Labyrinthmaschine in action

A game is not truly tested until someone other than the designer has played it. Now I have in the past been somewhat careful about letting others even touch the Labyrinthmaschine – I was scared it could break. By now my fears have been alleviated and a small handful of others have been allowed into that particular dungeon of mine. Today, my older son wanted a go – and I let him.



While I was hot-gluing a leaderboard to attach to the side of the machine (you can slide in strips of paper with the name and solving-time into pockets of clear plastic to get the top 7), my son was twisting the knobs, exclaiming the discovery of treasure every once in a while. He was, as he had watched me do it, checking off the treasures he had found on the top of the machine. At some point I slapped the leaderboard onto the side.

I hadn't expected him to last long but when he only had two things to go (the katana and the elixir), I asked him whether he had flipped the key-switch. He said yes and in that moment I knew, my son would solve the labyrinth eventually. He is currently on rank 5/5 on the leaderboard, with 11 minutes and three seconds. Not a record-breaking number but I am quite sure he will be able to beat that score soon. We were both filled with pride, as I wrote down his name and time on one of the strips and slid it into place on the leaderboard.