Arrow mazes

Arrow mazes are a new take on mazes. Pathway directions are determined by the direction the arrow points to with decisions at the maze start and periodically through the maze. The goal is the same as in a regular drawn maze, move through the pathways from the Start to the Goal. Fun to play and solve !

How do you solve an Arrow Maze ?

• Start in the START block and move in any direction you want.

• Whatever arrow you land on, you must follow that direction and move to the block it takes you to.

• When you land on an arrow with 2 possible directions you have a decision to make, just like at an intersection in a regular maze

• Reach the GOAL block to solve the Arrow Maze

While my initial Arrow Maze designs included dead ends (unescapable loops), I make all of my mazes now so they have no dead ends.

There many different types of Arrows that can be used in an Arrow Maze. Let’s give some examples by type. In total we will look at 31 examples :

NORMAL ARROWS: Just regular arrows and decision arrows. Small and easy mazes. 5 examples to get started:

NORMAL ARROWS (LARGER MAZES): Those probably were easy for you. How about these larger arrow mazes to make them more difficult and also some more interesting shapes? 5 examples:

If you prefer to solve these mazes later or on a different screen here is a download of the 10 mazes above:

If you want more of these types of simple Arrow Mazes check out the Kids Arrow Maze Section of the site which includes a free downloadable book of 24 arrow mazes !

ARROW MAZE INNOVATIONS

The evolution of the Arrow Maze from how I started making them above led to the improvements below. Check out the rule page below made for my Arrow Maze Books. I have added an All Ways Arrow which seems great until you realize 8 choices is actually NOT your friend. The Double Move Arrow gets you into and out of corners more easily but makes it harder to look forward a few moves to solve. Landing on the Return to Start block is terrible but at least it isn’t Jail like Monopoly. START / GOAL seems simple until you realize you are going in the wrong direction, maybe, or maybe not. Slide Arrows give you so many possibilities. And finally Warp Grids allow you to jump around the maze (or not).

Let’s practice each of the 6 new moves with 3 example mazes each:

WARP ARROW MAZE: If you land on a warp space you can move to the other warp space of the same shape. You may move off of a warp space in any direction, just like a START block. 3 examples.

THE DOUBLE MOVE ARROW: This arrow allows you to jump over the block next to you (or the gap). 3 examples.

START/GOAL BLOCK: The Start/Goal block means that either block can be the start or the goal. You must find the pathway between the two blocks. 3 examples.

ALL WAYS ARROW: Landing on this arrow allows you to move in any direction, typically 8 if the all ways is in the middle of the maze. 3 examples.

SLIDE ARROW BLOCK: A slide arrow allows you to slide to any block the arrow is pointing towards (but no going over gaps). So typically this means you can move to any space in the column (or row). 3 examples.

RETURN TO START BLOCK: Exactly what you think and it says it is. Return to the start block if you land on this block. So, avoid this block !!! 3 examples.

Now let’s combine everything into what I call a KITCHEN SINK Arrow Maze, or really just an Arrow Maze: This gives you an idea of how you can make these mazes complicated: 3 examples. The one labeled 95 is from my book and shows what can happen when you stuff a maze with almost all complicated moves !

That is a good overview of Arrow Mazes. They can have many interesting shapes and can be made anywhere from easy to complicated in difficulty. I am also experimenting with new constructions of Arrow Mazes.

If you are interested in making your own Arrow Mazes check out this How To Make an Arrow Maze instruction post which includes a video. I also did a 14 part series starting with Arrow Maze Design Case Study - Part 1 Start Locations and Options if you want to get into the details of making your own !

If you have a lot of time try to solve THE LARGEST ARROW MAZE IN THE WORLD!

I have published 4 different Arrow Maze books on Amazon ! 1 was made for Kids, with the regular books, volumes 1-3 for most ages:

• Summary

Arrow mazes are a new take on mazes. They are a fun mazes for all ages. Pathway directions are determined by the direction the arrow points to with decisions at the maze start and periodically through the maze. The goal is the same as in a regular drawn maze, move through the pathways from the Start to the Goal. Fun to play and solve !