Mayhem of the Ring

Inspiration

We wanted to build a murder mystery set in the Ottoman palace that actually uses impossible geometry in a way that makes sense for the story, not just as decoration. The Huawei challenge asked for non-Euclidean space, so we figured: why not make the palace itself feel disorienting and maze-like, matching the political intrigue of the era?

What it does

You're investigating a crime in the Ottoman palace. You interview five suspects (real historical figures), piece together clues, then face a jury trial in the Sultan's throne room where your accusation determines if you win or lose and the "right" culprit changes depending on difficulty. Easy, Medium, and Hard each have a different villain. You can't access suspects until you've heard the backstory, and you can't go to jury until you've talked to all five people.

How we built it

Java and Swing was used for the actual game : menus, audio, keeping track of who you've talked to and what you know. We also tried to built a 3D non-Euclidean geometry demo in Three.js to show off the impossible palace, but after hitting some technical issues, we ended up using a simpler 2D map for the final game (still fully playable, just not 3D for now).

Challenges we ran into

Getting WebGL to work inside Java was a nightmare — the embedded browser just wouldn't cooperate. When we tried opening it in a real browser instead, the 3D portal math hit a technical snag . For now, we picked finishing the basic form of the game for now and then delve into the thick of the 3D visuaktions later.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Full playable mystery from start to finish with real branching and multiple endings The gating system actually works — you can't cheat your way past story requirements We built a working non-Euclidean portal renderer but its removed for now from the main code. We pivoted from a broken 3D idea to a solid 2D game without scrapping everything Audio, visual feedback, and the UI

What we learned

Embedded browsers are limited and unreliable. Sometimes the simplest solution is the right one, especially on a time limit. We also learned that separating game logic from fancy graphics means you can swap one out without breaking everything else.

What's next for Mayhem of the Ring

Make the 2D map look better. Optionally add the 3D palace back in as an unlockable bonus view. Add more sound design. Make it feel less like a prototype and more like a finished game.