Moirai's Trial

Chosen to represent humanity in the Moirai's trial you, alongside other champions, will have to work together to survive and complete several challenges to make it out alive... but be careful of who you trust as you enter the maze.

Moirai's Trial is an  8-player online multiplayer co-op battle royale where players are placed into a maze filled with hazards, power-ups, cooperative puzzles and only one way out. Heroes must work together as a team or descend into murder to secure their limited spot in the escape portal. Unearth the maze, gain power, form bonds and brace yourself for what the maze might throw at you. Survive what the Moirai have prepared for you.

Some know them as The Goddesses of Birth, others prefer to call them the Masters of Death, but either way they are the ones that intend to determine the right of Humanity to the most precious thing on the world: Life. Unmatched by the gods, and rulers of Nature itself, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos are now your eternal enemies, and you are the one that needs to show them that Life is a gift worth being carried by the Human Species. Embark on their deadly task alongside other heroes and show the Moirai all of humanity's virtues and vices. Please them and you may escape their maze. Fail to impress them, and all of humanity pays the price. 

The Moirai represent a very old legend told by the ancient Greek civilization. Clotho is the one responsible for weaving the thread of life, a physical representation of each mortal's life. Lachesis is responsible for determine every little detail on a person's life, and Atropos gets the ultimate task: to use her golden scissors to cut the thread and bring someone to the afterlife. But, in the end, legends are just legends, right?

Moirai's Trial's is an online, multiplayer, cooperative, free for all battle royale first person shooter featuring

• Proximity Voice Chat
• Projectile-based shooting
• Diverse power-ups
• A randomly generated maze with handcrafted rooms
• Cooperative communication-based puzzles
• A fresh and unique take on the battle-royale genre

Each match of Moirai's Trial takes a maximum of 25 minutes and gameplay is divided into three phases. Heroes begin being placed into a random initial room and must wander around to complete each phase's objectives.

During Phase 1 players have 15 minutes to find and complete 4 challenge rooms. They must find other players, forge bonds and alliances to complete the cooperative puzzles, but watch their backs as any teammate may soon turn into an enemy if they choose to do so. Despite this, the Moirai want to evaluate all of humanity's virtues, and as such, if too much blood is shed (if more than 3 players are killed) during this bonding phase, the entire human race is deemed unworthy and everyone loses the game. As heroes advance to Phase 2, the portal in the middle of the map will unveil how many players are allowed to escape. Heroes should make their way into the middle, and start clearing out players as the Moirai evaluate the hero's will to live and strength to carry that will out. The first to arrive at the portal have the advantage of being closest to the portal when it finally opens, but it also means they will have to defend this area from incoming heroes attempting to secure their own spots. Finally, in Phase 3 the portal opens, allowing only a limited number of heroes to escape. Those who do so are deemed worthy by the Moirai. For the rest, doom awaits.

As a First-Person Projectile-Based Shooter, heroes can move around, dash, shoot spells, use (and drop) power-ups, and jump around the randomly generated maze. A proximity voice chat allows heroes to communinate with each other to either persuade or threaten. Heroes should also beware of footsteps, indicating the proximity of other heroes, and the cannon that is fired to signal the death of a player.

Each match of Moirai's Trial takes place in a randomly generated maze filled with twists, turns, parkour obstacles, deadly fire and greek architecture. Each of the maze's rooms was painstakingly handcrafted to provide a mix of interesting combat arenas and corridors to provoke the heroes' sense of direction.

Looking up at the night sky heroes may spot beams of light, indicating the position of challenge rooms, their color indicating whether they're being attempted (yellow), they've been completed (red), or whether there's other heroes nearby (green). The central portal is always on, and functions as a beacon to help players get their bearings and move around the maze.

To aid heroes the Moirai reward those who completed their puzzles with power-ups and map pieces to help them move around.

Power-ups spice up Moirai's Trial's gameplay by introducing new mechanics, ways to avoid combat or an extra edge to fell heroes who stand in your way.

