is known all over the land, countless admirers try to win her over, leading her to seek refuge in her animal brother’s labyrinth. In return for fending off unwanted admirers and providing food, she spends time with him and reads him stories.

To keep her fed, the Minotaur can collect grapes that spawn throughout the maze, preventing her from being forced to leave the maze in need of a meal.

Since he’s also a large and imposing figure, a loud roar is enough to scare off any intruders. They will enter the maze at four different points and follow pre-determined routes towards the centre. Once an enemy reaches Ariadne’s hideout, they will take one of the eight kneeling positions in front of her pagoda and begin to worship her.
When the first declaration of devotion is made, a timer will start ticking down, marking the end of the game. At zero, Ariadne gives in to her suitors‘ pleas and leaves the maze.

As the number of unwanted guests increases, a minimap helps players keep track. To keep the maze factor of the labyrinth from being completely useless, the player’s own position is not displayed.


My tasks:

Enemy behavior:

In addition to navigating the maze, the enemies have two other actions:

When they arrive at Ariadne’s pagoda, they will move to an empty kneeling spot and begin to praise her. As soon as the first enemy starts this behavior, a „refusal timer“ starts counting down. Once it reaches zero, Ariadne is annoyed and gives in to her admirers‘ pleas – GAME OVER.

If the enemy collides with the roar of the Minotaurs, they will be frightened and despawn with a comical runaway animation.

Route walker:

In communication with the game designers, a waypoint network was set up to plan concrete paths. For each of the four entry points, four different routes to the centre were created.
To further diversify play, enemies spawn with a random texture and also randomly choose one of the four routes offered by their spawn position.

Breakable walls:
To add to the variety and give the player more options, the maze contains breakable walls. Crashing through one of these walls, marked by visible cracks, allows the player to navigate the maze more freely – but also opens up new paths for the enemies. Upon arriving at a broken wall, enemies will randomly choose to either follow their original path or take one of two new routes.

Attack enemies:
Instead of a combat system, the pacifist Minotaur scares off uninvited visitors with a mighty roar. This roar is visualised by a sphere that expands and then shrinks, accompanied by a matching noise, and causes the enemies it overlays to flee the labyrinth.


Changed plans:

Food / hunger system:

To add to the challenge of keeping suitors away from Ariadne, the Minotaur’s half-sister also needs food. Symbolized by four grapes and a diminishing bar, players must collect the grapes that spawn throughout the maze to keep her happy. If she runs out of food, the game is also over, as she will have to leave the maze.
This is the content that was realised, as further implementing thirst and applying the same system to the Minotaur would have resulted in too much complexity and required further balancing.

Multiple level / story mode:

After a day of keeping the invaders out, the level would end with a cutscene and a new day would begin. The maze would be partially repaired, change slightly from time to time, and grow in size so that players would not get too used to the layout of the labyrinth.
In addition to the current voice-over, new information about the background of the situation would be revealed as each level was completed. Variations for the intro, game over and win scene would have been recorded to introduce new characters, such as different enemy types.
Limiting the game to one level left room to develop a fairly narrative game with cutscenes and voiceover.

Enemy variations:

Apart from enemies that would strictly follow a given path at a given speed, variations were planned. From enemies that would be faster, to stronger enemies that would not be scared off by a roar, to those that could hide.
A certain type of enemy should be able to navigate without a path and explore the maze himself, marking paths that lead to dead ends and allowing others of his type to find the quickest route.

Traps / secret passages:
Players and enemies alike should be able to set traps or fall into them. They should also be able to find secret passages and use these shortcuts.

Highscore system:
Based on how close enemies got to Ariadne, or how long they admired her, the plaques would have generated a score that would have been displayed on a scoreboard.