How to Make an Arrow Maze

In a series of posts I will show you how to make a maze in a wide variety of design constructions. For the fifth example we will look at the arrow maze construction. It is one of the most enjoyable maze constructions to make. Let’s define what I mean by Arrow maze, then get into the example. Every example will use the sample basic outline (the state of Ohio) to better illustrate the differences between each maze type. If you want to watch of a video of the making of an arrow maze that is included at the end of the post.

Arrow Maze - A maze that involves following arrows in the direction shown with a few decisions along the way to create the maze solving aspect. Standard movement is one grid at a time (vs an Slide Arrow Maze that allows multiple grids per move). A well designed arrow maze has no dead ends, but rather loops that return you to an earlier part of the maze.

HOW TO MAKE AN ARROW MAZE

• Step 1 - Draw the Outline

The outline of the maze makes the outer wall of the maze. It can be anything from a simple shape like a square, to a complex picture. The outline should be thicker than the internal lines to give the maze definition. In the example below I chose the state of Ohio. But arrow mazes are generally made of grids, so any configuration or shape you can make from grids would be suitable for an arrow maze.

• Step 1.5 - Choose the Start and Goal

For the below example I chose the start of Cleveland and the goal of Cincinnati. Unlike most mazes the Arrow maze does NOT use arrows to indicate the start and goal, but rather colored boxes (or boxes indicated with the words START and GOAL). In the example below you start in the orange box and end in the red, this format of course will require directions to be added later. As with most mazes, you do have the option to choose your Goal at a later time as you progress thru the maze.

• Step 2 - Draw the Grid Design

Draw a grid design to fill the outline with blocks that will contain the arrows. The use of Ohio does not make the best example since some outer blocks are oddly shaped, but it still works !

• Step 3 - Draw the Arrows off to the side

Unique for this maze is that prep-work will help with the mazes construction. An arrow maze can be moved thru in 8 main directions (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW). I like to create an arrow and then rotate the arrow to the needed directions to make the construction of the maze more efficient. I also make one “choice” arrow with multiple directions that I can rotate as needed. For advanced Arrow mazes there are a few other options I will show in my other examples section, but these basic arrows are a good start.

• Step 4 - Start Filling in Arrows

Beginning from the starting block, add arrows to create pathways away from the block. Any block touching the starting block can be a first move. Arrows that face the starting block will return you back immediately. While constructing an Arrow maze you should have at least one path back to the starting block for false paths. Unlike most mazes, an Arrow path has no dead ends (ideally), only loops to earlier parts of the maze.

Notice how I created false paths that bring you back to the start. I find that return loops are much more enjoyable than dead ends when solving a maze.

• Step 5 - Complete the Arrow Maze

To complete an Arrow maze you fill in each block with an arrow. Make sure to never create a dead end or an infinite loop. In this way an Arrow maze can be solved in multiple ways (some loops return to their initial mistake), but there is always a best solution. There are also “short” loops that are less punishing to the solver if they make a wrong choice. Check the decision block in B2 (second column, second row). If you choose to move left rather than down it will bring you right back to where you are in in 4 moves.

• Step 6 (Optional) - Make the Solution

Highlight the solution for the solver that is the quickest path to the goal. For Arrow mazes I like to solve these after a few days to check how enjoyable they are. I also have changed how I show the solution since making this example. I also draw a line following the “path” and only show the correct arrow in red for the L-shaped decision arrows !

Additional Arrow Maze Examples

Here are a few additional examples of Arrow mazes in more traditional forms. The first is in a the most common square grid form. I included this example because it was one of my first formats which included directions and the use of colors for the Start and Goal.

And these are two examples of Arrow mazes in different shaped grids. Any grid shape could work if it has enough options for the solver to be challenged. The maze on the left also includes a decision arrow at 45 degrees.

While making an Arrow Maze can be pretty basic from a movement perspective, there are many options to make it more interesting. Let’s review some the the most common ones I use to make things more challenging.

