Maze of the Week 8 Redux - Abraham Lincoln Maze (MOTW#164)

Abraham Lincoln was a great President and I have made him into a maze 4 times ! One of those times became my maze of the week #8 that featured the statue of him that sits in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. Today I attempt to improve upon that maze. It was a challenge, so let’s see what I did and see if I was successful. Here is the original post:

Maze of the Week #8 - Abraham Lincoln Maze

Here are the enhancements I made to improve the maze:

1. Changed the Pathway Width. Increased the size of the pathways by 50% to make solving easier. This is more apparent when printed to solve.

2. Re-colored the Maze. I changed the background color and statue color. Lighter brown tone for the wall and a brighter grey for the marble.

3. Start/Goal changes. I deleted the arrows and changed them to be the written out words START and GOAL.

4. Reoriented the Maze. I moved the maze to align with the bottom of the page. This also distanced the quote on the wall behind him above his head.

5. Shadows Added. I spent a lot of time working on shadows for this statue. This took up the majority of my time and it was tedious work. I also added some shadows to the back wall.

6. Branding Changes. I reduced the branding tag by 75% and pushed it into the shadows of the corner.

Let’s see the before and after:

After the changes I see a maze similar but different. Did it improve ? I’m not sure. Either seems ok to me.

Some data: The new file is 2910MB from 499MB.

I will be adding the new version of the maze as an option going forward.

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 !

Maze of the Week 38 Redux - Hoover Dam (MOTW #162)

This maze was never one of my favorites. I was practicing making landscape mazes and this seemed like a cool location to maze. In reality the maze was a bit weak. It looks kind of flat. But once I put so much time in making it I was worth publishing. Now, I get a chance to improve it. How will it go ? Let’s find out ! Here is my original post which includes a link to a great video about the dam if you are interested.

Maze of the Week #38 - Hoover Dam Maze

Here are the enhancements I made to improve the maze:

1. Dam changed. I added texture to the dam face and added light colored lines to show the shape and construction of the dam face better

2. Water changed. I added interest to the water in the reservoir and the water below the dam. I “marble-ized” it and think it is an improvement on the flat water before.

3. Added texture. I added texture to all of the rock areas. This changed the color of the earth some.

4. Added drought. I added an anti-shadow to highlight the low water in the reservoir by showing the previous water height. This is the same technique I use to make a shadow, but instead of using black I used white.

5. Added the sky.

6. New Start/Goal. The start and goal are now internal words vs. arrows. I also changed their location so I could improve the maze and use more of the page. Which means we have a

7. New Maze Pathway. I think this improves the enjoyment of the maze when solving.

8. New title font. I changed the title font to a more condensed look.

9. Added branding. I added my branding in the lower portion of the dam near the goal. It is at an angle near the water to fit into the picture.

Here is the before and after:

For all the changes it looks relatively similar. I think it still is improved.

Some data: The new file is 1,340MB from 123MB. 10X bigger.

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 !

Maze of the Week 45 Redux - Air Force Cadet Chapel (MOTW#161)

This is one of the first mazes I made in perspective view vs. flat. It inspired me to try new ways of making future mazes. I find the architecture of this building to be wonderful. I don’t think I captured it in my initial maze and so I wanted to go back and try to improve it. Here is my original post for reference:

Maze of the Week #45 - Air Force Cadet Chapel Maze

Here are the enhancements I made to improve the maze:

1. Re-oriented the maze. I lowered the chapel on the page to show more sky.

2. Added a wall. I added some minor wall detail to the bottom of the maze so the building was no longer floating.

3. Added horizon elements. I added ground in the horizon at the back of the chapel and I added a building in the background bottom right. I also added a sky !

4. Start Goal Changed. Switched from arrows to START and GOAL written out. It fits better and looks better. Then I also changed the positions of each in the maze.

5. New Maze. As I made the changes I realized I wanted to re-do the maze - so it is completely new. In order to so this I extended various panels to create more of a grid like structure on the roof to make the maze. I also increased the pathway size through walls to make them easier to navigate.

6. New colorations. I colored the side window panels dark navy and changed the pane decoration to grey from black and white before to more accurately reflect the chapel. Changed the railing color from black to grey. And, oh yeah, I colored the entire maze !

7. Added many new details. I added new detailed inner window on front right of the church (previously this was left out). I added 3 sets of doors in front (previously shown as only blocks). I added a second hand rail on the front steps - previously I only had one set. I changed the internal panels (on the rook) from curved ends to flat ends to better reflect the actual building structure

8. Added branding. Added my branding to the bottom right corner (there was none before)

9. Title changes. Changed the font of title, reduced the size of location and added USA, while changing the color from black to white.

10. Added Shadows. A building like this has many shadows that make it more interesting so I added some.

And here is the before and after:

When you see a picture of the Chapel the white building pops against the blue sky background. I think this new version captures this. I prefer the new version by a wide margin.

Some data: The new file is 283MB from 99MB.

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

What I've Learned Making Mazes

Happy maze-ing !

Maze of the Week 3 Redux - Museum of the North (MOTW#160)

You may not know this but I have an archive of old mazes that are unlinked from the website. If you don’t know what that means - it means there is no menu option to reach the archive. It includes old pages that were not very popular on the site but still had traffic and so I keep them around. If you click on a search that includes them you can reach the archive or if I give you the link like above. Today’s maze of the Museum of the North in Alaska is part of the archive. The maze is ok. But, as I have found out, people don’t care about mazes of buildings, signs and locations unless they are famous. So I think I did a good job on it, but even if I did a great job….eh. I decided to improve it anyway. It’s good practice. I enjoy the process. This post will be read more than the maze will be sought out. Here is the original post:

Maze of the Week #3 - The University of Alaska Museum of the North

So my MOTW#3 becomes the 3rd maze of the year again 3 years later and officially MOTW #160.

Here are the enhancements I made to improve the maze:

1. Changed the Start/Goal. I changed them from arrows to an internal written Start and Goal.

2. Changed the size. I reduced the height reduced from 8 inches to 5.5 to eliminate empty space, which reduced the lawn and the sky size as a result.

3. Changed the title. The title was reduced from 42 to 28 size, which allowed me to put the title on one line. Then I added the location below.

4. Added textures. I textured the lawn, the walkway/parking lot and the background trees.

5. Added shadows. I added shadows to the front building nook, on the left side of the building, and around/onto the front windows.

6. Fixed the windows. The window panels on the front of the building were fixed (were showing incorrectly in original maze). Minor, but it needed done.

7. Changed outlines. I switched front lawn outline to none (there is no longer a black border for the lawn) and the background trees to no outline. This makes them read more green than green with black outlines.

Let’s see the before and after:

I don’t know quite how to express this, but the end result was minimal changes, but it looks so much better. It looks the same…but at the same time…..not the same at all.

Some data: The new file is 471MB from 49MB.

I will be replacing the archive with the new maze going forward. You can find the maze download there (if you can find the archive) !

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 !