Sit Down! Games and Dude Games will be bringing Magic Maze to the United States, with release planned for September.

Recently nominated for the prestigious Spiel des Jahres Kritikerpreis (see “2017 ‘Spiel des Jahres’ Nominations”), Magic Maze tells the story of a band of down-on-their-luck adventurers forced to raid the local shopping mall for the supplies they need for their next dungeon delve. 

The game is played in real time, with players acting simultaneously and cooperatively.  All players can use all four of the game’s characters at any time, but each player is limited to only taking certain actions, which are not available to the other players at all.  Magic Maze eliminates the “Alpha Leader” issue that plagues many cooperative games by limiting communication between the players:  except at specific times, players must act without giving visual or audio clues to the other players.

The first published design by Kasper Lapp, Magic Maze is intended for 1 to 8 players, ages 8 and up, and plays in just 15 minutes.  MSRP is $32.99.