6 ADDITIONAL ARROW MAZE MOVEMENT OPTIONS

1. The ALL WAYS ARROW allows anyone to land on it to leave the grid in ANY direction. It looks like a star.

2. The DOUBLE MOVE ARROW allows you to jump over grids or spaces in the maze. It works well to get out of tight areas and from a design perspective makes the maze more difficult to solve.

3. RETURN TO START is a grid that you do not want to land on.

4. START / GOAL is my favorite grid type. Instead of telling the solver where the START and the GOAL is you only show them where the 2 possible are. It is the solvers job to find which is which by finding a path between each START/GOAL grid.

5. The SLIDE ARROW allows you to move to any arrow the Slide Arrow is pointing at.

6. WARP GRIDS allow the solver to jump across the maze between each Warp.

Check out my rule movement page from an upcoming book, along with a few examples that showcase the new movements. They make for much harder mazes, and are much more interesting to solve. For all of these mazes I dropped the color start/goal and went with a more traditional and intuitive use of the words “Start” and “Goal”.

Example of moves 1,2,3,6

Slide Arrow Maze

There is also an option to use ONLY Slide Arrows, creating a Slide Arrow Maze. These can be made extremely difficult to solve. Since they are both Arrow Mazes, here is a comparison of the 2 types of Arrow Mazes and their rules for solving:

I did the following 14 Part series where I dive into Arrow mazes in detail. The first 12 blog posts are in order. Click the link to Part 1 and you can follow along through each part.

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 Books AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

THE ARROW MAZE BOOK VOLUME 1: AVAILABLE IN 4 LANGUAGES IN BOTH PRINT AND KINDLE EDITIONS

• Part puzzle, part maze, all fun ! Enjoy 100 Arrow Mazes that get more challenging as you move forward. Arrow Mazes don't have walls or dead ends but that doesn't mean you won't get lost ! Perfect for both maze lovers and puzzle solvers. Later puzzles get new solving rules to keep the challenge fresh.

  • Features large size of 8.5 x 11 (Print edition)

  • 100 Arrow Mazes with solutions

  • Unlike most maze books, no pencil is needed - perfect for solving on a Kindle !

  • See Maze 49 below for an example.

A FREE downloadable Arrow Maze book to try

In January 2020 my daily mazes consisted of Arrow Mazes I made using my original design. This book does NOT include any of the new movements which make the mazes more fun and challenging but it is a nice introduction to Arrow Mazes. As the month went on the mazes got larger. This book collects all of the mazes from that month. (If you are wondering Volumes 1 & 2 were retired).

THE ARROW MAZE BOOK - VOLUME 3

31 pages, 32 mazes including the cover

File Size: 715 KB

Features each daily maze from January 2020. Arrow mazes have no dead ends which means they should be easy…right ? Each Arrow maze get progressively harder.

Making of an Arrow Maze Video

Take 2 minutes to watch an Arrow Maze being made. This shows the sped up process I described above.

Interested in learning how to make or draw other types of digital mazes ? I have step by step instructions on how to make over 40 different maze types.

If you prefer making labyrinths, you can find step by step labyrinth making instructions.

How to Make a Horizontal Maze

In a series of posts I will show you how to make a maze in a wide variety of design constructions. The 4th type of maze construction is the Horizontal maze. Let’s define what I mean, then get into the example. Every example will use the sample basic outline (the state of Ohio) to better illustrate the differences between each maze type. If you are more visual I have a video at the end of the post showing a horizontal maze being made.

Horizontal Maze - A maze whose main walls are constructed horizontally. Depending on the Start/Goal placement, the solver will be moving either back and forth while going up or back and forth while going down. The final maze will also look horizontal.

How to Make a Horizontal Maze

Step 1 - Draw the Outline

The outline of the maze makes the outer wall of the maze. It can be anything from a simple shape like a square, to a complex picture. The outline should be thicker than the internal lines to give the maze definition. In the example below I chose the state of Ohio.

