For the past 3+ years I have been posting daily mazes on this website. In 2018 and 2019 the theme was based on weird holidays. In 2020 and 2021 I featured a different type of maze each month and concluded most months with a free downloadable book. This gave me a guideline to design each daily maze and focus my work. In April of 2021 I started the Laberinto portion of the site for Spanish speakers.
For a typical 30 day month I need to do the following: 1 - Create a maze. 2 - Format and save the maze for display on the website. 3 - Create a downloadable file for the site. 4,5,6 - repeat steps 1,2, and 3 in Spanish by translating and updating each file. So each month I make 180 different files in order to populate the site. It takes a lot of time. Even for simple mazes. I work on other, more complicated mazes than the ones that I post daily. Those are the mazes I like making the most. The daily mazes are taking up a lot of time…but they do not produce a lot of enjoyment for me (typically). So they are stopping in 2022.
So what is going to happen in 2022 ? A weekly maze. 52 mazes for the year. Each maze will be more intricate. Each maze will be closer to what I call maze art. Each individual maze will have it’s own linkable section of the website for after the week is over. Each weekly maze will have a blog post telling you about the maze, possibly about how or why it was made and give more background. I also might include some additional coloring options for each maze. I like to think of it like a comic book, where each maze has an alternative cover !
I think you will see better mazes that are more shareable and more likely to be printed out and solved. Now, I will spend the same amount of time making mazes, but instead of producing 180 files for 30 days, I will make 12 files of 4 mazes for 28 days. And I will like a final product that has much higher quality (and I hope you will to!)
What type of mazes will I see on the site ?
Sign Mazes - for some reason I like making this type of maze
Building Mazes - a nice subject to create a maze with
Landscape Mazes - I have not perfected these yet, but with some practice I think these could become interesting
Landmark/Statue Mazes
When will mazes be posted ?
Every Monday except for the first maze which will post on January 1.
Each maze will also include a blog post to accompany it.
Many mazes will be posted during specific weeks to honor a specific holiday / anniversary, etc. Some of my favorite mazes are already slated for September/October !!!
What makes a good subject for a maze ?
Buildings are normally very good
Anything that has a block like shape.
Items that have a lot of “open” space that can hold a maze within them
i.e. skinny items can be difficult since they have difficulty containing a maze
And a poor subject ?
Besides the skinny items, I have a lot of trouble with faces.
Similar to faces, any picture/item that relies on shadows. There is a way to make these (varying the thickness and spacing of lines) but I have not yet mastered it.
How can I suggest a maze subject ?
Maze suggestions. Please do !! I love when I get suggestions.
Now would be a good time to give you an example. Let’s start with a maze I have featured before as an example of ‘maze art’. The Playhouse Square Sign in Cleveland Ohio. Obviously, the example is smaller than when it prints on regular size paper and is solvable (and easier to see the maze!).
Playhouse Square Sign Maze
Cleveland, Ohio
From across the room this looks like a picture and not a maze (hopefully). Only when you get up close do you realize that what you are looking at is actually a maze. That is my goal.
I hope you enjoy the new format ! Let’s have a great 2022 !