I make a lot of mazes for the website. Thousands since I started it, but you may not know that many of those mazes have been scrubbed from the site as new, better mazes have replaced them. In 2022 I switched the site from a daily maze on the homepage (very labor intensive), to a new maze each week (debuting every Monday). I kept that format for 2023 because I like the results and what I am able to create with the lengthened time. I wrote about this in my outlook for the year - My 2023 Website Outlook if you are interested.
One thing I do not mention in the blog is that I work ahead - sometimes only a few weeks, but usually a few months. If you ask me what maze will be featured 13 Mondays from today - I know. This gives me time to research and write a blog post for the maze, set-up a dedicated page on the website, and make 2 videos for the maze for my YouTube channel - one of the maze being made and one of it being solved.
Another advantage this format has for me is the ability to stop making a maze if something if off with it for some reason. I also scrapped a few ideas after having made many mazes for a theme (because I don’t really do many themes anymore). This gives me a catalog of mazes that have never seen the light of day. Until today. Today I will show you 10 abandoned mazes, discuss why they were abandoned and hopefully help you not make the same mistakes I did.
Abandoned Maze #1 - The Hollywood Sign Maze
Technically could be considered a finished maze. But it is very boring. Not particularly good. It does not bring a Kondo level of joy. The maze is easy. Could it be salvaged ? Yes, probably with some color and lots of background detail - but once you see a photo of the actual sign and it’s surroundings you notice a lot of rocks/dirt and just a few bushes. The top of the hill has fences, and cellphone towers, etc. So, this COULD be salvaged, but most likely won’t be. Mistake made: Poor subject matter / poor execution
Abandoned Mazes #2 - Oil Well mazes
You will see this theme a lot in this list - I was going to make a variety of mazes for each state in the US, most likely creating a section for each state on the site. I scrapped that idea. These mazes were both made for Texas. Both are simple mazes that fit into the old “daily maze” format I was making pre-2022. Now, they have no place on the site. Is anyone looking for these in a Google search ? I would say a hard no. But if you search “Sewing Machine maze” I own it. Mistake made: Poor subject matter / low quality mazes
Abandoned Maze #3 - Severance Hall Maze
This almost maze was done before I started using perspective for just about every maze, that’s why it looks so boxy. I was in-between wanting to start from scratch or moving forward with the maze. I never made a decision and it got lost until I found it for this post. It also appears to be floating and a nondescript building. Mistake made: Using a poor method to start with. Indecision on how to move forward.
Abandoned Maze #4 - Tiki Totem Maze
I thought this would be a good idea. Tiki totems are so cool. I can’t quite put my finger on this. It just isn’t good enough to be on the site as a weekly featured maze. I think it MIGHT be able to be fixed. Add color to the totem, and to make it more interesting - SHADOWS. I would also try a more complex maze structure vs the current kids level format. But I can’t be sure that will be enough…so it will not get done ….or it will. We’ll see. Mistake made: Not enough details / interest
Abandoned Maze #5 - Red Rocks Amphitheatre Maze
Never completed. I never made the maze…just the picture which I struggled with in terms of coloration - every photo of RR has different lighting so the colors are difficult. And most of all, the maze was going to be placed in the rocks but that is a bad structure to make a maze in. Mistake made: Poor subject matter for a maze
Abandoned Maze #6 - Dancing Man Statue Maze
I had high hopes (sing it!) for this when I started it. As you can see I made the figure and I was starting to add muscle definition (in red) when I came to the conclusion - there is no place for a maze - or if there is it will make the maze very large in order to be able to see/solve it. I want this to work because the figure took so long to make and I included so many details. Mistake made: Poor subject matter for a maze.
Abandoned Maze #7 - Gateway Arch Maze
This subject fits the definition of something people would like to see. But it doesn’t work. I used a standard maze structure in the arch and it is the wrong type of maze for it. I did a mix of background detail and non-detail. The trees in the foreground are terrible. This could be salvaged with a lot of work. Mistake made: Poor maze execution
Abandoned Maze #8 - Terminal Tower Maze
A building in Cleveland, Ohio that was once the 2nd tallest building in the US (after the Empire State Building). This almost maze was made when I was trying to make everything geometrical and without perspective. Later I switched everything to perspective drawing. I just didn’t feel that the finished product would be worth the additional work needed. It was going to become a very large maze (and difficult to solve), similar to my Empire State Building Maze. Mistake made: Using a poor method to start with.
Abandoned Mazes #9 / 10 - State Road Sign Mazes
As part of my state project above I was going to make mazes of every US state welcome sign. I made over a dozen, plus a dozen famous state road signs (like a maze of the PCH sign in California). None of these have seen the light of day. I scrapped the project as they were not interesting enough for the site - again more daily maze quality. Mistake made: Quality level no longer fits the site
So what do you think ? Which of these mazes can and should be salvaged ? I wish I could say these are the only mazes I have scrapped….but I could do a few more posts just like this and still not run out. Let’s just consider these practice.
Hopefully I can do a case study based off of one of these mazes- I already have a title for the post - Case Study - How to Improve a Bad Maze.
