The Objective:
The creation of this maze was largely a means by which to put in to practice various aspects of the Unreal Engine, Kit-bashing from various assets gathered via Quixel Bridge, use of Unreal’s various lighting options, and setting up music and sound effects to be triggered at specific moments as well as movement of objects via blueprints. The primary goal for the end result was a relatively easily solved maze with various pathways to explore as players search for the final objective.
The Gothic Maze is a labyrinth created in Unreal Engine 5 as part of an intro Game Dev class at Miami University with assets sourced from Quixel Bridge. It is visually inspired by media such as the Castlevania franchise and the Ravenloft TTRPG setting, featuring weathered tombstones, mysterious cauldrons, and the player’s final objective, an enchanted hidden sword. Some signage is present in the maze if players become inexorably lost, but it is mostly up to their own navigational skills to reach the sword at the conclusion.
The Processes:
I began this project by designing the level layout on a grid in Adobe Illustrator, placing this image into Unreal, and then placing the walls of the maze along it. As mentioned above, I wanted to pursue a gothic aesthetic of this maze, imagining it as though a monster hunter may delve into it in pursuit of a vampire or the like. After gathering suitable assets from Quixel Bridge, I created small scenes at several of the dead ends with tombstones, coffins, cauldrons, etc. and placed a sword at the final goal. I then lit up each of these objects, and had the goal sword rotate via blueprints. I also created world aligned versions of the various textures being used, and created “you are here” signs based upon the original Illustrator plans.
