Idea for a Labyrinth game

I have been working on this idea for a game or Labyrinths and Mazes. This is my first game I will admit, but I am confident it will be really good. I'm working on a "paper-prototype" and have no intentions of developing further until I have a solid game on paper. Many of my posts on this forum have been about this idea. It's inspired by the movie Labyrinth and the games myst and Heroquest.

So far I've got:

1. 3'x3' labyrinth board.This is a six pointed star: One large Hex-shaped maze in the center, with shifting walls and is where you start out. The six triangles outside the Hex are smaller mazes leading to room that contains a torch that must be set alight. There are six of these torches, one in each mini maze. These are some basic ideas for challenges to be met.

2. Movement: is achieved by drawing playing cards. The numbers on the cards give players movement points (2-9 is 5points, 10-King is 10points, Aces are worth 15 points). The suits have multiple purposes in the game.The reason for using playing cards is vary important to me and am not prepared to explain why on this forum. If you would like to inquire about this detail, send me a message. or e-mail me at (strong_dustin @hotmail.com).

3. Shifting walls: In the large center hex maze, there are six areas where pasasges cross. I call these areas vortexes. The square in the middle of this crossing is the vortex, and the four adjacent squares leading in four defferent durections, have a suit drawn on them- four passages- four suits. Now, there are brick-wall tockens placed one on each of the six vortexes on one of the suits, representing a solid wall that the player may not pass through. All six of these wall tokens, always sit on the same suite. There will be a method of deturmining the starting position of the walls. Here is how they move. When a player draws cards in order to move, and they come up to a vortex aria. The card that moves them beyond the vortex aria, they have passed the vortex and the squares with the suits on them, and have finished movement. They look at that card, and the suit that is on it, is were all six walls move on to. So if all the walls where on diamonds and the player moved through the vortex area with a six of spades, all the walls move on to spades. I know this is hard to picture with out seeing my board design. I will try to get an image up of it on here if you like. So what happens is the walls shift behind you, however the next vortex you aproach my force you to take a more complicated direction out of the labyrinth if a path is blocked up. Or, when you come back the way you came, it may be totally different forcing the player to change routs. Any questions about this mechanic?

4. I think I should have the board for you guys to see so you can understand this better.

Here are my ideas as for game theme and story. This whole game takes place in the context of a "lucid dream" . YOu are exploring a dream. I am inclined to call the game "The Dream" instead of "The Labyrinth". I am taking players on an exciting adventure. You start out in a vast forest environment where your alone and paths shift and change. Eventually you find this hole or portal and it takes you to the main labyrinth. Flip the board over and you got the six pointed star labyrinth. From here on, you progress through a story and the labyrinth changes as you move up levels.

There is this character that is lord over the whole game and labyrinth and is revealed more and more as the game progresses. In the beginning when your in the forest, you get this sense of being watched. This morphs into the sense that your journey is being observed by this entity and begin to hear voices in your head from this entity. Around the transition from the forest to the main labyrinth, a dialoque emerges with this entity, you see words and messages apear like shadows on the walls of the labyrinth. It starts to become clear that this entity is lord of the labyrinth and is testing and initiating you as the dreamer. Throughout the game more is revealed about this entity, but you never know exactly what they are. You don't get a clear visual of what this spirit entity looks like. This idea was inspired by the "Goblin King" in Labyrinth the movie. Also you ecounter other characters in the game.

I want this game to be big and long. I prefer it to be open ended that players can keep coming back to play and progress indefinately and or have a different game experience each time. One way I think I can get away with haveing a long complex game is that game parts are limited to a degree that it's not over budget. There will be a double sided 3'x3' game board: one side is a forest maze that looks totally different from the main labyrinth and uses shifting walls mechanic described above, the other is the six-pointed star maze- the main one, which also has shifting walls. And lastly, I am contemplating creating large tiles that are placed over the six pointed star labyrinth that have different mazes or scenes on them. So you may go into one of the mini mazes from the hex-maze and come out into a totally new envirionment when a large hex-shaped tile has been placed over the board. This I think can add almost unlimited variety to the game and add a nice "arch" to game play. I may have different booklets that have maps that can be used to create a huge world, while still haveing limited game components.

As for the amount of players. I am contemplating haveing a long "solo game". But, also creating a way to have long multi-player games or short multi-player games. Essentually haveing these little mini games that don't take long that players can choose from. So, this would be a complete game system that players can choose and constumize there game experience. I haven't yet come up with mechanics and details of how this all will work.

I'm thinking that I could use pawns to save cost, and have fabulous artwork on cards and player character cards that would give them a visual of how their character looks, making them feel like they can imagine themselves in the game.

Please give me suggestions and feedback. Do you like my idea? Is there a game like this?