About the Project
Minotaur's Labyrinth is one of many projects made during a 3 day game jam organized by the Game Development Club at the University of Utah. The theme for the game jam was "Leave it Behind"
My main role was being in charge of the UI design, but I also helped with art and coming up with the concept for the game. Because there were 8 people on this project including me, with most of them being designers, I was only able to work on this one aspect of the game and needed to contribute to the art side of things as well.
UI Design
This project gave me another chance to work on UI design, which I haven't worked on much before this project. While not as much discussed, the UI is an incredibly important part of games. A well designed UI is the difference between a player understanding what is happening or not.
The idea behind Minotaur's Labyrinth is that you are looking for the treasure at the end of the maze in the darkness, and you have to use the string you previously put down to find your way to the exit, all without the minotaur finding and catching you.
I designed the UI to be split into two phases. The "string" phase, and the "escape" phase. During the string phase, I wanted to keep the player in the dark but still allow the to be able to see enough around them to navigate and avoid the minotaur. To do this, I kept the majority of the screen dark but created a circle of light around the player, and a smaller circle of light around the minotaur. On the bottom of the screen is a meter of how much string you have left, cleverly designed as a yarn ball with a bar of string along the bottom.
Once the treasure is collected, almost all of the UI I placed beforehand disappears as it is not necessary. The player now needs to navigate back to the entrance using the string they put down. The darkness disappears because the player now is focused on escaping as fast as possible. Because string is no longer being placed, the string bar disappears. To indicate to the player that it is time to escape, the yarn ball is changed into a red circle with the word "RUN!" on it.
I enjoyed working on the UI for this game. I really enjoyed trying to figure out the best way to display information while also blending it into the story. The idea I had to make the bar a yarn with string coming off is an example of this, as well as changing the yarn ball into a warning sign during the second phase.
