Introduction
Discover a step-by-step guide to creating a straightforward maze. This article outlines the process of drawing a simple maze, from outlining the structure to adding challenges. Follow these clear instructions to draw your own cool mazes for your friends to solve!
Materials Needed:
- Graph paper or plain paper
- Pencil
- Eraser
- Ruler (if using plain paper)
Steps to drawing a simple maze
1. Determine the Size of Your Maze
The first thing you need to do is to determine how big you want your maze to be. Consider the number of rows and columns you’ll use. For beginners, start with a smaller size like a 5×5 or 7×7 grid.
Determining the size of your maze in advance immediately places constraints on your maze complexity (because, after all, the bigger the maze is, the more difficult it will be to solve the maze).
2. Start with the Outline
The most common type of mazes is the perfect maze, usually in the form of a square.
I always start the outline of the maze as a square. It is within this square that I then design the walls, eventually forming one or multiple paths leading from the start to the exit.
If you’re using graph paper, use the grid lines as guides. If not, use a ruler to draw a grid on your plain paper. Draw the grid visible, but very light (because you might want to erase the grid after your maze is completed).
3. Design the Entry and Exit Points
Before I create the inner walls of the maze, I always mark the entry point (start) and exit point (finish) of the maze. Usually, these are on opposite sides of the maze, but you can also place them on the same side close to eachother (you will create a hopefully long path between them in the next steps).
4. Create Walls
Next, begin drawing the walls of the maze. The walls will eventually form the paths for your maze. Take note that each cell in the maze has either a wall or a path. If you want to make your maze challenging, avoid having multiple paths between the entry and exit points to make the maze more challenging. However, it’s perfectly fine to make many branches off the main (and only correct) path to present your players multiple choices if you want to deliberately misguide them into dead paths.
When designing on paper, draw very thin lines, as you want to do a sketch first. Do not immediately erase a faulty line (you will do so later, as you’re still in sketch mode currently).
5. Add Dead Ends and Turns
Once you have your walls drawn, now will be the time to include dead ends, twists, and turns to make your maze more interesting and complex. Remember that dead ends are paths that lead to nowhere, forcing the player to turn back.
Usually, the goal of a maze is to purposefully confuse the player and make it harder for them to navigate to the exit, so do your best to deceive them ;).
Personally, I like to present players multiple branches that all (but one!) lead to a dead end. I try to make those dead branches go on for as long as possible before the player realizes it’s a dead end. This usually requires multiple iterations of adding and removing walls to form these pathways. Experiment, and see what you can come up with.
6. Test Your Maze
Once you’re satisfied with your maze, test it first! Trace through the paths to see if there is at least one solution from the entry to the exit point. Try out different algorithms to see how they hold, such as the wall-following algorithm.
If your goal was to have only one correct path, now is the time to go back to step 5 and edit your walls’ configurations.
Make adjustments if the maze seems too easy or impossible to solve.
Also, look out for unreachable areas. I try to make make all cells of my mazes reachable one way or another, because I don’t want to limit the game field (and after all, the larger the game field, the more difficult it will be for the players to solve the maze, which is exactly what I’m aiming for when designing my mazes).
7. Finalize Your Maze
Once you’re satisfied with the design and paths, darken the walls and paths with a pen or marker to make them more distinct.
If you followed my tip to sketch thin lines on paper, you’ll reap the benefits from that now. Because as you are finishing your maze and darkening the permanent walls and structures, you need to erase any lines and markings that are no longer needed.
Your maze is now finished and you can invite your friends to solve it (and better yet, challenge them to do so within a time limit!).
8. Optional: Add Details or Decorations
If you want to get more creative with your maze design, consider adding details or decorations to your maze, such as shading, patterns, or themed elements to make it more visually appealing.
You can even purposefully add eye-catching decorations to distract your players, making it harder to solve your maze ;).
For example, write a list of specific tasks under your maze and number them. Then, write those numbers at random places in the maze (or even better, at strategic points in the main path) and tell your players that they have to do the corresponding task if they ‘walk’ over a cell with a number written on it.
They then have to read and complete the task, after which they can continue navigating the maze from the same cell that was numbered.
You can also make a task that requires your player to continue navigating the maze from a different,numbered cell in the maze. This basically ‘teleports’ your player from one cell to a completely different cell, making it harder to complete the maze.
Just make sure your players are not stuck in an infinite, unbreakable loop, though ;). So be sure to test your maze again (see step 6) when adding gameplay changing tasks.
Tips
- Keep the paths and walls consistent in width to avoid confusion.
- Make sure the entry and exit points are clearly distinguishable.
- Test your maze by solving it yourself to ensure it’s challenging but solvable.
- Don’t be afraid to get creative and experiment with different maze designs and sizes.
There are of course other useful tips for designing user-friendly maze structures if you are serious about your mazes.
Conclusion
In conclusion, crafting a maze involves methodical design and thoughtful construction, especially if you start to draw more complex (and larger) mazes! By following these steps and experimenting with different variations, you can create quite interesting puzzles that are not only fun to navigate, but also entertaining yet challenging.
Start simple and gradually increase the complexity as you get better at designing your mazes. Always remember to test your mazes for solvability, though, whether they are simple or more complex!
Which aspect of maze designing do you like the most? Let me know in the comments below!
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