I love Greek mythology; it is one of the things that fascinates me the most, and with Minos, the new project from Artificer, we will be able to lose ourselves in that mythology and its labyrinths, literally.
For those who may not know, Artificer is the studio that developed and launched Showgunners in 2023, a very compelling tactical RPG that I recommend checking out. In 2024, they released Sumerian Six, a deep Commandos-inspired experience. Both titles stood out thanks to their strong visual style, and the new project Minos is no exception.
Minos is a maze-building roguelite that puts the player in control of the Minotaur and treats the labyrinth as the core system.
Each run centers on planning the layout, shaping corridors and choke points, and directing intruders through routes that favor your defenses.
Play revolves around building and rewiring the maze while linking traps into sequences. You drag walls, gates, and corridors into place, add rotating passages to split parties, and use pressure plates so one hazard triggers the next.
Spikes, boulders, blades, and fire can be combined into chain reactions that turn a raid once timing and positioning line up. The loop encourages iteration across attempts, with small layout changes creating clear differences in how adventurers advance or fail.
The story reframes the myth from the Minotaur’s perspective, with Daedalus and Theseus as key figures and a final decision that determines who leaves the labyrinth.
I tried the demo last night, and I think it gives a solid sense of the game, what it is going for, and how it is structured.
You move on a node-based overworld map, the classic setup you see in roguelites, and each node corresponds to a dungeon of varying size with specific enemy types to face.
You choose which one to tackle and which traps to bring. Once inside, the game gives you all the time you need to build your dungeon and steer the path of the hapless visitors. Their intended route is shown by a yellow line, and based on that, you can decide where to lead the adventurers and how to finish them off.
Things keep getting more complex. At first, visitors arrive from a single entrance, but over time the dungeons grow more intricate and add multiple entry points, so you will need to craft the perfect layout to take down the intruders with the resources you have.
Each dungeon can contain multiple waves of enemies, and between waves, you earn experience points that let you upgrade and unlock deadlier traps and more complex devices.
Once you are happy with your setup, you hit Play. From that moment, the adventurers start exploring the corridors according to the route you prepared for them. Meanwhile, you can move the Minotaur if you need to act as bait or manually trigger a device, and you can hit Pause to gather your thoughts if needed.
Between completed dungeons, you can spend points and resources to upgrade and unlock traps and improve the Minotaur, making it faster, able to dodge arrows, and more.
That said, I strongly recommend trying the demo on Steam. As for a release window, it will not arrive before 2026. You can find the announcement trailer below.
