Labyrinth Game Design

Labyrinth

Labyrinth was created as my first personal project in the Unity Learn Junior Programmer Pathway course. I wanted to create a survival game using my interest of history and mythology. Also I liked the idea of there to be a puzzle element of navigating an unknown area. A darkened maze would be perfect. The idea of collecting gems whilst being unseemly tracked by an enemy sounded exciting.  

After creating the first version I tested it with my family and a personal mentor. While my family were very encouraging, my mentor was more critical (it was a 15 mins where I found myself cringing). 

A couple of these issues that were addressed was player and enemy speed and the game difficulty. The first issue had a straightforward solution. Meanwhile the difficulty level due to collecting gems needed to have further considerations. One suggestion was to increase the spawning rate and number of gems in the maze. I decided against this as it could lead to more of a 'Pac-Man' game rather than searching for a valued gem. Instead I created a guidance system to help the player towards a rough location of the gem without showing the direct route. This  worked as it meant there was still a challenge without a negative user experience of being lost. In future I plan to have this featured be available for certain periods of time to reduce reliance.

Another feedback suggestion was about having weaponry to defend against the enemy. This was considered and decided against as it would enable the player to survive longer and take away from the survival experience. Secondly, it would emphasis the idea that the enemy could be beatable and reduce the fear element. Finally, I wanted this to be a short game where a game cycle would last one to two minutes long rather than longer where satisfaction would lower.