The Trial of Theseus

The Trial of Theseus
a manual for people who read manuals
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Gameplay
a. Wandering
i. Maze
ii. How to Find the Beast
iii. Minotaur Tracking System
iv. Minotaur Sight
b. Combat
i. Battle
ii. Health
iii. Retreating
3. Summary of Controls
1. Introduction
The Trial of Theseus is a first person action game with elements of horror. The premise of the
game comes from the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. In this story, the king of Crete
waged war on Athens in revenge for the death of his son, and upon Athens’ defeat, he
demanded that every nine years they send seven boys and seven girls to Crete to be devoured
by the Minotaur, a creature half man and half bull, which lived in the deep Labyrinth beneath the
palace. On the third such sacrifice, the Athenian prince, Theseus, volunteered to take the place
of one of the victims with the intention of slaying the Minotaur. With the help of the Cretian
princess, Theseus is able to successfully navigate the Labyrinth, find and kill the Minotaur, and
escape victoriously from Crete. Inspired by the legend, Trial of Theseus lets the user explore a
world never before rendered, and in 3D at that! Find yourself lost in the dark, damp labyrinth of
legend as the Minotaur beckons you onward. Tread carefully, searching for the beast in every
nook and cranny of the labyrinth, but be warned that you are being followed as well! The
Minotaur is a vicious beast, and the gameplay unfolds as a high stakes game of cat and mouse
between Theseus and his dangerous prey.
2. Gameplay
Take first person control of Theseus as he wanders the legendary labyrinth of Daedalus. Use a
standard WASD control scheme along with mouse guided sight to lead Theseus through various
different obstacles with the aim of slaying the half man, half bull beast. Follow the trail and
sounds of the raging monster to engage and vanquish him. But beware... Theseus can be heard
by the beast as well. Upon engaging the monster, take control of Theseus’ arms in combat,
using a simple but classic two button combat scheme to halt the creature’s vicious onrush. Fight
your way through the labyrinth as it darkens and the tale plummets towards its epic conclusion.
a. Wandering
Use the game’s WASD and mouse controls to seek your way towards the stampeding
and screaming of the legendary beast. Manage Theseus’ line of sight with pinpoint
accuracy through a 3D texture based environment of floor and wall, keeping an eye out
for danger along the way.
i. Maze
Make clever use of the labyrinth, but beware on your second playthrough ­ the
makeup has shifted! Trial of Theseus utilizes a random Maze generation
algorithm to make sure that the player stays on their feet no matter how many
times they have progressed through the epic tale previously. The maze generator
used is known as the recursive backtracker, and it provides a fresh maze each
time with many ways to progress, and many new places for the Minotaur to
hide in, exemplified below.
ii. How to Find the Beast
Discovering the legendary Minotaur admittedly takes a good amount of work;
the creature seems to lurk behind every corner, but often discovers the player
before the player discovers it. Assisting Theseus is his thread, spun behind each
corner that he turns from, it ensures that he never loses sight of the places that
he has and has not previously visited, making it far easier to corner where the
Minotaur might be.
iii. Minotaur Tracking System
Using a famous algorithm known as A* (demonstrated below), the Minotaur
has been given life, movement and guile. The Minotaur has the ability to search
for and select a location at random throughout the maze, or even based on
interesting factors affecting the location, meaning that the Minotaur has the
ability to home in on Theseus and hound him until one or the other falls.
iv. Minotaur Sight
Aside from its ability to mark a location and chase it throughout the maze, the
Minotaur can also see the player by searching within a certain radius from itself,
making the Minotaur difficult to sneak up on and frequently giving the Minotaur
the upper hand in terms of detection
.
b. Combat
i. Battle
Once the Minotaur or any of the other monsters of the maze have been
encountered, engage them with the sword and shield at Theseus’ disposal,
taking them on with the confidence and furor of a Grecian hero. Use the shield
to bravely parry away enemies’ lunges, controlled by the SHIFT button. When
sensing a weakness in the enemies’ defense, lunge and slash them down with the
spacebar. WASD will also be utilized through combat and sidestepping or
hopping backwards to avoid
the attacks of enemies.
ii. Health
Theseus is tasked with slaying the ceaselessly attacking Minotaur before the
opposite occurs, which is a tall enough task before considering that with each hit
landed by the Minotaur, the sight of Theseus is reddened significantly to
resemble his pain. The Minotaur’s health has been equalled by the damage of
Theseus to the point that every attack and block matters.
iii. Retreating
However, the Minotaur is not solely endowed with the mind of a beast; he think
strategically as well. Namely, if the Minotaur takes enough damage it will sense
defeat and retreat, running back into the abyss in an attempt to extend the cat
and mouse chase.
3. Summary of Controls
Movement
WASD
Adjust gaze
Mouse movement
Shield Block (combat)
SHIFT
Sword Slash (combat)
spacebar