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 !

What I've Learned Making Mazes

I have been making mazes since I was a kid with decade long breaks along the way to today. I got back into making mazes again about 10 years ago and started this website over 5 years ago. Along the way I have learned some lessons about maze making that I want to share with you. Hopefully some of my insights can help you.

10 Things I’ve Learned Making Mazes:

1. No matter how many mazes you make, you will always make more mistakes.

Sadly, the more experience you have does not mean you will stop making mistakes when you draw a maze. Yes, you know the rules and best practices, but mistakes still happen. I made a few blog posts about my mistakes if you like observational games: Can You Find the Maze Design Mistake ?.

2. More time does not always mean a better maze, but it usually does.

I used to make daily mazes for the site. Now I maze weekly mazes. Spending a few hours on a maze, a week, or a month leads to different final products. More time = better maze. Here is my example my mazes of The Alamo. The first was a quick maze I made for kids. Then I spent the time to make it in detail (I think it took a few weeks).

Alamo Maze for kids

Alamo maze in black and white

3. Maze fun-ability is important

If you want people to enjoy your mazes, you need to be smart about how you design them. A maze that is too hard to solve with long dead ends is not enjoyable for the solver. Think about it like a video game. If a video game is too hard, you give up. But if a game is too easy it isn’t fun. Same for mazes.

4. The maze subject is very important, especially for maze art

I used to seek out buildings that I knew would make a good maze. But the average person does not care about a random building in upstate NY they have never heard of and will never visit. A great looking maze of a random building has a very small audience. Better to make mazes of things people know. Which of these mazes is more popular do you think ?

5. The largest maze audience is kids

My research has shown that kids ages 5-12 are the main maze enthusiasts. So, designing mazes that that audience will like is important when you think about publishing books or making a website dedicated to mazes.

6. The more mazes you make, the better you get

Along the way I have learned how to make textures, use shadows, and overall become a better maze designer. Hopefully I have learned form my many mistakes.

7. A maze you make digitally is never done

I used to hand draw all of my mazes, but now I use Inkscape to digitally make my mazes. That means as I get better making mazes I can go back and review my old mazes and make updates. My Templo de Sangre de Cristo Maze is a good example. I went back and colored it, and added shadows. I think both improved the maze ! Each of these would have been difficult to do with a hand drawn maze. I can’t imagine making a nice hand drawn maze and then messing up the coloring and ruining it (see #1 above).

8. AI can’t make mazes (yet)

I use AI almost every day and enjoy text to image generators. I have been testing them on making mazes since they became popular. So far, they cannot make mazes (or maze art). What I learned using AI to make maze art

9. Changing maze types is fun

I like to change things up and try different make styles and types. When I was a daily maze website that meant different types of maze puzzles. You can find most of them made into free downloadable books. I have how to make a maze instructions for over 40 different maze types. How about a large pipe maze or an arrow maze ?

10. Details improve a maze

This is really a part of #2 (more time) and #7 (digital mazes). The more details I put into a maze the more interesting it is (or realistic it is). This really improves the maze. Shadows are my secret ingredient. Case Study #11 - Making Mazes with Shadows

I’m sure these 10 things will become 11, then 12 and so on as I continue to make mazes. I hope some of these insights help you as you design and make your own mazes !

Happy Mazing !

I think you will like these similar posts:

A Collection of Maze Design Case Studies to improve your Mazes

Case Study #11 - Making Mazes with Shadows

6 difficult maze puzzles to challenge adults

Maze Comic Book Cover #54 - Hammer & Helm

Last year I made comic book style mazes for my mazes of the week each Monday, then made them into fun comic book covers on Tuesdays. This year I wanted to keep making the Comic book covers, so this is the first of what will be a new maze each Tuesday ! The numbering will continue as if this is a real comic book series (and it kind of is) !

Issue #54 in my comic book cover series is called Hammer & Helm and features a new maze of a Viking. The background was generated using Starryai. Check out every comic book cover maze !

This the first comic book in the yearly series. I hope you enjoy them !

To receive a book of my first year of comic book book mazes (Volume 1 with mazes #1-53) you can sign up for my book alerts - any time I launch a free maze book, or paid book (on Amazon), I will send you a note about the new book launch.

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 !