Step 1.5 - Choose the Start and Goal

For the below example I chose the start of Cleveland and the goal of Cincinnati. I made an entrance in Cleveland but I usually wait until I am in the last stage of drawing maze lines to draw the exit point for the goal. This is in case I need to adjust the location slightly based off of my design. This works if drawing a maze digitally, but for a hand drawn maze the outline will need to have a pre-determined start and goal.

Step 2 - Draw the Horizontal Walls

Inside the entire outline draw horizontal walls at an equal distance apart. You will make paths through the walls in a later step. Obviously this step only works for a digitally made maze. In my example I used pathways and walls similar to standard equal construction - meaning they are equal widths. While they do NOT need to be equal widths, if the spacing between lines gets to too large you the construction will occupy a grey area between a standard maze and a horizontal maze.

Step 3 - Draw Vertical Walls

Split the horizontal lines into sections by drawing vertical lines into the current pathways. Two vertical lines between two horizontal lines would create 3 possible sections for a solution to move through. The more vertical lines, the more possible paths and the higher the difficulty. In the example below I also drew the first pathway in red. These vertical walls can be adjusted later, and most likely you will want to change a few !

Step 4 - Draw the Maze Solution

Draw the solution to the maze. If you want to be precise in your solution, set your guide grid to half of what it was when you drew the initial horizontal lines (or alternatively shift the entire picture up). This will align your solution pathway with the new grid. Full disclosure, I may a mistake on this….do you see it ? If you follow the red line as it moves left I drew a path right through a vertical wall (oops). I fix it in step 6, but thought I would keep it here to illustrate a possible mistake you could make.

Step 5 - Draw the Dead Ends

Make branches off the solution path to create dead end paths. The longer the paths, the more difficult the maze. In the example below the false paths are blue. A quick note - if any of these branches return back to another section of the maze with the red line you will have created an alternative solution by mistake !

Step 6 - Convert All Maze Paths to White

Completing the maze means converting all paths you made to white. I also fixed my vertical wall mistake from earlier. As you look at this final maze does it feel horizontal to you ? It should !

Step 7 (Optional) - Make the Maze Solution

You have two options here - Option 1 - Change the solution line back to red to draw the solution to the maze. Option 2 - Let the maze sit for a few days and try solving it yourself. Was it the difficulty you thought as you were designing it ? Did you enjoy it or did it frustrate you in any way ? Using option 2 means you are more likely to go back and make adjustments to improve the maze. Think of it as proofreading for mazes.

4 Additional Horizontal Maze examples

Here is another example of a Horizontal maze construction that works well, a maze of the number 4. It doesn’t require this construction, but I think it looks good.

For my second and third examples I want to feature flag mazes. Because of their rectangular shape, most flags also look good with a horizontal construction, like the Armenian flag maze and Austria flag maze below. I wanted to show this maze for a second reason. Rather than use background colors with black walls I chose to color the walls and outline in the colors of the flag. If you want to explore pathway options like this more check out the highlighted post. For Austria, the white section would become saturated with the color of the maze walls (most likely black), so I needed to space light grey lines to allow the white to show through. I also considered leaving this section un-mazed - although this would mean only 1 entrance/exit on each side of the white section vs many as shown.

For our fourth example, let’s look at a map maze, in this case the Alabama Maze. Map mazes are a great place to use a horizontal construction and you will find many of my map mazes do. The reason for this particular mazes inclusion here is because it was made using different steps than I taught above. That first change comes in “Step 2- Draw the Horizontal lines”. For this maze I skipped that step and drew the maze line by line, which is probably 30X the work as each line must be placed and drawn individually. You can see this because the end of the horizontal lines is rounded. This also changes steps 3-5 above since you are drawing as designing as you go making sure you follow the cardinal rule - Never close off all pathways.

The Making of a Horizontal Maze Video

A note that in this particular example I went rouge - I did not use guides to make the pathways , and this caused me to draw the maze in sections. I even did a backwards draw from the goal. An option, but much better and easier to construct using the step by steps above !

