Mazes

"A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. The pathways and walls in a maze are fixed."

- Wikipedia

Mazes in games have been a thing for years, Pac-Man being the first notable example. Pac-Man gives the player hours of gameplay based around negotiating a maze to avoid the ghosts and eating up pills. It's a top down, 2D world to show the boundaries clearly to the player.Using a maze in the way that Pac-Man does gives the illusion of extended gameplay due to delaying the action, basically meaning that the ghosts would also have to negotiate the maze and Pac-Man couldn't simply skip from one place to the next, you're forced to 'conform' in a way. This was also the case in early 3D games such as DOOM, in which the player negotiates maze like levels avoiding and killing enemies. Games like this are often made to seem bigger than they are due to the use of mazes.

Mazes are also an absolute, coming across one in game is instantly recognisable to the player thus allowing the player to create an immediate connection to said maze and the real world. So a player would know that they can't simply walk through the walls, they know they have to navigate it to progress. I think this is incredibly powerful as no text would have been necessary; the player just knows.

When you look at most games, almost every single one has some form of maze, I don't mean in the traditional, walk round hedges for half an hour, way. I mean in terms of a levels design you're first instinct is to negotiate and move forward, exploring. Three traits that are identical to coming across an actual maze.

Whilst looking up the design of a maze, I came across a man named Adrian Fisher. A world renowned maze designer. He's designed more than 400.