ToucheMaze

TouchMaze is a student project made with a friend of mine in 2018.

This is a mobile multiplayer puzzle game where the goal is to find the treasure hidden in the maze. To unlock it, three puzzle towers must be resolved.

One player is the guide that has the plan of the maze and the second player is the explorer that go in.

The players have a tactile sensory device that consists in a grid of plastic pins. Each pin ca be lowered or raised. The user can then feel the grid and try to get info from it. Simple one like if the device reacts to an action, or more complicated one like symbols that take shape on the grid.

The game has two phases:

Exploration phase:

This is the main phase, where the explorer moves in the maze.

In this phase the guide has an invisible plan on his screen. He can touch the screen with his finger and let it wander. If he touchs a wall, the tactile device will activate and the player will feel it. He can also detect the treasure, the puzzle towers and his partner. After having explored the plan, he can guide his partner by giving him directions. To make the game a bit more difficult, the guide's map is incomplete, some walls are not noted.

In this phase the explorer has four arrow buttons on his screen, each one to move in a direction. He also has 4 square buttons that can be used to detect walls. When he presses one of these buttons, the tactile device will react and the pins will be raised if there is a wall in this direction. The players need to discuss and share their info and when they agree on a direction, the explorer can press the corresponding arrow button and advance in the maze. If the move is impossible (the guide might be mistaking), the tactile device react and inform the explorer that the move is impossible. The players then need to think again to find another way.

Puzzle phase:

When the explorer reach one of the three towers, the game go in Puzzle phase.

In this phase the explorer is in front of a stone tablet with 8 spots. Each spot can contain a symbol. At the beginning 4 symbols are already placed on the stone tablet and 4 others are available under it. The goal of the explorer is to complete the tablet by putting the right symbol at the right place.

The guide has 3 tablets on his screen, each is completed. His goal is to find which tablet is the same as his partner and then, indicates what are the missing symbols and where to put them.

To do so, the players need to use the tactile device. When a player touches a symbol, it takes shape on the tactile device. The player can then recognize a circle, square, triangle etc. By touching the already placed symbols, the players can communicate and share info. The guide can then know which tablet the explorer needs to reproduce and where to put which available symbols he has.

When the tablet is successfully completed, the puzzle is solved and the game goes back to the exploration phase.

When all the puzzle towers are solved the explorer can go to the treasure and take it to win the game.