Seeds. Mazes. Diffusion. Mystery.
A procedural maze platform where each maze carries a deterministic identity, a playable space, and a collectible visual presence.
helps keep it running and is very appreciated, but not required😛
Jason K.
Colton C.
Enigma is moving toward a maze ecosystem instead of a one-off maze generator. The target is not just procedural layouts. The target is generated spaces that feel worth exploring, remembering, and trading.
Enigma is a full-stack procedural maze project built around one rule:
No two valid maze seeds should resolve into the same maze identity.
Each maze can carry:
- A deterministic layout
- A puzzle set embedded into rooms
- A generated visual theme
- Ownership and discovery history
- Marketplace and leaderboard data
The project combines procedural generation, AI-assisted visual identity, social systems, and live co-op into one stack.
| Area | Current State |
|---|---|
| Gameplay | Playable single-player and co-op maze runs |
| Puzzles | Easy, medium, and hard puzzle sets with active room interaction work |
| Accounts | Signup, login, secure session flow, profile pages, friends |
| Economy | Marketplace, item shop, inventory, Maze Nuggets, ownership tracking |
| Realtime | Redis-backed co-op session sync with WebSocket updates |
| Art Pipeline | Seed-based map artwork generated through diffusion workflows |
- Deterministic maze creation from a seed
- Layout validation and auditing
- Stable maze identity tied to the seed
- Room-gated progression
- Difficulty-based puzzle sets
- In-room interaction flow with puzzle overlays
Instead of showing plain maze diagrams, Enigma generates themed map artwork through an image pipeline.
Seed -> Noise Generation -> Diffusion -> Theme Refinement -> Map Artwork
Every maze is meant to feel identifiable, not disposable.
- Seed-based maze generation and validation
- Single-player maze runs
- Co-op session creation, invites, join, ready flow, and shared room progression
- WebSocket-backed multiplayer session sync
- Puzzle systems across easy, medium, and hard tiers
- AI-generated themed map artwork
- User signup, login, secure session flow, and protected routes
- Profile pages, friends, friend requests, and player search
- Map ownership, discovery tracking, and profile avatars from owned map art
- Marketplace map buying and selling
- Item shop, inventory, and run loadout selection
- Leaderboards for maps and players
- Loss handling for abandoned runs
- Dockerized backend with MongoDB and Redis support
- Room-native puzzle interactions and more diegetic puzzle stations
- More co-op polish around movement feel and session lifecycle
- More theme and puzzle variety
- Economy balancing and progression tuning
- Production hosting hardening
- Blazor / ASP.NET Core
- Shared app shell, protected routes, and session-aware navigation
- Gameplay renderer for single-player and co-op rooms
- API proxy layer for backend communication
- Python / FastAPI
- REST APIs for users, mazes, economy, marketplace, and multiplayer
- Redis-backed co-op session state
- Image generation and diffusion orchestration
MongoDB
- Users
- Maps
- Marketplace listings
- Inventory and economy state
Redis
- Multiplayer sessions
- Invites
- Real-time room sync
- Frontend host: Render
- Backend: Dockerized Python service
- Realtime: Redis
- Current development flow supports local Docker and public backend tunneling
Current curated theme labels:
- Neural Membrane
- Cartoon
- Dungeon
- Sewer
- Hedge
- Haunted House
- ???
Themes are selected by the backend image pipeline and used throughout the UI for maps, profiles, and leaderboards.
The map-art pipeline is not just a screenshot pass over maze data.
Current image generation work includes:
- Seed-derived structural noise generation
- Theme-specific prompt packs
- Theme-specific diffusion refinement pipelines
- CPU/GPU-aware execution
- Map image persistence and maintenance tooling
The visual pipeline has evolved through several stages:
| Stage | Result |
|---|---|
| Grid rendering | Functional but flat |
| Static noise | Unique but visually weak |
| Diffusion pipeline | Themed collectible map artwork |
Enigma treats mazes as player-facing assets, not only levels.
Current economy systems include:
- Map buying and selling
- Map ownership transfer
- Item shop and inventory
- Maze Nuggets as the in-game currency
- Bank dividend rules
- Recycling flow for owned maps
This is still being balanced. The immediate goal is clarity first, then tighter scarcity and pricing.
- More room-native puzzles that use the full game screen
- Stronger puzzle interaction points in-room
- Better puzzle readability and less UI clutter
- Additional difficulty tuning and puzzle expansion
- Smoother remote player interpolation
- More robust session recovery and abandon detection
- More co-op-specific puzzle content
- Better live feedback in co-op rooms
- More profile polish
- Better friend and activity visibility
- More discoverability around player-created value
- Better balance for map value, rewards, and item usefulness
- More item variety with clearer in-run purpose
- Continued marketplace polish
- More theme coverage
- Better image-generation consistency
- More authored prompt-pack control and curation
- Fast room rendering on normal desktop hardware
- GPU acceleration for image generation when available
- Stable CPU fallback when GPU is unavailable
- Responsive co-op state updates without destroying play feel
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Frontend | Blazor / ASP.NET Core |
| Backend | Python / FastAPI |
| Containers | Docker |
| Database | MongoDB |
| Realtime | Redis |
| Image Generation | Diffusion pipeline |
| Hosting | Container-based development flow with hosted frontend deployment |
The current work is centered on:
- Making the game screen feel better to actually play
- Moving more puzzle logic into room interaction instead of side-panel UI
- Making more engaging puzzles and gameplay
- Tightening co-op synchronization and abandon handling
- Keeping profile, marketplace, and economy systems coherent as features expand
- Building real value into maps and progression
This is no longer just a login-and-leaderboard prototype. The project already has a playable loop, persistent accounts, map ownership, economy systems, and live co-op. The work now is about making the whole thing feel sharper, cleaner, and more deliberate.
Enigma is aiming at:
- Infinite unique maze identities
- Collectible AI-themed worlds
- Social discovery and ownership
- A maze game that feels authored even when it is generated
Every maze should be:
- Discoverable
- Ownable
- Remembered
Enigma is not just a maze generator.
It is a project where:
- Algorithms create structure
- AI creates identity
- Players create value
Every maze is an enigma.
If you want to support development directly: