Taking you into the depths of darkness as you attempt to find your wife is The Mysterious Machine Team with their upcoming first person horror Maze: The Angels Walk Silently! This horror game takes away your flashlight, leaving you with matches as your source of light in the night. It is expected to be on Steam in March 2018!

The games inspiration is from the novel “At the Mountains of Madness” and some original short stories of Lovecraft. It also refers to the chronicles of the Hungarian progenitor Emese, and some parts of the Greek mythology.

Interestingly enough, the story doesn’t contain firmly good and evil characters. Eva is a religious fanatic, while Aiden is desperate to save his wife. The other characters of the story have also complex personalities, such as mystic creatures of the mountain who are desperately struggling to survive. Ancient conflicts clash among them! The cultist is waiting for the child who can bring peace between them and could lead these ancient beings to the light.

Story

An ancient power awakens in the long forgotten mountains of Transylvania.

Aiden lives at Boston with his wife Eva who disappears one day. Later he receives a letter about his wife and follows the trail to Europe where the parents of Eva live. He only finds an abandoned village and a ruined mansion. Aiden takes a room in the inn of the village but in the morning he finds himself in a dark dungeon.

Q&A with Bence Pápai and Bálint Bánk Varga

What made you want to create a first person horror?
“We wanted to create a video game that can reflect the lovecraftian atmosphere, and still brings a new color to the genre. We thought for this purpose maybe the best is to choose the first person perspective, stealth and take some mechanics from point and click adventure games. We also put a great emphasis on object interactions in the game.”

This may be a more of a hope, but does the fact that you call it Maze mean that there will be a large section in the game featuring a Maze or perhaps an even bigger reason for the title?
“The maze refers to two things. Partly - outside of the game - the maze stories together create an intertwined story of the mankind. On the other hand, the foreign underground city in the game is a huge circular maze which center gives place to the cathartic ending of the game.”

What does “The Angels Walks Silently” refer to? Why did you end up making this your title?
“This part of the title refers to the psychological horror aspect of the game. It suggests the fear the player can feel walking in the ancient foreign city.”

Do you hope to make a series out of this game?
“We planned two sequels to the game, if this project performs well we are going to begin their development too.”

Will this be defenseless or survival?
“Both. We do not hide the fact that the Alien Isolation had a big impact on us, and the Resident Evil 7 was a good confirmation for us. Similarly, we try to mix the stealth style with the classical survival-horror containing very fierce fights.”

Would you say it is an experience horror or objective led?
“In our game everything is about the story. We will use some alienating elements, but the focus will be on the story and the atmosphere.”

What is the overall objective for the player?
“In the beginning we will try to find somebody, collect clues, but shortly the escape and survival will become our primary objective. Meanwhile an ambitious conspiracy gets revealed too.”

What aspect of horror will your game focus on?
“We try to find a balance between the different aspects, however it’s a fact that the game will be a psychological horror. There will be jump scare scenes but it won’t be the main source of the thrill. We hope the atmosphere, the texts in the game, the dialogues and the story will be horrid enough to keep the players out of their comfort zone. We don’t want to scare rather keep the players interested in the story and make them uncomfortable and fearful.”