Taking influence from the 1986 film Labyrinth, this game will be a time-consuming series of puzzles. First, the plot… The game is set in the present, more than twenty years after the story from the film. The story follows a young teen named Michael who is obsessed with the magical world created in the pages of the book “Labyrinth.” Michael’s only other infatuation is a girl from his class, Cherrie. When Cherrie rejects Michael and embarrasses him in front of his fellow students (Grant, Doug, Karen, and Wendy), Michael wishes “the goblins would take you (his classmates) away right now.” Michael immediately finds himself alone on the sidewalk. The sky grows dark and Jareth, the Goblin King, appears before Michael. Michael pleas with Jareth to release his classmates, but Jareth must refuse. Instead, Jareth gives Michael 65 hours (which is five times multiplied the time Sarah was given considering the additional prisoners) to navigate his labyrinth in order to free the other five teens. Michael has no choice but to accept the offer and the adventure begins. Now, the game play… After the opening cut scene, the player will be thrown into the labyrinth to find the five teens. To make things interesting, the player will have only 65 hours to complete the game. If the player hasn’t found Doug, Grant, Karen, Wendy, and Cherrie all in the 65 hours, then the game will start over (for obvious reasons, the clock stops when the system is off). The labyrinth is a complicated place. The player isn’t trying to get to one ending point. The player must navigate and then choose a new path whenever looking for a different teen. The game doesn’t involve combat of any kind, but the player will be busy enough with the puzzles and trying to find their way. Some paths will lead the player back to the beginning of the labyrinth, so choices must be made carefully.
Few controls will be needed for the game. Basic movement controls and specific buttons for conversation and activating puzzles will be all that will be necessary. To explain “conversation,” the player will often come across the inhabitants of the labyrinth and can speak to said characters in order to gain knowledge (some of these characters may even be from the film). These characters may be helpful, but they can also lie to put you on the wrong path. Some of the characters may volunteer to lead you, but players should be wary as they may be led back out of the labyrinth. The player will also be equipped with a backpack which will store items that the player can pick up (some of these items are required to solve some of the puzzles). Jareth will make appearances occasionally, usually making his appearances in cut scenes after the player has freed one of the five teens (hopefully, the multitalented David Bowie would return to voice his character).
The labyrinth is massive, so it’s not likely that the player would see the whole place before completing the game. For that reason, the player will reenter the labyrinth after the game is completed, starting at the castle in the center. The labyrinth will become a free roaming playground by this point, allowing the player to take in its entire eccentric splendor and learn their way around the labyrinth for future replays. Game difficulties will be determined by increased puzzle difficulty and the amount of help the player receives from in-game characters. With that in mind, other characters will also be unlocked when the player completes the game on certain difficulties: if completed on normal difficulty, Hoggle will become a playable character (should be voiced by Brian Henson); if completed on hard difficulty, Sarah will become a playable character (would be awesome if Jennifer Connelly reprised the role); and if the game is completed on very hard difficulty, then a differently colored version of Jareth will become playable. The Hoggle and Sarah characters will have loopholes in the game that will allow them to become playable without completing the game, but the necessary steps would be difficult and take away from the player’s time to complete the game. Also, if the player doesn’t complete the game after finding the hidden characters, then the characters will become locked again. Jareth would have no loophole in the game. All cut scenes would be canceled when using one of the unlocked characters and the story would change a little, but the player would still be working to free the same five teens. Overall, this game would be made for the fans that were captivated by the world that Jim Henson and his team created. No one that constantly plays “beat ‘em up” games would play this, but I think it would engage certain interests. If anything, the look of the game would draw people in.
Side Note: If you could, I'd like you guys to go to my fansite and check out my "Pan, PHD" article. It's an idea I have for a comics series and it was completely ignored when I posted it. I don't usually try to pitch my ideas in other articles, but I think this deserves a look. Thank You! :)