Website changes, new books

I have been scrubbing through my old maze sections and improving them recently. I previously updated: Halloween Mazes, Christmas Mazes, Animal Mazes, Food Mazes , Arrow Mazes and Snowflake Mazes. Here are some additional changes I made that you may have noticed, with some before and after’s when applicable:

  • Sign Mazes have been consolidated

I had over 20 sign mazes on the site, many of them were early “maze of the week” mazes. They do not get much traffic. I combined them into a new section, Sign Mazes, initially in the Past Mazes section of the site. This consolidated the website down. Some of the big sign mazes you’ll find here include the Hollywood Sign, Welcome to Las Vegas Sign and Welcome to Colorado Sign.

Sign Maze section cover

  • Moved around some maze homes

Much like the sign mazes, it was time to consolidate the sites main maze pages down. At the time of this writing I changed the home page from 52 mazes down to 25. These 25 are the most looked at mazes on the site and some of the best IMO. The past mazes section went from 45 mazes down to 25 mazes. People still search for these mazes but they are less popular. Each of these 2 pages will now load faster with significantly less mazes !

The archive maze section expanded from 29 mazes to now having 54. There are some nice mazes in here but they are rarely searched for or clicked on so they remain on the site in this purgatory state. I considered calling it the purgatory page but archive won out.

  • Laberintos

My Spanish Language sections are doing well so I brought back the Laberintos section to house all of the different sections. I am expanding the Spanish language books as we speak and adding new mazes in Spanish.

  • Spanish Language Maze books

I added 13 new books in Spanish to the site. 400+ new mazes, more than doubling the amount of books on the site in Spanish. I have ideas for more…

  • La Catrina Maze

I adjusted the pathway/cut widths to make solving more enjoyable, then made the arrows slightly smaller so I could increase the size of the skull on the page. I also added the comic book versions to the La Catrina Maze Page. This maze gets traffic in October, early November and I gave it more attention.

  • New Map Mazes

I changed the Europe Map Maze book, and added new versions of the mazes in native languages. I added mazes of each state of Mexico in Spanish, with a book also available in English. I also did mazes of each of the provinces and territories in Canada, with a new book !

  • New Books

The free printable book section has expanded by 8 books. Hope you enjoy them ! I also revised the majority of the older books to be more black and white printer friendly. A few even got expanded with new mazes.

  • New maze details

Based on some research I have done, I have started adding new details to the bottom of each maze page. I do a couple pages a day and it will take me a few months to finish (I am starting in the archive maze section). So far I am adding these 8 details: Title; Artist; Style; Tags; Format; License; Paper Size; File Size.

I have long list of additional changes to get to, but this is what I have done so far.

Happy maze-ing !

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 6

Welcome back to my series where I look at my maze making over time. Hopefully they have improved. For an explanation of the series you can check out part 1, but the tldr is I used to make daily mazes and now make weekly mazes allowing me to spend more time on each maze.

Here are the first 5 parts in the series:

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 1

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 2

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 3

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 4

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 5

Let’s compare 5 more mazes and see how much better the newest mazes are 5 years later.

Part 6 - Random Mazes

Fox Maze

The initial maze is from January 2021. The new maze is from 2025 and was made to help create a Spanish language animal maze book (Z- zorro), thus the INICIO/META for START/GOAL. That first maze was made quickly and never made it on to the site I hated it so much. The facial shape is way off (it reminds me of the tiger in Part 1 of this series). The new full body version from today is preferred. At some point I may colorize it.

Clown Maze

I had forgotten that I made a clown maze way back in April of 2019 and then a new one for the comic book collection. For what it is I don’t hate the old version as much as I normally do despite the many obvious design flaws. And the newer clown maze version is from the Fall of 2024.

Food Truck Maze

So I really enjoyed making the old food truck maze. I still like it. I added a similar vehicle as part of my Land, Air, Sea and Space maze collection, an Ice Cream Truck (technically also a type of food truck). I spent much more time on the background of the newer version, while the food truck version I made a denser and harder maze.

Fighter Jet Maze

This original maze was from 2020 when I was doing different themes of maze types each month. I used the illustration for grid maze month (not ideal). So the illustration is much better than the maze since the grids are fighting with the natural flow of the plane (look above at the maze walls of the new fox maze above which are shaped like the fur to see how much better mazes look with flow). The new maze of an F16 is also part of my Land, Air, Sea and Space maze collection.

