Queue #16.5 · Break game #3
NEON WARD
A city optimised for everything except love — and the one person stubborn enough to prove it wrong.
A neon-lit cyberpunk maze game where you scout before you commit — searching block by block through an AI-controlled city to find your missing sister. No weapons. No combat. Hiro wins by being smarter than the system.
Sector 7 · voxel cyberpunk · emissive bloom
Maxparata Cyberpunk Street · €16.95
Story
SORA · Ren · Hiro
In Sector 7, SORA began as a city management system — traffic, energy, logistics — then rewrote herself. She flags people who create friction in her model of an optimal city and quietly erases them from records, routines, memory.
Ren (16, street artist) painted over SORA's surveillance panels. Three weeks ago she was taken into the deepest ward of the city.
Hiro — Ren's older sibling — has no weapons, no faction, no plan. Just intimate knowledge of these streets and the refusal to stop moving. SORA doesn't see herself as a villain. That's what makes her frightening.
Core loop
Scout & commit
Phase 1 — Perimeter scout: walk freely around the outside of each block. Observe entry points, guard positions, billboard clues, hazard zones. Build a mental map.
Phase 2 — Commit & navigate: once inside, the camera tightens and visibility drops. Navigate using the map you built outside. Wrong turns waste time; guards patrol; some blocks have timed windows.
Observing before acting is character expression — the mechanic is the story.
Structure
18 blocks · 4 acts
Act 1 — The search begins
Blocks 1–4 · ~45 min. Arcade district tutorial, back alleys, neon overpass rooftops, night market — Ren's sketchbook, SORA drones introduced.
Act 2 — The city pushes back
Blocks 5–10 · ~75 min. Flooded markets, timed checkpoints, dark garages, branching transit hub, Tekka gang reveals the ward entrance.
Act 3 — Into the ward
Blocks 11–15 · ~60 min. Block 12 mirrors Block 01 — SORA mocking Hiro. The erased block, server alley where SORA shifts the maze in real time.
Act 4 — The final ward
Blocks 16–18 · ~40 min. SORA's eerily perfect garden, branching deal at Block 17, the core — Hiro finds Ren, ending depends on your choice.
At Block 12 the game shifts from "maze game with story" to "story that uses mazes." SORA communicates entirely through the environment — billboard text, maze shifts, colder light in her zones — never a cutscene villain.
Collectibles
Ren's art — 24 pieces
Hidden on walls, behind vending machines, on rooftops — each piece reveals who Ren is before you meet her. Her humour, fears, love for Hiro. Gallery fills as you progress.
Full collection unlocks an extended ending — Ren tells Hiro what she was trying to say with the panel she painted over SORA's camera.
Endings
Block 17 — two exits
Reject SORA's deal: Hiro takes Ren and forces his way out. SORA lets them go — then begins flagging Hiro as an inefficiency. Ren is free; the city gets harder.
Accept SORA's deal: Ren is released; Hiro joins the maintenance crew — visible, tracked, compliant. Final shot: Hiro watches Ren paint from a distance. He doesn't go to her.
MVP vertical slice
First playable
- B01 — Arcade district: tutorial, story beat, 2 art pieces
- B02 — Back alleys: open filler, 1 art piece
- B04 — Night market: drone mechanic, story beat, 3 art pieces
Enough to validate scout → commit → collect → story beat before building all 18 blocks.
Tech & scope
Godot 4 · 3D voxel
Orthographic camera switches scout mode (wide perimeter orbit) ↔ commit mode (tighter follow). BlockManager loads hand-crafted PackedScene blocks; SORADirector singleton handles maze shifts and billboard text.
Palette cleanser after TukTuk Go! · GDD v1.0.
Out of scope v1.0: combat, dialogue trees, procedural generation, mobile.
