Maze of the Week 3 Redux - Museum of the North (MOTW#160)

You may not know this but I have an archive of old mazes that are unlinked from the website. If you don’t know what that means - it means there is no menu option to reach the archive. It includes old pages that were not very popular on the site but still had traffic and so I keep them around. If you click on a search that includes them you can reach the archive or if I give you the link like above. Today’s maze of the Museum of the North in Alaska is part of the archive. The maze is ok. But, as I have found out, people don’t care about mazes of buildings, signs and locations unless they are famous. So I think I did a good job on it, but even if I did a great job….eh. I decided to improve it anyway. It’s good practice. I enjoy the process. This post will be read more than the maze will be sought out. Here is the original post:

Maze of the Week #3 - The University of Alaska Museum of the North

So my MOTW#3 becomes the 3rd maze of the year again 3 years later and officially MOTW #160.

Here are the enhancements I made to improve the maze:

1. Changed the Start/Goal. I changed them from arrows to an internal written Start and Goal.

2. Changed the size. I reduced the height reduced from 8 inches to 5.5 to eliminate empty space, which reduced the lawn and the sky size as a result.

3. Changed the title. The title was reduced from 42 to 28 size, which allowed me to put the title on one line. Then I added the location below.

4. Added textures. I textured the lawn, the walkway/parking lot and the background trees.

5. Added shadows. I added shadows to the front building nook, on the left side of the building, and around/onto the front windows.

6. Fixed the windows. The window panels on the front of the building were fixed (were showing incorrectly in original maze). Minor, but it needed done.

7. Changed outlines. I switched front lawn outline to none (there is no longer a black border for the lawn) and the background trees to no outline. This makes them read more green than green with black outlines.

Let’s see the before and after:

I don’t know quite how to express this, but the end result was minimal changes, but it looks so much better. It looks the same…but at the same time…..not the same at all.

Some data: The new file is 471MB from 49MB.

I will be replacing the archive with the new maze going forward. You can find the maze download there (if you can find the archive) !

If you like this type of content check out all of my case studies:

A Collection of Maze Design Case Studies to Improve your Mazes

Happy maze-ing !

Maze of the Week 42 Redux - Sydney Opera House - (MOTW #159)

The Sydney Opera House Maze is one of my most popular mazes and one of my earliest. I have been looking wanting to update and improve it for a long time, but I knew it needed a lot of work. Well, I finally went for it and made it into MOTW #159 . Below is the case study showing what changes I made and why. But first, here is the original post for the maze:

Maze of the Week #42 - Sydney Opera House Maze

Here are the enhancements I made to improve the maze:

1. Changed the size. The original size was a very large 27 x 40; I reduced the height to change to 18 x 40 to better reflect the maze size and eliminate empty space. Still large.

2. Changed title font size. It was changed from 40 to 64 but I kept location font the same size so the title is featured vs the location.

3. Changed font color. I changed the titles from black to white based on a change below….

4. Re-oriented the maze. The new size also meant the Opera House would look better by moving it lower on the page and to the right.

5. Extended the building. Previously the building stopped on the right side, but now it more accurately flows off the page on the right side.

6. Added water. I added water with waves so the SOH wasn’t floating on the page any longer (and led to me changing the font color)

7. Added water stain discoloration. The bottom of the sea wall that surrounds the opera house is darker from the water and I added this detail.

8. Changed Start/Goal. I switched to an internal Start and Goal. Create a new maze !

9. New Maze. I switched the location of the start and goal to remove the portions in the base which was too easy and boring. So there is a new maze…actually…

10. 2 Mazes ! Much like the Taj Mahal, the space led to making multiple mazes in the same picture, so you get 2 for 1 mazes now !

11. Color Changed. I changed the color of the roof panels from black to brown to be more accurate - because an even more accurate lighter color does not show maze well enough. I also changed the roof color from white to pearl to be more accurate.

12. Added a reflection. I think any time you can add a reflection in the water, and can do it well, you should do it. It really elevates the maze.

13. Pathway Improvement. I increased pathway width from 3 to 4 (+33% larger) to make solving easier and more enjoyable.

14. Added shadows. Mostly along the roofline and around awnings.

15. Added a shoreline. Because there is one IRL.

So that was a lot. I hope you agree the improvements were worth it ! This is a very large maze so the bigger the screen you use to view it the better !

Huge improvement. Well worth the time I spent updating.

Some data: The new file is 386MB from 307MB.

I will be replacing the homepage with the new maze going forward. You can find the maze download there !

If you like this type of content check out all of my case studies:

A Collection of Maze Design Case Studies to Improve your Mazes

Happy maze-ing !

