The Bull’s Grumble: Minos Inverts the Dungeon Crawler Formula

Minos, the latest offering from publisher Devolver Digital and developer Artificer, is a masterclass in inverting classic fantasy tropes. This maze-building roguelite casts you not as the brave hero, but as the legendary Minotaur, Asterion, who is, quite frankly, sick of the endless stream of self-proclaimed “heroes” looking to loot his home and claim his head. The core concept is simple and brilliant: it’s a tower defense-meets-roguelite where you are the dungeon master, building the death trap from the inside out. With a playable Minos roguelite demo now available, players can dive into the strategic madness of the labyrinth.

Core Gameplay: Crafting the Perfect Chain Reaction of Death

Unlike traditional dungeon crawlers where you navigate pre-designed levels, Minos makes the creation of the level the primary gameplay loop. Each run is a fresh attempt to design the most efficient, cruel, and profitable labyrinth to dispose of the incoming bands of adventurers. The game’s mechanics are built around satisfying, destructive synergy.

• Labyrinth Construction: Before each wave of adventurers begins, you are given a set time to drag and place walls, corridors, and gates. You must observe the predicted path of the intruders (helpfully marked by a yellow line) and craft a new route. The maze is dynamic, allowing you to use rotating passages and shifting walls to confuse and split up enemy parties. This is the maze-building game element in full flow.
• Trap-Happy Minotaur: The heart of the defense is the extensive catalogue of traps. The demo offers a tantalizing taste of what’s to come, featuring spikes, boulders, spinning blades, and poison gas. The true strategic depth, however, comes from linking these traps. You can set pressure plates to trigger a whole cascade—a boulder rolling down a corridor, a spike pit opening, followed by a blast of fire—creating perfectly orchestrated “chain reactions of death.”
• The Roguelite Loop: Success in a dungeon earns you experience and resources to unlock and upgrade deadlier traps, improve the Minotaur’s own passive abilities, and acquire powerful artifacts. Failure (the adventurers finding your core or you being overwhelmed) means a restart, but with meta-progression to keep unlocking permanent features, reinforcing the core roguelite drive to play “just one more run.”

The feeling is less about real-time combat and more akin to setting up an elaborate, Rube Goldberg machine of doom. The satisfaction comes from watching a heavily armored hero confidently stride toward what they think is an easy treasure, only to be reduced to a bloody smear by a well-placed series of automated traps.

The Satire: Tired of Adventurer Bull

The genius of Minos lies in its narrative framing, which acts as a gentle but effective satire on adventurers and the entire loot-driven fantasy genre. We finally get to play the monster who is not a mindless beast but a strategic architect annoyed by the constant flow of self-righteous, glory-seeking interlopers. The Minotaur—Asterion—is a homeowner who simply wants to defend his sanctuary from what are essentially entitled thieves. This shift in perspective makes the violence feel justifiable and humorous.

This deep dive into Greek mythology roguelite lore promises to explore the Minotaur’s background, the motives of Daedalus who built the prison, and ultimately, the confrontation with Theseus. The game asks: Who truly is the monster here? The creature defending his home, or the “hero” breaking in for fame and riches? This narrative hook, paired with the gratifying strategy game PC mechanics, elevates Minos beyond a simple defense game.

Initial Assessment of the Demo

The Minos demo provides a solid, focused look at the core loop. It effectively demonstrates the tactile pleasure of maze design and the addictive nature of optimizing trap placement. The node-based overworld map, where you select your next dungeon based on enemy types and rewards, feels familiar to fans of the genre and ensures tactical variation between runs. The graphics are a grimly beautiful, top-down tactical view that perfectly suits the dungeon-architect theme.

While the full game is slated for a 2026 release, the demo is more than enough to hook players. Its blend of meticulous planning, Greek tragedy reversal, and chaotic, satisfying trap execution makes it an instant must-wishlist for fans of strategy and roguelite games. Go download the demo and start polishing your spikes—the heroes are coming, and they’re about to learn that the Minotaur has upgraded his security system.

The Minos demo is currently available on Steam.