My 2024 Website Outlook

December 30, 2023

For 2024 I will continue to post a new maze every Monday launched with a blog post. I will also be making weekly YouTube videos showing these mazes being made. We will have a new theme for the year, and I am going to try a new blog posting schedule.

What type of mazes will I see on the site ?

I really liked the comic book style mazes I made, so I am going to make a full year of them ! You have seen these the last few weeks starting with the Evil Pumpkin I made for Halloween.
The mazes will all be free hand drawn mazes walls so the look will not be as polished as a building maze, but the style fits the mazes I believe !
Overall, these mazes will be good for kids and not very difficult (with a few exceptions)

What will be new ?

Each maze will have a preview outline the week before that gives you a hint on what the next maze will be. Here is the first preview for our first maze of the week - What do you think it is ?

Since comic books are known for having variations you will get variations of each maze. On Monday I will give you a second colored version of the maze, while on Tuesday I will give you a special comic book cover of the maze, unveiled in a blog post. Collect all 53 comics !

I have used starryai to make some backgrounds for the comic books. It is my favorite AI text to image generator.
Also, all Mazes of the Week will sit in one block on the homepage with all maze downloads there. Same for Comic Book Covers - they will all be in 1 block.

What will the subject matter be ?

Lots of animals to celebrate national and international holidays.
A few other subjects that make for good comic book covers and fit the style of artwork.

Will there be videos on YouTube again ?

Yes, but they will be much shorter in length and will not include solutions since they are easier mazes than I typically make.
Because they are shorter they will be called Quick mazes instead of One Minute Mazes.
I also shortened the Intro and Outro and changed the music.

What about blog posts ?

Monday - A post to launch the Maze of the Week, including a variation version. Will include a preview outline of the next weeks maze (as shown above).
Tuesday - Comic Book cover version of the maze
Thursday - General blog post - various maze/labyrinth topics
Saturday - Labyrinth finding blog posts (by US state)

Anything else ?

I am working on a slight re-design to remove or hide old content that is not popular. My hope is this does not hurt the SEO of the site and allows it to load faster. Some pages will only be available if you find them in search as they will become unlinked to the site from the menus. Overall I have made the site “lighter” to load faster.
I started a Pinterest account / page. Still learning what I’m doing and how to utilize it. Maybe it becomes something. Either way it is something new for me to learn !
By the end of the year I should have a blog post for every state in the US about publicly available labyrinths. All will sit in one section on the Homepage. If I enjoy it, and people read them, I will continue to make similar content ! If it is a bust, I will stop creating the blog posts early (sorry Wyoming, etc.)

Let’s have a great 2024 ! I hope you enjoy the mazes and the new content !

My 2023 Website Outlook

January 1, 2023

In 2022 I switched from daily mazes to weekly mazes and really preferred this schedule. This allowed me to put more work into each maze and create mazes that were more like artwork. Each Monday I launched a new maze with a blog post.

For 2023 this format will continue - a new maze each Monday launched with a blog post. I will also be makig weekly videos.

What type of mazes will I see on the site ?

Building Mazes - a nice subject to create a maze with, & my favorite
Sign Mazes - for some reason I like making this type of maze like this sign maze.
Scene Mazes - new. you’ll understand when you see it. Update - like this walking Street.
and a few new one off experimental subjects to keep things interesting !

What will be new ?

YouTube Videos - I will show some of the mazes being made in steps, edited into short videos. This will also include videos of mazes being solved. You can check out my channel here.
New Shapes - I have already made a few mazes that are very wide and a square shaped maze. Expect more interesting shapes in 2023. I have found that if I make a make that is of a subject with a weird shape, I shouldn’t try to fit that maze to a standard sheet of paper. If I do I end up with a maze with a lot of white space or with a maze too small to solve. The maze size is the maze size regardless of the paper. Deal with it.
Multi Maze Pictures - I have already made 2 mazes that include multiple mazes within them. One has 10, the other has 4 !! For what is coming in the future, these are subjects where some zones are impassable so multi-maze makes a lor of sense. Also, very large mazes where multiple mazes will fit. Check out this example of a famous building maze.
More International Mazes - 44 mazes from 2022 were from the USA with only 4 other countries represented. There will be many more International mazes !

How can I suggest a maze subject ?

Suggest a Maze subject. Please do !! I love when I get suggestions.

Let’s have a great 2023 !