Interested in learning how to make or draw other types of digital mazes ? I have step by step instructions on how to make over 40 different maze types digitally.

If you prefer making labyrinths, you can find step by step instructions for how to draw labyrinths.

How to Make a Grid Maze

In a series of posts I will show you how to make a maze in a wide variety of design constructions. The third example we’ll look at is the grid maze construction. It is one of the more simple designs to make. Let’s define what I mean, then get into the example. Every example will use the sample basic outline (the state of Ohio) to better illustrate the differences between each maze type. If you are more visual, I have added a quick video of a grid maze being made at the end of the post.

Grid Maze - Uses a standard grid construction to create the walls. Gaps in the grid walls are created at right angles to make pathways. The maze solver needs to make choices in each grid box on where to continue to next. Exiting a grid box can take place in 4 different directions, with one being the way you entered the grid.

HOW TO MAKE A GRID MAZE

• Step 1 - Draw the Outline

The outline of the maze makes the outer wall of the maze. It can be anything from a simple shape like a square, to a complex picture. The outline should be thicker than the internal lines to give the maze definition. In the example below I chose the state of Ohio.

• Step 1.5 - Choose the Start and Goal

For the below example I chose the start of Cleveland and the goal of Cincinnati. I made an entrance in Cleveland but I usually wait until I am in the last stage of drawing maze lines to draw the exit point for the goal. This is in case I need to adjust the location slightly based off of my design. As with any grided maze the start and goal can be either internal or external to the outline. In my example I used external.

• Step 2 - Draw the Grid Design

As opposed to most maze designs, when creating a grid maze you draw all the walls in the beginning of the process. The size of the grid you make will partially help determine the difficulty of the maze. While most mazes can be hand drawn or digitally drawn, the grid maze really is much easier as a digital creation. If you are attempting to hand draw this construction this step would become much more complex, and really not worth the time. Important design tip: Make your grid an even number that easily divisible by 2. Let’s say you draw your grid design on a 20x20 grid in step 2. When you move on to the next design step of drawing your pathways you can set your guide grids to half that, or 10x10 to easily guide your paths. If you want to see this in practice see the video at the end of the post.

• Step 3 - Draw the Solution

Drawing a grid maze digitally means determining the solution you want before determining the false paths ! Despite drawing the solution path first, this does not necessarily mean you are also choosing the difficultly level also. Dead end branches can still be short and obvious (easy) or long and difficult. Notice how this pathway is centered in each individual grid. I used my design tip above to do this, taking my grid size and cutting it in half to guide my construction.

• Step 4 - Draw the Dead Ends

Draw the dead ends, which determine the difficulty of the maze. Short paths will be easier than long paths. False paths that have additional false branches off of them will be harder to solve than those that do not. In the example below I used the color blue to differentiate the dead ends from the solution. This will also help later when you create a solution.

I also suggest you read: Maze Design Case Study - Designing a Grid Maze in Different Difficulty levels for a more in-depth look at drawing to a specific difficulty level.

• Step 5 - Convert the Path Lines to White

To complete the maze you convert all the pathways you made through the grid to white. The final maze looks much more intimidating in this final form. The structure of the equal grids means the maze doesn’t have a typical “flow” look to it that allows following of pathways more easily. This is also a good time to check to see if your pathways are wide enough for the presentation you are using. With a digital maze you can easily change the widths of all pathways quickly.

• Step 6 (Optional) - Make the Maze Solution

You already have drawn the grid maze solution in step 3, now re-highlight it in the final maze construction for your maze solver.

The grid maze is very versatile for many different object shapes and allows you to fill any type of object.

ADDITIONAL GRID MAZE EXAMPLES:

Before we get into 4 different additional examples, if you would like to read a case study on How to change the difficulty level when making a grid maze, I wrote about it and think you may find it helpful to improve your maze making ability !

The first additional maze example is the most simple. A square shaped 11x11 grid maze. All pathways are centered. The square shape makes this a maze that can be made very quickly.