Maze of the Week 10 Redux - The Alamo Mission (MOTW #158)

I have made multiple versions of the Alamo Mission Maze. An initial kids version and then my original maze of the week in both black and white and later color. Today we get a full improvement redux - I hope you like it! So Maze of the week #10 also becomes MOTW #158. You can read the original blog post here:

Maze of the Week #10 - The Alamo Mission Maze

And now the redux. I have been using the same program (Inkscape) to make my mazes for many years and I am still learning how to use it. It is free software and I use an old version so everything new I learn is self-taught and by experimenting. I recently found better ways to do things and I decided to go back and revise some mazes.

Here are the enhancements I made to improve the maze:

1. Changed the maze size from 34 x 22 to 34 x 19.5. Originally I made the size 2x a tabloid size sheet of paper for easy printing. Now I adjusted the size to reflect the actual maze with printing a secondary concern.

2. Added background details. The maze was floating on the page and I wanted to fix that…

• The first thing I added was the state flag/pole on left side

• I added the ground on each side and extended it off the page.

• I added a small building to the right side and a wall on the left

• Each of the above got textures to reflect the stone they are made of.

3. Added a textured lawn.

4. Changed the font size. The title increased while the location was reduced and moved to the 2nd line.

5. Changed Start & Goal colors. Previously the black lettering was difficult to see so I changed it to blue.

6. Newly Colored Stones. I added some color to a variety of stones on the front of the building to better reflect how it actually looks, including adding some water stains. Previously the building was one consistent color.

7. Added Shadows. I added some shadows to the windows.

8. Added a Sky.

And here are the old and new versions:

I really like the new version !

Some data: The new file is 6224MB from 1480MB.

I will be replacing the homepage with the new maze going forward. You can find the maze download there !

If you like this type of content check out all of my case studies:

A Collection of Maze Design Case Studies to Improve your Mazes

Happy maze-ing !

Case Study #1 - How to Improve a Bad Maze

I have written 2 blog posts featuring a total of 20 mazes that I abandoned for one reason or another. You can read them here:

Why I abandoned these 10 mazes - Mistakes in Maze making

10 More Abandoned Mazes - Mistakes in Maze Making

I took the time to evaluate the mazes and see why they did not work and try to determine - could they be salvaged ? Today I present a case study for improving one of those mazes, the Tiki Totem Maze which ended up becoming Maze of the Week #86. Here is my analysis from the previous blog:

“Abandoned Maze #4 - Tiki Totem Maze

I thought this would be a good idea. Tiki totems are so cool. I can’t quite put my finger on this. It just isn’t good enough to be on the site as a weekly featured maze. I think it MIGHT be able to be fixed. Add color to the totem, and to make it more interesting - SHADOWS. I would also try a more complex maze structure vs the current kids level format. But I can’t be sure that will be enough…so it will not get done ….or it will. We’ll see. Mistake made: Not enough details / interest”

And I must say, for a maze to be recoverable, the mistake made of not enough details/interest is a giveaway that the maze is salvageable with some additional work. Now let’s look at that original maze, also known as the ‘before’:

And here are the changes I made to (hopefully) improve the maze:

1. Color - The actual tiki is not black and white (nor does it have brown accents as the initial maze pathways imply. I went with the weathered grey color of the tiki. I switched the color of the walls to a complementary charcoal color.

2. Shadows added - It is a tiki on a beach so it is in the sun. I went with lots of shadows ! This really shows the shape of the tiki better, especially the eye area. I took the extra time to shadow the nose, neck, and under the pecs.

3. Maze placement - The tiki is full length and sits in the sand on a beach, but I only made the top portion. It is also surrounded by a sea of white nothingness. After considering adding the full totem, I instead decided to place the totem against the bottom of the page which allowed for….

4. Beach scene added - By moving the totem forward there is a large background to fill. That was a perfect place to add a background that included a beach, a palm tree and the sky. I spent 70% of the time improving this maze working on the leaves of the tree, then used a gradient color to accurately color the trunk. I did my best to add foam to the break of the water at the shore.

5. Start and Goal changed - The placement also meant a change from arrows to an internal Start and Goal using lettering.

6. Sky addition - The white sky felt like empty space. Might as well finish the color. I went cloudless like a great day at the beach (with sunscreen).

7. Lettering and branding - Add the name of the maze and my branding both of which were previously missing.

Also considered but not updated:

I decided to not change the actual maze beyond minor moves. It remains easy for kids but looks a lot better for everyone; Something on the water like a boat or a shark fin, or the sky like the sun or some birds; The full totem poll (as mentioned above).

And now the “After”. The new maze:

I think this is an improvement. What do you think ? Should I have added more details ?

This is how the Tiki Totem became Maze of the Week #86 after sitting on the shelf for over 2 years ! Maze download is available !