My 2022 Website Outlook - Less mazes, higher quality

December 30, 2021

For the past 3+ years I have been posting daily mazes on this website. In 2018 and 2019 the theme was based on weird holidays. In 2020 and 2021 I featured a different type of maze each month and concluded most months with a free downloadable book. This gave me a guideline to design each daily maze and focus my work. In April of 2021 I started the Laberinto portion of the site for Spanish speakers.

For a typical 30 day month I need to do the following: 1 - Create a maze. 2 - Format and save the maze for display on the website. 3 - Create a downloadable file for the site. 4,5,6 - repeat steps 1,2, and 3 in Spanish by translating and updating each file. So each month I make 180 different files in order to populate the site. It takes a lot of time. Even for simple mazes. I work on other, more complicated mazes than the ones that I post daily. Those are the mazes I like making the most. The daily mazes are taking up a lot of time…but they do not produce a lot of enjoyment for me (typically). So they are stopping in 2022.

So what is going to happen in 2022 ? A weekly maze. 52 mazes for the year. Each maze will be more intricate. Each maze will be closer to what I call maze art. Each individual maze will have it’s own linkable section of the website for after the week is over. Each weekly maze will have a blog post telling you about the maze, possibly about how or why it was made and give more background. I also might include some additional coloring options for each maze. I like to think of it like a comic book, where each maze has an alternative cover !

I think you will see better mazes that are more shareable and more likely to be printed out and solved. Now, I will spend the same amount of time making mazes, but instead of producing 180 files for 30 days, I will make 12 files of 4 mazes for 28 days. And I will like a final product that has much higher quality (and I hope you will to!)

What type of mazes will I see on the site ?

Sign Mazes - for some reason I like making this type of maze
Building Mazes - a nice subject to create a maze with
Landscape Mazes - I have not perfected these yet, but with some practice I think these could become interesting
Landmark/Statue Mazes

When will mazes be posted ?

Every Monday except for the first maze which will post on January 1.
Each maze will also include a blog post to accompany it.
Many mazes will be posted during specific weeks to honor a specific holiday / anniversary, etc. Some of my favorite mazes are already slated for September/October !!!

What makes a good subject for a maze ?

Buildings are normally very good
Anything that has a block like shape.
Items that have a lot of “open” space that can hold a maze within them
- i.e. skinny items can be difficult since they have difficulty containing a maze

And a poor subject ?

Besides the skinny items, I have a lot of trouble with faces.
Similar to faces, any picture/item that relies on shadows. There is a way to make these (varying the thickness and spacing of lines) but I have not yet mastered it.

How can I suggest a maze subject ?

Maze suggestions. Please do !! I love when I get suggestions.

Now would be a good time to give you an example. Let’s start with a maze I have featured before as an example of ‘maze art’. The Playhouse Square Sign in Cleveland Ohio. Obviously, the example is smaller than when it prints on regular size paper and is solvable (and easier to see the maze!).

Playhouse Square Sign Maze
Cleveland, Ohio

From across the room this looks like a picture and not a maze (hopefully). Only when you get up close do you realize that what you are looking at is actually a maze. That is my goal.

I hope you enjoy the new format ! Let’s have a great 2022 !

The DOYOUMAZE Daily Maze Theme for 2020

December 31, 2019

Announcing The DOYOUMAZE Daily Maze Theme(s) for 2020

Following up on the 2019 daily maze theme of weird holidays will be tough. I looked into a few different options and have decided to focus on a different type of maze each month. There are over 30 different types of solvable mazes and I will make some of my favorite. Each day will be a new maze, with the difficulty getting harder each week of the month. This is my initial plan at least.

What this also means: No more “best of” maze of the month voting. These mazes will all look relatively the same and choosing between them would be meaningless. Daily pdf downloads will stop and each maze can be solved on screen by sight. Instead there will be a downloadable book of every maze at the end of each month ! So, 12 book launches in 2020 !

Here is a preview of the first 3 months starting with the mazes that will be posted on the first of each month (easy).

January - Arrow mazes. I love making and solving Arrow mazes so this was an easy. Want to learn how to make your own arrow mazes ?

February - Warp Zone mazes. I haven’t made many of these mazes but find the flexibility the warp gives you to be refreshing as it makes the thought process different as you solve the mazes. Want to make your own warp zone mazes ?

March - Line Leads mazes. Not a traditional maze and geared to a younger audience, usually. Involves some guessing, but still an enjoyable experience (I hope). And again, if you want to learn how to make line leads mazes, I have that covered.