Maze Creator - Blender Game

Videos - Download - Installation - Controls - Graphics - Contact - Changelog
Maze Creator is a [Work in Progress] game I am making. The game is currently being developed in Blender 2.62. You can create a maze and add dangerous things such as spikes, dart shooters, and killer hall monitors. Since the game is a Work in Progress, there are still many features to add and things to fix.

The latest official version is 4.0, which has been developed from the ground up with a new sturdy framework. All of the features from the old version (v3.6) have been reimplemented into v4.0. I will now be able to start adding new content. I expect to also release a new demo video of v4.0 sometime soon.

Please report any bugs you find to me! A screenshot of the console window can also be extremely helpful.


Maze Creator WIP thread on BlenderArtists.org

Videos

Download

Current Version:

Release Candidates/Test Builds:

Old Versions:

* = These versions may be unstable due to unfixed bugs

Please Note:
Versions v3.6 and below are incompatible with the latest version of Blender due to the animation system update. I have uploaded version 3.6.1 which fixes this animation bug for the latest version of Blender. You can download it above. Otherwise, all previous versions will run best on Blender 2.59.

How to play in Blender

There will not be an executable (.exe) of this game anytime soon. Because of this, you will need to use Blender to load and play the game.
This is not very difficult to do though:

  1. Download the Blender .zip archive for your Operating System - this does not require installation. If you use Windows 64-bit, you can still use the 32 bit version.
  2. Unzip the Blender .zip archive to an accessible location on your computer
  3. Download the Maze Creator .blend file from above
  4. Open the .blend file on the "blender" application side the Blender .zip archive. You can do this by dragging and dropping the .blend onto the blender application. Once Blender opens the Maze Creator .blend file, place your mouse in the 3D viewport (the area with the grid design), and press the P key.
  5. To close the game, press ESC. (terminates the game without saving your progress)

Game Controls

General:
WASD - Move
ESC - Exit game (This does not save a backup)
C - Switch to the alternate special texture mode

Editor:
~ - Display/Hide block info
Scroll Wheel - Zoom in/out of Birds-Eye-View
Middle Mouse Button - Reset Birds-Eye-View

Player:
Backspace - Back to edit mode
Scroll wheel - Zoom in/out
Left Click - Action button (eg: Triggering buttons, using portals)
E - Release mouse
R - Restart maze

Graphics Settings

Maze Creator uses GLSL shading, and some old or integrated graphics cards do not support this feature. This isn't something I can work around, I can only advise that you upgrade your graphics card if you have this incompatibility problem. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Contact / Support

Feel free to contact me with any comments, suggestions, or bug reports for the Maze Creator game.
You can use the Contact form here on my site, or email me at riyuzakisan (at) gmail (dot) com

If you have found a possible glitch/bug in the game, include in your message what you were doing when the error occurred, such as what button you clicked or what block you were placing. Also, see if you are able to get a screenshot of Blender's console window; this will provide me with information about where the glitch is happening.

Changelog

[+] = New Feature            [?] = In Progress
[-] = Removed Feature    [>] = Feature Details

Version 4.0 (Rebooted):
(Released; see download above)
+Menu system
+Maze Generation (+ random generation)
+Loading/Saving (uses a slightly different format, will eventually add support for old .MAZE files)
+Improved Edit mode
+Gameplay mode (+ death)
+Basic blocks
+Dart Launchers
+Doors & Buttons
+Multiple Layers
+Ladders
+Special Procedurally Generated maze types
+Spears (Timed and Motion sensor)
+Wood textures
+Enemy & Path nodes
+Portals/Teleporters
+Checkpoints
+Custom Path Sequence for Enemy
+"Wait" Property for Nodes - Causes the Enemy to pause for a number of seconds
+New Enemy design
+New button labels/icons

Version 3.7 (This Update Discontinued):
+Enemy robot has new textures
    >Thanks to a friend for helping make these textures
[?]Reworking the menu interface system (still not 100% complete or stable)
Posted: 9/23/11