My second example of a Grid maze, is a grid maze of the word grid. Notice that the grid boxes are much smaller, making for a more difficult maze. I also did not use the half grid pathway trick so the pathways are not all centered. This does help hide some possible exits as you move through maze. On my screen the scale is too small for solving, but it prints larger and is solvable.

And here is a third example of a grid maze, a US cent maze. I think a grid maze also works well when there are many curves in the object you are maze-ing. Here, the face of Lincoln on the penny and the lettering becomes part of the wall structure. Drawing many line walls here would take much longer because of the detail. Again, I did not center my pathways. As a color maze the pathways you draw need to be the same color as the background.

My fourth example was a natural fit for using a grid maze construction. The first maze I posted as a daily maze was this Crossword Puzzle Maze that I made for National Crossword Puzzle Day. Really, this is perfect time to use this construction.

The fifth example of the grid maze is this Fighter Jet maze. I include it here as an example of a maze with many complicated, small spaces to work between. The internal drawing of the wing details, the jet engine, the cockpit and the generally slender features make this a interesting challenge to maze. Using a grid maze seems to work well here.

FREE DOWNLOADABLE GRID MAZE EXAMPLE BOOKLET

A booklet of 14 simple black and white grid mazes. No cover. Just a a small collection to have fun with.

Making a Grid Maze Video

Here is a quick video showing the making of a simple grid maze. Notice that after the grid has been drawn, before I draw the pathways I make the guide grid half of what it was (32 seconds). This type of maze can be made quickly once you get the hang of it.

Additional Posts you may like:

Interested in learning how to make or draw other types of digital mazes ? I have step by step instructions on how to make over 40 different maze types.

If you prefer making labyrinths, I also have a section of step by step instructions.

The 12 best maze movies of all time

How to Make a Maze with Standard Equal Maze Paths

In a series of posts I will show you how to make a maze in a wide variety of design constructions. The second example we’ll look at is a construction variation of the standard maze construction. I call it a Standard Equal Maze Path design. Let’s define what I mean, then get into the example. Every example will use the sample basic outline (the state of Ohio) to better illustrate the differences between each maze type. If you want to see this type of maze made in video form, that is added at the end of the post.

Standard Equal Maze Paths - the construction concept is the same with making a standard maze except the pathways and walls are of equal width. TO achieve this in practice the wall width should equal half the grid used (i.e. a 6x6 grid with wall widths of 3) This gives the maze a different look as everything becomes compacted.

These also tend to be longer and more difficult mazes to solve because of the additional pathways it creates. While a Standard Maze looks white, the Standard Equal Maze looks much more black from the thicker lines.

How to Make a Maze with Standard Equal Maze Paths

Step 1 - Draw the Outline

The outline of the maze makes the outer wall of the maze. It can be anything from a simple shape like a square, to a complex picture. The outline should be thicker than the internal lines to give the maze definition. In the example below I chose the state of Ohio.

Step 1.5 - Choose the Start and Goal

For the below example I chose the start of Cleveland and the goal of Cincinnati. I made an entrance in Cleveland but I usually wait until I am in the last stage of drawing maze lines to draw the exit point for the goal. This is in case I need to adjust the location slightly based off of my design. This works if drawing a maze digitally, but for a hand drawn maze the outline will need to have a pre-determined start and goal.

Step 2 - Start Drawing the Walls

Using a grid pattern, begin drawing the maze walls starting at the entrance of the maze. For a Standard Equal Maze the maze walls should be drawn to be equal width to the pathways in between them. In my example maze I am using a 4x4 grid with wall widths of 2. That is an easy to remember ratio when creating a standard equal maze - the wall width must be equal to half the grid size used. While drawing your walls make sure to never break the cardinal rule of maze design - never close all open paths so the maze can be solved. As you make the maze decide how difficult you want to make it. A low amount of path choices, and short dead end paths will make an easy maze. Longer dead ends and lots of path choices make a more difficult maze. The below example is starting off at an easy / medium difficulty.

