Arrow Maze Design Case Study - Part 11 All Ways Arrow

Welcome to Part 11 of our Arrow Maze Design Case study. In this section I will discuss a block option that is rarely used, but can added if you want to give the solver a high number of options. I call it the All Ways Arrow, and it is just what I described, an arrow that when you land on it allows you to move in every direction.

Here is an overview of what we will be covering in the 14 part series:

Arrow Maze Construction and Design:

• Part 1 - Start Locations and Options

• Part 2 - Using Creative Shapes

• Part 3 - Intersections

• Part 4 - Using Loops

Arrow Maze Components:

• Part 5 - Regular Arrows

• Part 6 - Double Arrows

• Part 7 - Using the START GOAL

• Part 8 - Return to Start Block

• Part 9 - Using Warp Zones

• Part 10 - Slide Arrows

• Part 11 - All Ways Arrow

• Part 12 - Long Arrow Use

Extreme Arrow Maze examples:

• Part 13 - Kitchen Sink Examples

• Part 14 - The Largest Arrow Maze in the World (I think)

Arrow Maze Design Case Study - Part 11 - All Ways Arrow

The All Ways Arrow for me is an idea that seems much better than it actually is in practice. The idea being that when you land on this type of arrow, you may move off of it in any direction. That makes it similar to a START block that is away from the edge of a maze. So, landing on this allows you move in 8 directions (although the true number is most likely 7 since you most likely got to the All Ways Arrow from an adjacent move).

Let’s speak about 3 things you need to know about using this type of arrow:

• The placement of the Arrow must be away from the edge of the maze to utilize every direction that may be moved in.

• The All Ways Arrow has some “gravity” to it. I do not know a better way to describe this, maybe a black hole ? When this arrow type is used a large section of the maze will be dedicated to either reaching or leaving this point,

• Because it needs so many pathways to/from it’s location in the maze, it is best to use it in a large arrow maze, as the pathways will invariably take up a lot of space.

Here is a small maze that uses an All Ways Arrow:

Arrow Maze

My next example uses a total of 3 All Ways Arrows which adds a unique experience for the solver. After the initial choice from the START, the maze uses only regular arrows, so your only choices happen when you land on an All Ways Arrow. So you go from no choice to many choices (six, six and seven choices by my count). Try it and see what you think.

So add this arrow to your toolkit, but my guess is you will use it sparingly.

In Part 12 we will look at our final arrow maze component, the Long Arrow