Inspiration
I created Azarune because I wanted players to feel as though they were entering a living fantasy world—not simply selecting and completing levels.
The adventure begins with Portal to Azarune, a dangerous initiation where the player must collect Soul Gems, recover the Ancient Spell Relic and open the portal through the normal game flow. Completing this trial earns the player entry into Azarune as an Azarian.
Beyond the portal lies a larger world of forgotten paths, magical ruins, dangerous creatures, hidden stories and ancient mysteries waiting to be uncovered.
What it does
Azarune is a mobile fantasy maze-adventure game for Android.
Players begin by reading a welcome letter before entering the Portal Trial. Inside the portal maze, they must:
- Explore a dangerous maze
- Collect Soul Gems
- Avoid creatures, traps and environmental hazards
- Recover the Ancient Spell Relic
- Open the portal and enter the world of Azarune
After crossing the portal, players unlock The Jungle, where they navigate larger mazes, survive traps and creatures, collect rewards, discover ruins and progress through different regions, areas, locations and maze sections.
The game rewards exploration, patience, curiosity and discovery.
How I built it
I developed Azarune in Unity 6 for Android using C#.
During OpenAI Build Week, I used OpenAI Codex with GPT-5.6 as my development partner. I provided the creative direction, world design, gameplay decisions and visual feedback while Codex helped me inspect and improve the Unity project, implement gameplay systems, diagnose technical problems and refine the mobile experience.
Together, we worked on:
- Player movement and mobile touch controls
- Camera following and maze boundaries
- Soul Gem and relic collection
- Portal progression and opening logic
- Jungle maze systems and hazards
- Pause and navigation controls
- Android build and compilation problems
- UI design and mobile screen readability
- Gameplay testing tools for recording the demo
- Visual polishing of the Portal HUD and Ancient Spell Relic
The development process was highly iterative. I tested each change in Unity, showed Codex screenshots of problems, explained the experience I wanted and revised the result until it matched my vision.
Challenges I ran into
One major challenge was designing a Portal Trial that felt meaningful without becoming frustrating. The player needed to earn entry into Azarune but the trial still had to remain understandable and enjoyable on a mobile device.
Mobile presentation created another challenge. The HUD, movement controls, maze, enemies, and collectibles all needed to remain visible without blocking important paths. For example, the Portal header originally covered the upper edge of the maze, so the camera boundaries had to be adjusted to reveal the complete wall beneath it.
I also encountered technical issues involving Unity’s Android build process, IL2CPP compilation, duplicate symbols, slow build times, touch input, camera limits and pause behavior.
Working through these issues required repeated testing, debugging and small, careful improvements that preserved the existing gameplay.
Accomplishments that I’m proud of
I am proud that Azarune has grown from an idea into a playable mobile fantasy experience with:
- An original world and identity
- A narrative introduction and welcome letter
- A complete Portal Trial
- Soul Gem and Ancient Relic progression
- Mobile maze exploration
- Creatures, traps, hazards and rewards
- A larger Jungle world beyond the portal
- Custom mobile controls and interface design
- A progression structure ready for future regions
I am especially proud that the portal is not merely a loading screen. It is part of the story: the player must prove themselves before the world of Azarune opens to them.
What I learned
This project taught me how important iteration is in game development. A feature can work technically while still needing improvement in clarity, appearance, responsiveness or player experience.
I also learned how effectively a creator can collaborate with Codex and GPT-5.6. Instead of replacing my creative decisions, they helped me turn those decisions into working systems, investigate difficult bugs and improve the game much faster through repeated testing.
The strongest results came from giving precise feedback, testing changes immediately and treating development as an ongoing conversation between creative direction and technical implementation.
What’s next for Azarune
This Build Week version is the beginning of a much larger journey.
Future updates will introduce:
- More Jungle regions and locations
- New worlds beyond The Jungle
- Additional creatures and magical hazards
- Quests and characters
- More relics and collectibles
- Deeper lore and environmental storytelling
- Expanded progression and rewards
- More mysteries connected to Azarune’s unknown world
The Portal has opened—but most of Azarune is still waiting to be discovered.
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