Version 3.6:
+New AI Steampunk design
    >For the AI Robot and the Nodes
    >Random Eye movement on the AI Robot

Version 3.5:
Note: This version is pretty stable, but no 100% guarantees!
+Fixed some bugs with loading and resetting door states when switching layers or dying
+Added Checkpoints
    >These save to the checkpoint.maze file and save the player's current progress
    >Each new checkpoint overwrites the .maze file that it saves to
    >The special checkpoint system saves a random Hash code for checkpoint authentication
    >Player is sent to the last saved checkpoint upon death, or restarts the maze if none are saved
+Fixed the timer
    >Also works with the Checkpoint system now

Version 3.4 (Mildly Unstable):
+Added in Multiple Layers (limited to 3 currently, but it can handle virtually infinite layers)
    >Move up and down layers
    >Moving to an unvisited layer generates it
    >Can generate/regenerate random or normal layers in game
+Added in special lighting and shadows for the player to give it a more dungeon-y feel
    >The option for this is located in game.py as the "darkness" value
    >Will eventually be adding an options menu for things like this
+Adding in multiple layers means rewriting the save/load system
    >Added backwards compatibility for loading older save files from before 3.4 (worked with a 2.8 save file)
+Added a button on the Load menu that opens the Saves folder in an external window

Version 3.3:
+Added a custom AI path sequence
    >Node 1 will always be first
    >Select the enemy, hover your mouse over the Sequence text box
    >Only numbers and commas are allowed
+With the custom path sequence is the Sequence On/Off button to toggle the feature
+Added text info above AI nodes, press ~ to show/hide/update this info
    >Info doesn't auto-update when placing nodes, so toggle this feature off/on to update them

Version 3.2:
+Added in a special texture mode, Hint: Press C
+Added in player fall death
+Made visual floors into individual added objects which fixes the texture scaling
+Improved the Random maze generation
    >This new method optimizes performance by not checking already visited neighbor cells
    >Read more about the method here
    >See the random generator working in real-time
        >.blend file used in the Video demo linked above

Version 3.1:
+Fixed the problem in the random maze generation
    >Also thought I'd mention that the max dimensions limit is 100x100
    >Using the random generator on large map dimensions may cause Blender to stop responding for a few seconds while it generates

Version 3.0:
+Added random maze generation
    >Click the "Random" button on the first menu screen
    >There is also a generation code from early development " -g x y gen "
    >This generation method is based on Randomized Prim's Algorithm
    >Any even numbers in the maze dimensions will be increased +1 to be odd
    >>This currently has a bug dealing with recursion depth if the maze size is too big.
+Added a new generation code
    >"-g x y grid"
    >eg: -g 11 11 grid
    >Generates a grid with blocks only at odd X and Y coordinates
+Fixed the new door settings not resetting properly upon player death

Version 2.9:
+Added travel modes for portals: 1-way or 2-way
+E key releases the mouse in player mode so you don't have to Alt+Tab out of the game
+Added 2 new modes for doors
    >These modes set initial positions: Open or Closed
    >Triggering their buttons will set the doors to their opposite positions
+Fixed the Button modes, they weren't applying to the Multi-Door Button

Version 2.8:
+Added Portals
    >Portals have an Entrance and Exit
    >1-Way travel only (currently)
    >Portals are indexed, you can have more than 1 set
+Added Window Blocks
+Any values set for Darts or Spears while neither of those objects are selected will become the default values
    >Example: If you aren't hovering over a Spear, and change the Delay from 5 to 6, 6 will be the default setting
+Added Multi-Door Buttons
    >AI Menu-Other
    >Link Doors to this button to trigger multiple doors at once
+Added a text notification system that pops messages up on the left side of the screen
    >Includes Death Notification now

Version 2.7:
+Fixed a bug in the Enemy AI Node Index system (if anyone was having any problems with it)
+Added a Timer offset setting in the AI menu for Spears
    >This makes it possible to create a wave effect with spears

