Welcome to the 6th in a series of posts where I will test AI image generators and see how they handle making maze art. I will be asking 10 prompts and seeing what gets generated. My goal is to evaluate different AI image sites against each other to see how they perform. If you need to catch-up here is the series so far:
An exploration into Al Image Maze Generation
Making mazes with AI: DallE2 (Updated to compare 2023 to 2026)
Making mazes with AI: Stable Diffusion (Updated to compare 2023 and 2024 to 2026)
Making mazes with AI: Craiyon (Updated to compare 2023 to 2026)
Making mazes with AI: Dream by Wombo (Updated to compare 2023 to 2026)
Update from 2026:
When I did this series in Spring of 2023 I found that none of the text to image generators were able to generate actual mazes, including this one. They were able to make images that looked maze-like, but none were solvable puzzles. The 10 prompts below are a record of what was possible then, but each generation of AI pushes the limit further on what is possible. All of these were made using text to image generation and not coding.
Making Maze Art with Nightcafe
2023: Today I test out Nightcafe. You can access the Nightcafe website here. You get 5 free daily credits to create with. Each prompt, or generation will generate only 1 image. Without getting into all the details there are a lot of options and styles to explore. You should check it out. All prompts I use are the same for each site !
2026: I signed in to use Nightcafe this time and was given credits to start. I was able to see my creations from a few years ago. There were 3 AI models to choose from and I left it on the default selection called Flux 2 Klein 9B Fast which it mentions is new. I did not use any preset style (I counted 44 available). Each prompt I used to generate 1 image, although I could have selected 4 or 9 which would have cost more credits. From a user experience perspective I was bombarded with pop-ups and notifications, possibly because I am a relatively new user and I hated that.
Prompt 1 - Make a medium difficulty maze of the Eiffel Tower in black and white with arrows at the start and finish
2023: I have never seen this version of the Eiffel Tower before. It is a tower under the tower.
2026: I enjoy the gargoyle and the circular maze in the background. Great image creation of the actual tower. The people are scaled as giants. Better, and definitely interesting !
Prompt 2 - Draw a medium difficulty large maze of the Empire State Building with the start and goal embedded in the structure
2023: No maze, but a cool rendering of NYC.
2026: Just imagine if the base of the Empire State Building was 8th floors with a maze level on top. Cool idea.
Prompt 3 - Draw a difficult maze of the White House pixel art style
2023: When I look at this it feels like a map of a world in a Super Mario Bros game.
2026: The White House look good, but the maze attempt is poor. But if we grade on improvement this is spectacular.
Prompt 4 - Draw a difficult maze that looks like a drawing of a famous building in sketch style
2023: I feel like David Bowie is in this castle surrounded by cool Jim Henson puppets.
2026: It has potential, and we all recognize the famous building.
Prompt 5 - Draw a maze in the style of doyoumaze.com of a skyscraper in NYC
2023: I like the maze drawn on the 3D maze walls. Very interesting. At first I missed it and thought it was texture.
2026: Nice shading on the maze walls. Overall a cool look. M=Not sure what the cloud is around the ESB though.
Prompt 6 - Draw a maze in the style of Sean C Jackson of a scene from a large outdoor market
2023: Cool. The image looks like it is of a park in a far, far away galaxy. Very interesting. Maybe a water maze, a maze plaza and a maze of buildings ?
2026: I would say that might actually be a very simple maze of a market technically and I love the illustration.
Prompt 7 - Make a maze of a slice of an orange in color
2023: Huh.
2026: That is a juicy orange. I like the style.
Prompt 8 - Make a maze integrated on top of a photograph of a king sitting on his throne looking cantankerous beside his beautiful queen
2023: Fun, regal. Where is the queen ? And the king’s face.
2026: No maze but what an outstanding image of the royals.
Prompt 9 - Make a solvable maze that is very large and very difficult to solve because it is so complex
2023: That would be fun to get lost in. Cool tower. Nice valley surrounded by mountains.
2026: I thought this was a fun eerie maze. Not wat I asked for necessarily. Then I looked closely at the skulls and am wondering if those are aliens and now I might just love this.
Prompt 10 - Make a 3d render of a red and blue glossy cube maze
2023: I did 4 options again. Not a fan.
2026: Ok.
Summary and Conclusion:
2023: How did Nightcafe do ? A mixed bag from me. I like the fantasy aspect of some of the images generated. It does a very good job with fantasy.
2026: Much improved. No more random garbage like the White House mistake from 2023. I like how it used a variety of styles and created some interesting images. Still missing that elusive actual solvable maze.
Coming Next: StarryAI
