MAIZE

Game Description

MAIZE is a game where you traverse a maze of maize. On Hallow’s Eve the forces of evil unearth the talismans that keep them at bay. The player must return them to the earth by throwing the talismans into the well at the center of the map to banish the creatures once more. Armed with a flashlight and a 2 shell shotgun, you must traverse the maze, collect the talismans, and return them without dying.

The goal: a tense, scary puzzle adventure.

Project Page:

MAIZE

Project Duration:

2 Days

Game Engine:

Unity

Team Size:

12

The Results

Look at that – a playthrough up on YouTube! I was ecstatic when I first saw this.

My Contributions At A Glance

Team Role: Design Lead

  • Led the design group to create and agree on the game’s tone and narrative.
  • Came up with several options for game name, then as a team, voted for it.
  • Integrated narrative into mechanics and game objects.
  • Suggested landmarks as a way for players to familiarize themselves with the land, came up with concepts for 7 and created the assets for 6.
  • Created 3 essential UI assets and the central well asset.
  • Created a “box” map grid of the game

The Thought Process

In the design bubble, we had the opportunity to weave a story into the mechanics. A lot of the story-crafting happened in the form of a lightning brainstorm on a shared google doc. After ~30 min, I called the team to stop and review what we had. We highlighted our favorites and went with those.

To the left: a screenshot of said google doc, “names” section.

The talismans represented a magical seal keeping the monsters at bay, and throwing them into the well is a quick way to get them literally back in the earth. Narratively, the landmarks suggest something larger while not distracting from the player’s main mental focus. Mechanically, the landmarks serve as a way of helping the player familiarize themselves with the map with each replay.

These are the assets I created. I came up with a list of what the 8 landmarks would be, and created 6 of them. That blue rock under UI is a talisman.

I outlined different enemy behaviors based on the monster art from our artists before planning how many of each there would be and where they would start on the map. In the end, we had 4 Wanderers (move aimlessly), 4 Gazers (if looked at too long, go into a rage), 6 Proximity Chargers (move aimlessly until they spot the player), and the 1 Deadly Pursuer (slowly stalks player, always knows where they are).

My master map of the game. Red outlines the main areas, black squares are walls, blue is landmarks, red is talismans, and each other color represents a monster type and their starting points.

In designing the maze, I wanted each section to feel and look distinct despite the limited flashlight view, and I wanted it to be daunting to navigate, but fair. Dead ends are short for this reason – easy to escape unless you’re being actively chased.

Maize emphasizes sound and vision. By reducing the player’s vision, sound becomes crucial. We opted for no music, and instead the sound of your footsteps and surroundings, usually the breathing of whichever monsters are near you.