There are defensive power-ups such as a shield that makes the hero invincible but unable to attack for a few crucial seconds, utility power-ups such as a force wall that blocks other heroes and spells and offensive like triple spells and spells that apply a bleeding effect to those unfortunate enough to be hit by it.

Moirai grant power-ups to those who complete challenges, but have also scattered a few throughout their maze. To avoid greed, however, they only permit heroes to hold 2 power-ups at max. Should a hero find better power-ups than the ones they're carrying, they can drop and switch them out. Additionally, heroes drop their power-ups upon death. Afterall, they won't be needing them anymore.

To open the portal to freedom, you need to solve a set of randomly chosen and  generated challenges. The portals to these challenges are also randomly placed through the maze, so it is your job to find and solve them. These puzzles are always cooperative, so you must find someone (sufficiently) trustworthy to team up with.. at least for the time being. Once solved, a challenge room will reward you with several random map pieces, and two power-ups that will appear next to the portal. Its up to the heroes to discuss amongst themselves who gets which power-up. Beware not to take too long, however, as a passerby may just unexpectedly show up and snatch them before you come to a consensus. To guide you in your quest to find and solve challenge rooms, you can count on a series of light beams shot towards the sky, one for each portal to a challenge room. The beam's color will be your main compass:

• A green light means that someone has found that portal and it's still near it.
• A yellow light means that someone is trying to solve that challenge room.
• A red light means that the challenge room was already solved.

Once you manage to get all the necessary challenge rooms solved (or even more, if you intend so), it is time to run for your life!

Each match is divided into three phases:

• Phase 1
  • Heroes have 15 minutes to find and solve 4 challenge rooms. Should they fail to do so in time, the game ends in a general defeat. As soon as the necessary rooms are solved, the game advances to Phase 2.
  • At least 4 heroes must be alive at any given time during this phase. Should more than 4 heroes fall, the game ends in a general defeat
• Phase 2
  
  • Heroes have 7 minutes to run to the center. The main portal will now indicate how many heroes are allowed to leave and win.
  • Since the portal only opens at the start of Phase 3, players must choose to stand in the middle of the portal to be beamed up as soon as the phase shifts whilst being exposed and easy targets for other incoming heroes or the wait in the shadows and make a run for it when the portal opens.
  • There is no restriction of the number of heroes that must be alive during this phase
• Phase 3
  
  • The portal opens and heroes have 2 minutes to enter it. Anyone outside the portal at the end of this time loses. If the maximum number of heroes that the portal allows, enter it, then all remaining heroes lose.

In terms of controls, players can move their hero, jump, use power-ups , drop power-ups, shoot projectiles, dash, open their map and mute their voice chat.

Here are some hints to survive the maze:

• When a player dies, a cannon fire can be heard
• Challenge rooms reward with power-ups, but there are also power-ups scattered throughout the map
• Yellow beams in the sky indicate that there are heroes within that challenge room, ripe for ambush.
• Team up when you have to, but beware that anything goes in phase 2, and only 3 players are allowed to leave with their life.
• Getting to the portal room first means you'll be able to enter the portal first, but it also means you'll be out in the open in an open and exposed room. Some power-ups may help you secure that area for enough time to be able to escape.
• Challenge rooms only partially complete your map. Communicate with other heroes to combine your maps in order to be able to more easily traverse the maze.
• It may be benefitial to get to a high vantage point in order to check out the map's configuration. But this also means you may be easily seen by other heroes.

If you need people to play with, feel free to join our community discord - https://discord.gg/FnWVcJpUpU !

If you played Moirai's Trial the team would greatly appreciate it if you left a comment telling us about your experience. Additionally, we kindly ask players to give us their feedback through this form - https://forms.gle/2an72eRMBbAbySUs6

Moirai's Trial was developed in the context of the MDJ course @ IST 2021 by:

• Daniel Gonçalves
• Diogo Sá
• Diogo Silva
• Martim Norte

The game also counted with the collaboration of Alizée Bourlier who provided custom 2D art for the end, win and loss screens, main menu, power-ups, amongst other assets.