Daedalus Versus Minotaur by Orange Thief Games (orkn)
Year: 2023
Platforms: Playdate (itch.io – free and paid versions available)
Usual price: $1 + tax
Saves: Unnecessary
Labyrinths. You either wonder what all the fuss is about, or you get drawn to them like a blazing fire, sucked into their winding passages and endless, taunting corners. They consume you with their promise of success, but in your heart you know that to enter the ultimate labyrinth is to never leave it again.
Anyway, here’s Daedalus Versus Minotaur for the Playdate. It turns out labyrinths can also be a fun favourite for all the family!
Why is Daedalus… one of the games my kids keep coming back to and asking to play? At the core of it, there’s a timeless simplicity: Find the exit before time runs out, using just the D-Pad and your wits. Hide-and-seek, exploring a strange place, it’s the oldest pastime in the world.
And here, the limitations of Pulp have been turned into a very basic but effective 3D world. Not 3D as in millions of polygons, but rather a certain nostalgia for the likes of, well, Maze obviously, as well as Theseus and the Minotaur, Faceball 2000, and other early labyrinth games. You might get a bit confused as you turn round only to see the same view, but that’s all part of the lo-fi, frantic fun.
Daedalus… goes a step further though, allowing you to become the maze. Or its designer, anyway – as the title CLEARLY IMPLIES. While there’s a single player mode (in the paid version, not in the free one) that does a good job of generating a random layout, the real fun is in having a few seconds to set a map, place an exit, and then pass the Playdate over to someone else to try and reach the end.
It’s actually up for debate whether it’s better to be the setter or the solver. We usually swap roles after each turn (or rotate if there’s three of us), but after a while it often ends up with one of us wanting to be the challenger more than the challenged. There’s a surprising number of ways in which carving a few cubes out can become quite an artform.
(Also it can just be funny to think up amusing (or – yes – immature) maze designs. I’ll leave that part to your imagination though, as discovering your own meta is all part of the fun of the game.)
Even spectating a match is fun, especially if the post-attempt route map reveals a distinct lack of spatial awareness. With a few options to level the playing field and set the mood – namely, differing times to set and to solve – Daedalus Versus Minotaur is a classic Playdate game, perfect for killing time on journeys and while waiting for food at the cafe.
Technical note: I still find it insane this was done in Pulp. You can find orkn’s technical details in the forum to find out how it all came together, and why all the text is upper case!
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