Mazes and Labyrinths- Research

02:44 Research 0 Comments

Beginning with the theme of Mazes and Labyrinths, I scrawled a mindmap listing games that could be associated with mazes.

Sprawling game worlds with twists and turns, like Middens which can serve as a true maze, something to explore for explorations sake with multiple strange landscapes and rooms. "Metroidvania" like games, large sprawling 2D maps that require players to backtrack to places they've been with newly acquired skills, Cave Story being a favorite. Any game with a dungeon, with puzzles to solve, like Legend of Zelda which in itself, has moments throughout the series where you must follow a path to get through maze-like areas.

Games with multiple paths, endings or routes are also to be considered, the player's navigation of their play depending on their choices, which route they take. The game Virtue's Last Reward features 28 different endings and can be compared to a multicursal maze, the player swapping timelines and alternative universes to piece together information. Ace Attorney where you play as a lawyer, navigating text and options to defend or prosecute, wading through options to find the right answer - any sort of mystery game can be included here, like the live action game Contradiction. Undertale which features different paths can also be seen this way, solving puzzles and navigating the game world.

Horror games that see the player trying to traverse environments and avoid abyssal monsters, comparable to the story of the Minotaur in the way a beast lurks within. Games that feature actual mazes like Pacman and many older arcade games revolve around the concept of a maze. Roguelikes with randomly generated dungeons  can also be considered.

With this in mind, the term "Metroidvania" could be explored, open ended platforming, action games that focus on the navigation of large game maps, often with puzzles, enemies and items to collect. From reading a Gamasutra article, indie developers see this subgenre as "timeless" as its core mechanics of exploration, character improvement, platforming and combat are highly compelling. If we look at this idea of character improvement, getting stronger through traversing a maze, perhaps a link can be made to church mazes, monks shuffling on their knees whilst praying in penance. To prove devotion, strength, by suffering or going through this ordeal, you'll come out stronger- mazes as a challenge, mazes aid self-improvement.

Exploration is key to "Metroidvania", as players are exploring the world themselves, not being led by scripted events, a player can feel more in control and therefore immersed, character upgrades see ensure enjoyment out of new discoveries right up to the end. Discovery is another crucial aspect that makes these games fun, forging their own path...

"I think it's extremely important that players guide themselves because, ultimately, it is something the player should do. Personally, I prefer, instead of going to a park to play, I would rather go to ruins to play. Because you can think, feel, and search, for yourself, your own way to play,"

Daisuke Amaya 2011- creator of Cave Story

"Nothing is more exciting than possibility"- Matt White

Making discoveries and forging your own path, my own primary research here, playing Undertale, I went into it "blind" making a lot of discoveries myself and choosing my own way of playing the game, choosing which path to follow. This constant decision making underlines what Espen Aarseth describes in his book "Cybertext" where he talks about the concept of Ergodic Literature:

"Nontrivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the text....each decision will make some parts of the text more, and others less, accessible". 

An example of Ergodic Literature is the ancient Chinese classic I-Ching, a divination text that influenced Religion, Business, Literature and Art to name a few. It had a specialised way of reading in cleromancy, casting lots, the four numbers 4, 5, 6 and 9 were turned into a hexagram, then looked up in the book. 

Aarseth goes on to say...

"I refer to the idea of a narrative text as a labyrinth, a game, or an imaginary world, in which the player can explore at will, get lost, discover secret paths, play around, follow the rules...."

Later within his book, he goes on to cite Penelope Reed Doob, who wrote "The idea of the Labyrinth: Metaphorical Labyrinths of Classical Antiquity" which explored the complex artistry and the important metaphor and motif that is the Labyrinth during the Middle Ages. She herself went on to cite Virgil (70- 19 BC) in that the multicursal and unicursal types of maze, are in fact one in the same. The artistic order and chaos and impenetrability, the shift from confusion to perception- this could be linked to solving puzzles in games. From a narrative point of view it could also include any plot twist ever, and when considering the concept of the oragami unicorn- within the book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide  by Henry Jenkins, one could easily backtrack the way they came, to make more sense of a narrative.

An example to tie this together, the game Nier has Shades that you must kill, a second playthrough however gives the player the ability to understand what they're saying, and reveals these "monsters" to be much more human with their own backstories and identities, the duo you just killed were a child and guardian, you just murdered a young women and her friends- therein lies the oragami unicorn, the player rethinking their actions, yet in this game there is no option to spare. Not every game can be Undertale!

Maze as narrative and play are interesting threads I may follow up soon.