Step 3 - Keep Drawing the Maze Walls

Like most mazes the middle part of design is a lot of keep doing what you are doing and draw more walls. There is nothing too complicated in the below example. The dead ends are long in this maze and there are many choices to make, increasing the difficulty. At this point I also have 2 open pathways which could be used as solutions.

Step 4 - Complete the Maze

Draw the final walls and draw the exit. You have completed the drawing of a standard equal maze !

Step 5 (Optional) - Draw the Solution

You have two options here - Option 1 - While the correct pathway is fresh in your mind, draw the solution to the maze. This is especially important with more complex mazes. It can also be a check to make sure your maze has a solution. This example maze is easy. Option 2 - Let the maze sit for a few days and try solving it yourself. Was it the difficulty you thought as you were designing it ? Did you enjoy it or did it frustrate you in any way ? Using option 2 means you are more likely to go back and make adjustments to improve the maze. Think of it as proofreading for mazes.

Comparison of the 2 standard maze types:

Visually the Standard Equal Maze Paths design construction makes for a darker maze, and a more complex maze than the standard path maze. Although I did not measure the pathways, you can intuitively see that standard equal maze has much more pathway length.

Standard Equal Path maze

Standard Path Maze

4 Additional examples of Standard Equal Mazes

Below is an example of another standard equal paths maze of the state of New York. I wanted to show this example to mention that the outline is not the same width as the internal paths/walls. There is also a prominent Spiral maze pattern in the center of the state, although I would not consider this a spiral maze construction.

Our 2nd example shows what happens when we add some color to both standard maze variations, with the Rubber Ducky maze. While the background colors of yellow and orange are the same in each maze, the standard equal construction has a much darker look, with the thicker black walls holding back the colors underneath. The standard maze is bright and much easier to solve. Notice that because of the spacing of the orange beak compared to the wall spacing I decided not to maze the beak on the standard maze. Doing so would have only added a few meaningless lines on the beak.

For my 3rd example I present the Umbrella maze. The size of this maze is larger than previous examples and I wanted to show you this so you think about scale when using a standard equal construction. This is all about a rule of thumb I have when deciding on my wall structure - when using a standard equal construction - the larger the space you are mazing, the more walls you will need and the more time it will take to construct. Without doing the math, I estimate standard equal constructions take 10X longer to make on average. In this particular example, while I like how the maze looks, I could have increased the scale to make the maze easier to solve on a screen. I do think that this construction is good for maze art. From across the room that looks like an umbrella…..and it is not until you get up close that you realize, wait, that’s a maze !!

For my 4th example I want to show you a time when this construction can be used to make a completely different type of maze, the Hidden Message maze. A hidden message maze is a maze where the correct solve of the maze creates a message for the solver. I use this to make greeting cards with hidden messages. Here is an example. If the below maze was made with a standard construction it would need to be a much tighter ratio of grid/wall so the message remains hidden at a glance.

Can you figure out what it says from looking at it ? Scroll down for the answer.

“Miss you”. If this were made with a much wider standard construction the pencil/pen/writing utensil used would not fill the pathways as well, making the message much harder to read (in addition to being easier to find). Want to learn how to make a hidden message maze ?

My fifth and final example is actually a mixed section maze, or a maze that uses multiple constructions. This particular Bishop Chess Piece maze uses a mixture of standard and standard equal constructions to differentiate the sections of the chess piece. Notice how the background color changes with the changes in the spacing of the walls. While this illustrates the point I want to make, imagine using this concept when creating your own mazes. Imagine a maze picture with shadows…illustrated with closer maze walls.

Making a Standard Equal Maze Video

Here is a quick 3:31 minute video of the making of a simple Standard Equal Maze.

Interested in learning how to make or draw other types of digital mazes ? I have step by step instructions on how to make over 40 different maze types HERE.

If you prefer making labyrinths, you can find step by step instructions HERE.