Maze

A maze is a puzzle where the goal is to travel from one point to another through a series of branching pathways. Used as both paper puzzles and large-scale structures, mazes have been fun mental activities for children and adults alike for ages, as well as unique spatial elements to add to modern hunt puzzles

Background

Historical Use

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Maze Craze (1970s)

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Maze Variants

Since mazes have been around for a very long time, there's been ample opportunity for variants to be developed, and for the popular ones to be spread far and wide. These more popular ones include:

• Ball-In-A-Maze - Tests of dexterity (if physical) or mental planning (if digital), these mazes involve navigating a ball through a maze to a particular point without falling through holes along the way. Physical ones usually just require handling the controls, but digital ones often assume the ball will travel in a direction until it hits a wall, meaning a solver has to plan out their journey so that they don't get stuck.
• Fractal Maze - Mazes in which a particular path structure is repeated multiple times (usually in the center of the puzzle) on smaller and smaller scales.
• Hamiltonian Maze - A maze in which the correct path is not one that just gets someone from A to B but one that passes by all of a set of points along the way.
• Logic Maze - The bridge between mazes and logic puzzles, these mazes impose rules on travel that restrict what paths one may take at any given time.
• Loops and Traps Maze - A maze containing one-way paths that sometimes lead to dead-end loops, requiring solvers to discover the correct sequence to get to the end without getting stuck.

A depiction of the Labyrinth of Crete as a true labyrinth, from the book Turris Babel.

Mazes vs. Labyrinths

Mazes should not be confused with labyrinths, as their construction and purpose are very different. While mazes are meant to be difficult to solve through the inclusion of dead ends and sometimes obstacles, labyrinths are merely intended to be long and winding, making the absolutely most use of the space provided. Additionally, most labyrinths have the same entrance and exit point, intending for those entering to reach a point in the structure that represents the 'end', often the centre, before turning around and leaving the way they came. To this end, labyrinths have been used as spiritual symbols, representing a long and winding journey one would take on a pilgrimage. Alternatively, they've been used as ways to free one's mind of thought, allowing the body to focus on guiding one through a winding path and (apparently) leading one to a spiritual peace.

While the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, and the most famous use of the term 'labyrinth', the Cretan labyrinth used to contain the mythical Minotaur, has been depicted as both a maze and a labyrinth, modern use has definitive definitions for both.

Puzzle Application

Mazes as Standalone Puzzles

Mazes by themselves are often considered to be too simple to function as effective hunt puzzles. While in many cases this may be true, the effectiveness of a maze as a hunt puzzles relies on both the size or scope of the maze and the way that the creator expects solvers to extract an answer. A small maze containing scattered letters wherein the answer is determined simply by reading the letters passed on the way will likely fall flat due to a lack of difficulty or creative extraction. Conversely, a puzzle that explored multiple dimensions doing the same extraction may be much more effective, or a similar-sized puzzle that requires multiple steps or uses an alternative extraction method (like semaphore or drawing a symbol with the path) may have a more positive impact.

A maze in which the path taken draws a picture, a possible maze-based extraction method.

Aspects of a traditional maze that may be changed to further improve its functionality as a hunt puzzle include:

• Shape - Mazes are often square or rectangular and have walls travelling in right angles to the outer walls. Alternatives to this include changing the outer wall shape as well as the orientation of inner walls (diagonal/curved)
• Visibility - Can solvers see the walls, or are they put into a text-based environment where they must intuit the maze structure based on
• Dimension - Many mazes are 2-dimensional, so expanding them to the third dimension (either literally, by adding the ability to travel up and down layers, or by putting the solver in a 3D representation of a 2D maze) can make one more interesting. 4D mazes are also possible, but a lot more difficult to construct and solve.
• Path Contents - Do solvers pass over letters, number, or symbols as they go through the maze? If it's a virtual maze, are there things written on the walls, or creatures in the maze to avoid?
• Extraction Method - Visual or letter-collection extractions are common, but other methods (or combinations of methods) may have more impact, particularly if the extraction is not immediately recognizable.

Mazes as Elements

A more common use of mazes in hunt puzzles is as a supplement to another type of puzzle.

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Strategy

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Notable Examples

As Standalone Puzzles

• Quagmire (MITMH 2004)
• Backlot (MITMH 2020)

As Compound Puzzles

• Grid with a Hole in the Middle (MITMH 2006)
• Monty Minotaur's Magical Menagerie (MITMH 2020)

See Also

• Puzzles involving Mazes