“That’s not a minotaur, that’s a stand-in for the child star of a classic 90s Christmas movie,” I yell while playing Minos’ free holiday reskin, Minos: Home A-Labyrinth. Devs Artificer have temporarily transformed the demo of their maze-building roguelike – due out in full next year – into a legally distinct parody of Home Alone’s burglar-hurting antics you can play for free.
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“Ever since the announcement of Minos, some of the players who participated in our playtests or played the demo, joked that the game feels like a certain holiday-themed, trap-setting, kid-outsmarts-the-intruders classic,” Artificer wrote in a Steam post announcing this festive revamp. “So, for the Christmas season, as a joke (and a very calculated marketing ploy), we hacked a portion of our own unreleased game into a festive, legally-distinct homage to that vibe, and decided to release it for free today.”
Naturally, having dug the demo for the regular version of Minos earlier this year, I’ve delved in to have a go.
As you’d expect, Home Alone Minos runs on the same simple, but effective structure of minotaury Minos. You play as a sky-dwelling deity helping not-Kevin McCallister fend off hordes of nasty burglars, who act just like the plucky adventurers with various combat styles who usually wish to slay the minotaur. Your job’s to rearrange the walls and traps of maze-like houses to ensure each wave of Harrys and Marvs is broken or at least substantially hurt by the time they reach the kid, minimising the amount of whacking he has to do with his candy cane.
Much like the dungeon-like sections of labyrinth having been transformed into homes filled with Christmas decorations, the Tom and Jerry-worthy selection of traps have also been re-rendered in fitting fashion. The ballista’s now a shotgun, statue lures are now televisions, and flame traps look like bodged-together flamethrowers. Instead of moving from chamber to chamber as you descend through the labyrinth, you walk from house to house in a snowy neighbourhood, with different waves of enemies awaiting behind each door.
It’s a cool bit of festive fun and a twist that makes giving the little bit of Minos that’s currently out there worth giving another go. Then, if you like it, you can wishlist the full version on Steam ahead of that 2026 release.
