Originally I wanted to game to be fun by exciting players through fear. It’s scary getting chased through a labyrinth but also thrilling. Unfortunately, the first few play tests revealed it was too easy to get out of the labyrinth and away from the monster. But if you did so happen to get cornered by the monster, there was slim to no chance of defeating the monster and getting away. Players felt things were out of a balance and was either too much of a challenge or too easy. There was also no incentive to explore. Most of the maze went unexplored as the only goal was to get out of the maze alive.
So I changed up the theme to focus more on exploration. I added gold as an incentive to go into the cave and explore the darkest depths. I balanced the stats more to give players a chance of getting away. The biggest change was making it so all players started at the entrance of the cave and that was the only exit as well. In the following few playtests, the game played much better with the improvements made to the game. Now playing in the darkness worked for both the players and the monsters and the maze was invisible for the explorers but clear as day for the monster player. Players also found it a lot more fun to explore until the encountered the monster and make a break for the exit rather than just trying to escape.
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