+Added heavy metal doors and Buttons
    >Doors are opened by the Buttons
    >Buttons have 2 modes: Click and Step
        >Left Click to open/close
        >Step over the button to open the door
    >You can configure the direction these doors face

+Added a special generation parameter to the load menu:
    >Type "-g x y open"
    >X and Y are the Dimensions of the maze, use integers only
        >Example: -g 15 15 open
    >This generates an open maze area with blocks only at the outer edges

+Organized the AI buttons into Tabbed menus
+Added a cap to the player camera so the player can only look up and down to a certain reasonable limit (170 degrees)

Version 2.6:
+Added a new block!
    >"Ghost Block"
    >Slightly lighter color than the regular block
    >Player can walk through this block
    >Sometimes it isn't apparent unless you're looking for it

+Added a new AI!
    >Spear Trap
    >Five spears pop out of small holes in the ground
    >2 modes: Near sensor or Timed
    >Near mode activates the trap when the player gets near it
    >Timed mode lets you set a time delay for the activation of the trap

+Added a sort of warning object on the first node of a One Way AI path
    >Lets the player know where the AI will reappear
    >Looks like a spinning yellow object

+You can Zoom In/Out with the Birds-eye-view camera in Edit mode
    >Use the Middle Mouse button to reset the zoom distance

-Removed ESC key's custom function of backing up the maze then exiting
    >Caused too many errors
    >Ctrl + Alt + E is also removed since ESC is back to normal


Version 2.5.1:
+Added the "One Way" path following mode to the AI
    >Node Sequence: 1--->2--->3 ... 1--->2--->3
    >When the AI completes its cycle, it is reset to Node 1 without having to travel there

Version 2.5:
+Improved the multiple AI nodes configuration
+The Enemy AI is no longer considered a node, code wise
+Compressed and rearranged the HUD interfaces a bit to save on screen space
+ESC button will make a backup of the maze and exit the game
+[X] button will make a backup of the maze and go back to the first main screen
    >The backup is named "backup.maze"

+For Blender users: If you look at game.py, there are several variables at the bottom which you can change
+Ctrl + Alt + E is an alternate way of exiting the game, just in case ESC isn't working for some unforeseeable reason

Version 2.4:
+Added multiple AI nodes
    >Must be added in order
    >Example: It isn't possible to add Node 2 without adding Node 1

+Added 2 AI path following modes: Point-to-Point and Loop
    >These buttons are highlighted depending on the selected AI's current mode

+Load screen shows the /save/ directory location

Version 2.3:
+Added Enemy AI indexes, so you can add more than 1 Enemy
    >Currently limited to 5 indexes, limit may be increased or entirely removed in the future

+Fixed the AI code so it would check that both nodes were added
    >If not all nodes were present, the AI would be hidden and removed from the playing area
    >but not deleted

Version 2.2:
+New wall textures by myself
+Added comments in the code
+Removed unnecessary code and organized things
+Re-added the "Hall Monitor" (enemy AI) with an upgraded system (works with save/load system)
+Added Assembly info that gets saved to save files (game version, etc.)
    >Loading a file made with an older version will print a warning message saying there might be some errors

Version 2.1:
+New menu layout
+Improved maze generation code
+Back to editing Feature
    >Use the backspace key while playing to go back to editing

+Save/Load system
    >Files are saved/loaded from <game location>/saves
    >/saves/ folder is automatically created

+Access Block Info
    >Use the ~ (tilde) key to display/hide this information

-Temporarily removed the path following enemy

Version 1.4:
+Timer
+Path following enemy
+Shooting darts
    >Can change dart frequency

+Faster maze generation

Version 1.1:
[!!!]First public release
+GLSL textures
+Improved Interface (with button tips)
+Better looking spikes
+Proper start and end locations
+Custom maze dimensions
Riyuzakisan