MINOS

Create an underground maze of terror, and invite people in

- 

Minos takes Dungeon Keeper and blends it with Pac-Man and tower defence by way of the legend of the Minotaur. It's a potent mix.

Developer Artificer is based in Warsaw, Poland, and its CEO And creative director Kacper Szymczak was able to fill us in on the studio's genesis, as well as his plans for Minos. "We used to work at CreativeForge Games, where we developed Hard West and Phantom Doctrine," he says, also mentioning that he worked at Techland on the Call of Juarez series. "After an investor-imposed shift in studio direction, the entire team decided to leave. We then partnered with Good Shepherd Entertainment and founded Artificer."

None of the tactics games he mentions are anything like Minos, however, which casts you as Daedalus, the father of Icarus and designer of the Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete which imprisoned the Minotaur. You'll know that story – a big, dangerous cow guy – whose name is Asterion and who has a complicated backstory of his own – is trapped in a maze, and Athenian youth are periodically sent in as sacrifices because Athens had killed the king's son. There are a few different versions of the story, but the most famous ends with Theseus, who may have been the son of the king of Athens or possibly of the god Poseidon, volunteering as sacrifice so he could slay the Minotaur and retrace his path out of the labyrinth using a ball of thread given to him by Minos' daughter.

The Artificer version is subtly different. Not only are the men who enter the labyrinth heavily armed soldiers rather than toga-clad teenagers, but Daedalus is right there with the Minotaur, able to rearrange the walls of the maze and place traps and lures. He can't just wall the place up and prevent them from getting in, but he can make their time there as unpleasant as possible.

MAZE CRAWLER