Pre-alpha

Pre-alpha was significantly altered or removed after an update. This article is retained to provide information on past elements of Dead Maze.

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This article contains information on Dead Maze as was planned before the alpha phase of the game. Much has changed, but this article does not reflect this.

During the alpha phase, Dead Maze was planned to be playable in solo, coop and massively multiplayer. The aim was to explore the world and scavenge as many items as possible, to survive the hostile environment and bloodthirsty hordes of monsters.

The game client uses ActionScript3, the server uses Java, and the database uses MySQL^[1].

Admins were still debating the economic model of the game, but it will probably be free to play^[2] (while it was originally planned to be a paid game except for the first "zone"^[3]).

The societe page listed the following features:

Full survival : manage thirst, hunger, health and various symptoms
Grab anything you see on the map and fight with it (yes even that old sock)
Coop AI : monsters will collaborate to hunt you down
Watch out for your items wear and tear, they'll break down after too many uses
Find out the best craft recipes and improve your gear
Rogue-like but with a twist: invest the XP gained when you die into useful skill trees

History[]

It was first mentioned on the forums (as an unnamed game) on the same thread that announced the stopping of development of Celousco^[4]. The first sneak peak was posted by Tigrounette on 1 April 2015^[5]. It was then officially announced^[6] a week later on the 7th with the name Deadmaze^[7].

Around a week later, it was discovered they updated their societe.atelier801.com page for the game, which included a release date of September 2015. The domain deadmaze.com also started redirecting players to atelier801.com. They also officially released the name as "DeadMaze", and created a twitter: https://twitter.com/dead_maze. A facebook account has also been created: https://www.facebook.com/deadmaze. The game will also be available on steam^[8]. On 6 July 2015, the first glimpse of deadmaze.com was available publicly for a short time before being taken down.

Despite the societe's page listing a release date of September 2015 (release date was removed around a month after September), this did not happen. However, the Dead Maze forums and Trello were released late September, hinting at the game's release/beta fast approaching.

The official Dead Maze forum was revealed on 30 September 2015^[9]. Up until then information was either posted on the Atelier 801 announcement thread or posted off-site.

They announced on Atelier801 forum that the game will be F2P (Free to play). They also released the Dead Maze Reveal Trailer[10] on 11 August 2017 and it page has been released on Steam[11] on 11 August 2017

Gameplay[]

The purpose of the game is to pass through different area, each which can have weather conditions, diseases, new objects, and different monsters. The player has a small inventory, and objects will break as they are used, forcing players to survive on what's immediately at hand (water, food, weapons, items, etc). 90% of object in the world are interactive and usable, and the player will fight with everything and anything!^[1]

The first four areas are as follows^[1]:

Typical suburban American-style home with beautiful gardens
Mall infested with zombies
Hot, arid desert with small oases
Arctic zone dotted with ice and scientific outposts

Each area with have it's own types of monsters, with some being "classic" horror movie ones for fun.^[1]

Gameplay is simple, with the complexity being the variety of weapons (as well as their effects) combined with objects breaking and having to survive.

"The interest of the survival game is the feeling of permanent insecurity, which pushes the player to pick whatever he finds, and to move. The idea [of Dead Maze] is that the player is "locked" into a kind of labyrinth controlled by a "higher entity" which aims to test the player's survival skills by generating more or less hostile environments filled with more monsters or less dangerous. The player will have to discover it slowly particular via the artificiality precisely (and then it suits us well to various environments). Areas crossed by the player suddenly become increasingly hostile and difficult." - Tig (translated)

^[10]The concept of Dead Maze is based on the idea that survival in a hostile environment is intrinsically linked to exploration and cooperation as the only way to establish a new semblance of civilization. Consequently, the goal is to survive in a hostile environment with the help of other players.

The story takes part during a zombie apocalypse, where people try to survive and find ways to live as best as they can.

The player-controlled character posesses a camp that allows him to meet his needs, stock items and feel safe. His goal is to improve and protect this base from zombie attacks. In order to do so, he must explore different areas in order to find elements that will allow him to improve his condition.

^[11]When night falls you have to be even more careful to stay alive, as more zombies appear.

Controls[]

Control	Description
`←` key	Move left
`→` key	Move right
Left click	Attack
Right click	Launch a powerful attack

Inspiration[]

On a french forum Tig stated his inspiration for the game as follows^[1]:

Deadmeat - A previous game by Tig. He states Dead Maze as the "spiritual successor" to Deadmeat.
Don't Starve - survival and fight mechanics
Project Zomboid - for it's feedback system and survival displayed as symptoms.
Rogue Legacy - management

Original Concepts[]

While the game is inspired by the above sources, there's also original concepts used in the game^[1]:

Management of the player's death
- Upon death you lose all equipment / items and go to start
- Upon death you earn the experience you accumulated since last death to spend on skills
Cannot travel back to previous zones; must adapt to new areas (often much different than the last)
Zones are linked linear (straight lines) and always in same order.
No procedural generation; all hand-crafted. Each has it's "secrets", and good players will know the locations of the best items, the worst dangers, and the general area. So exploring areas will make it easier to play through after death.
Three gameplay modes:
- Solo - Player is alone, most difficult mode (still requires constant internet connection)
- Coop - the player can play in smaller groups with friends on a private party (hosted on our servers). Less difficult but more fun!
- MMO mode - the player can go play on parts with many unknown players and try to survive as a group. May be the easiest way but brings more fun.
Switching modes may be done at any time.
PvP does not and will never exist.