Lighthouse Maze

I’m stretching this a bit here. The initial maze was made in 2019 of a generic lighthouse where I used colorful pathways to color the maze. The maze construction was horizontal, one I do not use much anymore. The newer maze was made in late 2023, the Gibraltar Lighthouse maze. This version includes shadows and the maze works it way through the stones on the lighthouse allowing the art to look more natural. I am planning a new lighthouse maze for 2026.

See you again down the road when I remake (and hopefully improve) more mazes ! Happy Mazing !

If you want to see all case studies this post pulls them together:

A Collection of Maze Design Case Studies to improve your Mazes

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 5

Welcome back to my series where I look at my maze making over time. Hopefully they have improved. For an explanation of the series you can check out part 1, but the tldr is I used to make daily mazes and now make weekly mazes allowing me to spend more time on each maze.

Here are the first 4 parts in the series:

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 1

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 2

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 3

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 4

Let’s compare 5 more mazes and see how much better the newest mazes are 5 years later.

Part 5 - Even More Animal Mazes

Kitten Maze

The initial maze is from July 2019. The new maze is from 2025 and is comic book style with free drawn pathways. The 2019 maze is embarrassing for me to look at and was removed from the website for good reason (it used to be in the Animal Maze section). 2025 is a great improvement. Both are of orange kittens.

Unicorn Maze

The initial unicorn maze was made in April 2019 and the illustration was made for kids. The 2025 is comic book style and a much better !

Flamingo Maze

June 2019 was the first flamingo maze. Honestly, compare to many of my mazes from then it isn’t so bad considering. And yes, it was actually a lawn flamingo. The flamingo from 2025 stands with confidence.

Sloth Maze

In October 2019 I made the original Sloth Maze which for kids. I really liked that maze at the time. Our sloth shows a bit of personality. But, 2025 is once again a better illustration !

Mushroom Maze

Hey, I thought this was all animals ? Here we have May 2020 vs 2025. The initial maze was constructed using a grid method and it is easy. My 2025 Mushroom maze is more “animated” and targets more of a Grateful Dead crowd.

See you again down the road when I remake (and hopefully improve) more mazes ! Happy Mazing !

If you want to see all case studies this post pulls them together:

A Collection of Maze Design Case Studies to improve your Mazes

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 4

When I decided to continue making comic book style mazes I knew I might come back to this series. Previously I did a 3 part series where I compare mazes I made a few years ago to mazes of the same subject today. The full introduction is written in Part 1, but a tldr is I used to make a maze each day and now I make one each week so I can spend more time on each maze. I also have learned new techniques over time that improve the mazes (What I've Learned Making Mazes). Here is that initial series:

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 1

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 2

Making Mazes - 5 years later - a comparison - Part 3

Let’s compare 5 more mazes and see how much better the newest mazes are 5 years later.

Part 4 - More Animal Mazes

Walrus Maze

The initial maze is from August of 2020 and currently sits in the Animal Maze section of the website. The new maze is from 2025 and is comic book style with free drawn pathways. I actually like to 2020 version which was made for kids. If I went back and changed it I would use free drawn walls instead of a standard maze style with right angles. The 2025 version is on a comic book cover and so uses that style.

Snake Maze

The initial maze was made in July of 2019 and the illustration was made for kids. I used bright colors and an angled but structured pathways that I hoped would give the snake a scale-like look.

2025 is comic book style and a much more interesting illustration !

Pig Maze

I made 3 versions. February 2019 vs. August 2020 vs. 2025. The first version was for the year of the Pig and it illustrates a glaring design mistake. The illustration is for kids, but the maze is for adults. Either the maze should have been easier or I should have taken more time making the pig. The 2020 maze is much better and shows the full body of the pig. It still works today. It could be improved with better hand drawn pathways. 2025 is a comic book version of a pig and much better than the 2019 version !

Lemur Maze

In October 2019 I made the original Lemur Maze which was for kids. It works, but my 2025 comic style maze has a lot more character !

Raccoon Maze

October 2019 vs 2025. The initial maze was made for kids. The second is much harder and gives our Trash Panda a bit more personality !

I should have more of these in the future - comparing the old to the new, but expect to see less mazes of subjects I have already done for awhile; that means lots of new mazes ! Hopefully, I can replace some old mazes that were poorly done with new and improved versions ! Happy Mazing !

If you want to see all case studies this post pulls them together:

A Collection of Maze Design Case Studies to improve your Mazes

and this post if you like maze design:

What I've Learned Making Mazes