I have just finished and uploaded my latest game, Monster Maze, to my website.
Making the game
I started working on the game back in November and I had a working version by mid December. I should have finished the game back in January, at least that was the plan, but it turned out that it would require more time. The main reason was the menu. It worked but it looked ugly. I tried many different versions and ideas, but I am sure I am not the only one here who cannot draw. So I came up with the idea of putting a new maze in the background and let the monsters roam around. Still not my favourite, but way better than the original.
The other problem I had was testing the levels. (There are 20 levels in the game.) Originally I wanted to have more levels and two difficulty levels as well. I wanted to have each level twice in the game but with more monsters for the second time. It turned out that the game is difficult enough as it was without the extra monsters. I needed to try some of the levels at least 30 times to be able to finish them.
I also had to do some extra work on the Game Complete text, which is similar to the Victory! and Game Over texts but it wasn’t part of the original game assets I purchased.
On more thing, the size of the game. It could easily be half the size, (about 10MB) but the Victory! the Game Over and other text effects are not real time effects, but pre-rendered animations. Each frame is saved as a separate png image, hence the bigger size.
How to install
The game is available as an install package or as a zip archive. You can find a DirectX 9 and a DirectX 11 version. If you choose to install the game using the installer, the icon/shortcut will start the DirectX 9 version. Off course this can easily be changed.
The Linux version is also available as a tar.gz package. I compiled it on Ubuntu 20.04. (I still get a warning from the debugger, but the game seems to run.)
Languages
The language files can be found in the Monster Maze.languages ZIP file.
Download
You can download it from my website (if you click on the image, it will take you to the game): http://www.nightloversgamestudio.net
Have fun with the game!
Screenshot
Update: 20.07.2021 – Monster Maze v1.0.0.3
- Couldn’t handle the resolution properly when the DPI setting was not 100%.
- Menu options can be selected using the RETURN / ENTER key of the numeric keyboard.
- Updated manual.