Amaze

Amaze is a top-down action-puzzle game developed by Blender Games, released in 2017 for Windows. Players navigate through fixed-screen maze environments using direct controls, solving puzzles and traversing labyrinthine levels in a single-player experience. The commercial game combines classic maze mechanics with modern puzzle challenges, presented in a flip-screen visual style.

Amaze: Review

Introduction

In the sprawling digital marketplace of the late 2010s, where indie games bloomed and wilted with astonishing speed, Amaze by Blender Games stands as a peculiar artifact. Released on March 14, 2017, this top-down puzzle game is part of a prolific, yet largely forgotten, series that includes Amaze: Double, Amaze: Zero, and Amaze: Christmas. Its legacy is not one of innovation or critical acclaim but as a snapshot of a specific moment in gaming history—an era of ultra-budget, high-volume indie output that flooded platforms like Steam. This review argues that Amaze is a functional, if unremarkable, specimen of its genre, whose true value lies in its role as a historical document rather than a classic of interactive design. It is a game that delivers precisely what its title promises: a maze, and little more.

Development History & Context

Blender Games, a developer with a penchant for rapid-fire releases, crafted Amaze in the crucible of the 2017 indie boom. The studio’s output was staggering; Amaze was one of numerous titles released within a single year, including Amaze: DT (March 2017), Amaze: Double (November 2017), and Amaze: Zero (July 2017). This volume-driven approach suggests a philosophy centered on efficiency and minimal overhead, leveraging accessible tools—likely pre-built game engines or templates—to create content with low production costs. Technologically, Amaze adhered to constraints of its era: a simple top-down perspective, direct keyboard controls (WASD or arrow keys), and no pretense of graphical sophistication.

The gaming landscape of 2017 was defined by contrasts. While AAA behemoths like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn dominated headlines, Steam’s open gates enabled an unprecedented deluge of micro-budget titles. Amaze occupied a niche within this ecosystem—a no-frills maze puzzle priced at a mere $1.99 ($0.55 on sale), designed as an impulse buy for players seeking a brief, cerebral diversion. Its development reflected the era’s “asset flip” culture, where speed and volume trumped polish. Blender Games’ output mirrored that of shareware pioneers of the 1990s, repackaged for a digital storefront audience.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

Amaze eschews narrative in any conventional sense. There are no characters, dialogue, or plot points—only the abstract journey of a small ball through labyrinths. The “story” is the player’s own struggle against spatial complexity, a theme distilled to its purest form: order versus chaos. The ball is not a character with agency but an extension of the player’s will, its quest one of pure logic. Thematically, the game explores the triumph of cognition over confusion, a minimalist allegory for problem-solving.

The absence of lore or backstory is deliberate. The mazes exist in a vacuum, devoid of context or emotional weight. This stark simplicity is both the game’s strength and its limitation. By stripping away narrative, it forces players to engage with mechanics alone, but it also forfeits the opportunity to create deeper engagement. The theme is mechanical challenge, not metaphor—Amaze is a testament to the idea that a game can be complete without a story, yet it rarely transcends its puzzle-box premise.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

The core loop of Amaze is brutally simple: guide a ball through a maze to collect gems, which unlocks a portal to the next level. The game offers 50 linearly progressing levels, increasing in size and complexity as players advance. Three difficulty settings (Easy, Normal, Hard) cater to varying skill levels, though the core mechanics remain unchanged.

• Core Loop: Navigate → Collect Gems → Unlock Portal → Repeat.
• Progression: Purely level-based; no character upgrades, skill trees, or inventory systems exist. Mastery comes from player skill, not character growth.
• Innovation: The game claims “every time you play the maze itself is different,” though this appears to refer to procedural generation or randomized layouts—a feature designed to enhance replayability. The Steam store page for Amaze: Double mentions “teleporters,” suggesting minor variations in some entries, but the base game lacks such mechanics.
• UI & Controls: Minimal and functional. Direct control via keyboard ensures responsiveness, while a clean interface displays objectives without distraction.

The design prioritizes accessibility over depth. Achievements and Steam Trading Cards add meta-progress hooks, but these feel like concessions to platform conventions rather than integral features. For players seeking a quick cerebral workout, Amaze delivers; for those expecting systemic depth, it offers little.

World-Building, Art & Sound

The “world” of Amaze is the maze itself—a geometric abstraction devoid of context. The setting is not a place but a problem space, with walls as barriers and paths as solutions. This abstraction extends to its visual and auditory design.

• Art Direction: Described as “colorful” and “abstract,” the visuals prioritize clarity over artistry. Simple shapes and bright colors distinguish the ball, walls, gems, and portal. The top-down perspective evokes classic arcade mazes like Pac-Man, updated for a digital age.
• Sound Design: A “calm soundtrack” complements the gameplay, likely featuring ambient synth tones or gentle melodies to avoid distraction. Sound effects—chimes for gem collection, a soft whoosh for portal entry—are functional, serving to confirm actions without drawing focus.
• Atmosphere: Engineered for tranquility, the game avoids tension or urgency. This calmness is intentional, fostering concentration rather than panic. It is a game for quiet contemplation, not visceral thrills.

The art and sound cohere to create a sterile, utilitarian environment. It is a world stripped to its essentials, where every element exists to serve the puzzle.

Reception & Legacy

Amaze’s reception is a study in contrasts. On Steam, it boasts a “Very Positive” rating (82% based on 672 reviews), reflecting its niche appeal as a cheap, accessible puzzle game. Players praise its simplicity and satisfying challenge, with user tags like “Puzzle,” “Relaxing,” and “Family Friendly” dominating. However, this positivity is muted in broader critical circles. Metacritic lists no critic reviews, and MobyGames records a Moby Score of “n/a,” indicating it flew under the radar of major publications.

Commercially, Amaze existed in the shadow of its contemporaries. Its $0.55 price point positioned it as an impulse buy, but its sales figures remain undocumented. Its legacy is not one of influence but of documentation. As part of Blender Games’ Amaze series, it represents a micro-budget archetype—a product of Steam’s open-era ecosystem. It lacks the innovation of titles like Stephen’s Sausage Roll or the narrative depth of Portal, but it endures as a data point in gaming’s history.

Subsequent entries like Amaze! by CrazyLabs (2019) evolved the concept, adding paint-trail mechanics and multiplayer, but the 2017 Amaze remains a baseline—a reminder that not all games need to reinvent the wheel to succeed.

Conclusion

Amaze is not a masterpiece, nor is it a failure. It is a functional, self-contained puzzle game that embodies the ethos of its era: speed, affordability, and simplicity. Its 50 levels offer a satisfying if fleeting challenge, while its minimalist design ensures it never overstays its welcome. For the historian, it is a well-preserved artifact of the indie game boom—a testament to the market’s capacity for hyper-specialized, low-cost content. For the player, it is a brief diversion, best suited for a lazy afternoon or a quick mental warm-up.

In the grand tapestry of video game history, Amaze is a single thread. It does not weave a grand design, but its existence reminds us that the medium’s diversity includes the humble, the unpretentious, and the profoundly average. Its verdict is thus: Amaze is a perfectly adequate maze, and in its adequacy, it becomes a fascinating relic of a time when games were made, and forgotten, in equal measure.