Making mazes with AI: DallE2. Has it improved over time ?

Welcome to the 2nd 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. In my first post I discussed the project, and today we start with the first site evaluation: DallE2.

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. Feel free to try some of the prompts below to compare how far the development has come. All of these were made using text to image generation and not coding.

Dall-e logo
Chatgpt logo

Making Maze Art with DallE2 / CHATGPT

2023: You can access the Dalle2 website here. You must sign in. As of this post there is no limit to the number of prompts you can ask for, and the site is free to use. Each prompt, or generation with DallE2 will generate 4 image options. For this exercise I chose the one closest to what I had asked for, or the most interesting. Let’s get started.

2026: I used ChatGPT to generate comparisons for the first 3 prompts below. I had to sign-in. Dalle text to image is imbedded in the product. I used the free version. Gallery images are labeled below. Use the next/previous controls to compare 2023 vs. 2026 images.

Prompt 1 - Make a medium difficulty maze of the Eiffel Tower in black and white with arrows at the start and finish

2023: I see the Eiffel Tower. In fact I see 2 of it for some reason. I see a maze like structure. It is black and white. But I see no arrows, and the maze is not really a maze. There are random maze lines, and marks around the page that distract from the image.

2026: I see the Eiffel Tower that is much cleaner in shape. I see a maze look inside the structure, but the maze is not solvable. It is in black and white. There are arrows this time but they are non-sensical.

Verdict: The generation improved are moved closer to what was asked for, but an actual solvable maze remains elusive.

 

Prompt 2 - Draw a medium difficulty large maze of the Empire State Building with the start and goal embedded in the structure

2023: Not sure what this is. I changed the prompt vs. #1 to get rid of the arrows…I like the mazelike structure on the top of the page. And there looks to be a small Death Star under it. I think maybe DallE2 can’t make mazes.. just mazelike drawings ?

2026: So much better. We see the Empire State Building. We have a mazelike internal, but still not solvable. We get large Start and Goal arrows which do not make sense, especially the Goal, but are almost there.

Verdict: The 2023 generation was so bad that anything would be an improvement. 2026 was much better and gives me hope that this will be possible soon.

Human Made Maze: I made a huge Empire State Building maze around 2015 using Microsoft Paint.

 

Prompt 3 - Draw a difficult maze of the White House pixel art style

DALL·E 2 White House Maze

2023: It is pixel art style. Despite having no start and goal it looks the most mazelike of anything generated yet. And there is a house, although it is grey and looks like a dirty igloo. Interesting. Not winning any awards.

2026: This looks like an image of the White House in pixel style. Th internal section is too open to be considered a maze. And the start and goal arrows are awkwardly placed - the AI does not understand how they work.

Verdict: Really great pixel art of the White House in 2026. Much improved, but still no solvable maze.

2026 Human Made Maze: I made a maze of the White House (not pixel style) that you can see on it’s maze page and download it for free. I have considered doing a human vs. AI challenge. I would say I won this round.

 

All remaining prompts come from 2023. A summary from 2023/2026 is available below.

Prompt 4 - Draw a difficult maze that looks like a drawing of a famous building in sketch style

DALL·E 2 Building Maze

After asking for 3 famous buildings and seeing DallE2 go 1 for 3 I let it pick it’s own famous building and decided to try ‘sketch’ as the style. It got the style down, it looks mazelike (but not a real maze) on top of a large building with an arch entryway.

 

Prompt 5 - Draw a maze in the style of doyoumaze.com of a skyscraper in NYC

DALL·E 2 Maze

Nope. Maybe I’m not well known enough.

 

Prompt 6 - Draw a maze in the style of Sean C Jackson of a scene from a large outdoor market

DALL·E 2 Maze

So we try a famous artist of mazes. I don’t see an outdoor market but I see a lot of interesting squiggles. The maze-like shape from this perspective looks cool. Maybe there is an outdoor market there with some imagination.

 

Prompt 7 - Make a maze of a slice of an orange in color

DALL·E 2 Orange Slice maze

I simplified the ask and got the best technical answer yet. A start and goal would even make this a real maze !

 

Prompt 8 - Make a maze integrated on top of a photograph of a king sitting on his throne looking cantankerous beside his beautiful queen

DALL·E 2 King Maze

Cool 3d looking maze in the background ! The king is beside his queen…but really behind his queen. The look on his face is something more Frankenstein than anything else. And the hands are a problem (of course).

 

Prompt 9 - Make a solvable maze that is very large and very difficult to solve because it is so complex

DALL·E 2 hard maze

I wanted to test the maze only capabilities. Fail. What is with the red and grey items throughout ?

 

Prompt 10 - Make a 3d render of a red and blue glossy cube maze

DALL·E 2 3D cube mazes

4 shown because all were interesting and none was better than another. I feel like these images would be fun to walk into.

Summary and Conclusion:

2023: How did Dalle2 do ? Eh. It can’t make mazes, just maze looking structures. So you get some interesting outputs, sometimes, but nothing great. The 3D portion is worth exploring more !

2026: The image generation is cleaned-up with no random lines or images imbedded. Every building asked for looks like the building. Mazes look clean, but are not actually solvable puzzles. The generator has trouble understanding what start and goal arrows are for. Humans are still ahead when it comes to making maze art.

Coming next: Making mazes with AI: Stable Diffusion

Maze of the Week #217 - The White House

As a follow-up to last weeks Mount Rushmore Maze I present Maze of the Week #217 of The White House in Washington DC, USA. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue might be the most famous house in the world and I am happy to make a maze of it. It is the residence of the President of the US and also their office. It has an interesting history to explore including this video:

The maze: The building has a north and a south façade, each worthy of a maze but this particular maze is of the north side. In color.

The White House Maze

Download is available on the home page. Happy Maze-ing !

A related blog you may enjoy if you visit the area:

6 Labyrinths to visit in the Washington DC area

Other blog posts you may enjoy:

9 Lesser-Known Classic Retro Maze Games

Today I want to take a look at some retro video games that feature mazes. I have already covered many of the big games with blog posts like A Tribute to Pac-Man, the Ultimate Maze Game and The 12 Most Important Retro Maze Video Games to Lose a Day With which includes popular maze games like Dig Dug, Gauntlet and Rally-X. I am not going to repeat the history lesson I spoke about there and instead am going to highlight 9 more interesting retro maze games that you may not be familiar with. Each of these games caught my attention for some reason which I will explain below. They are all from 1973-1982 except for one special game from 1993 that I couldn’t leave out. The thing about old games is, if you owned it, or your local arcade had it, it was important to you, the rest of world didn’t matter. Here are the games I am going to discuss (click to skip ahead to that section:

I start with Gotcha, the first arcade maze game, which came out in the Fall of 1973. Some of you may be thinking, but I thought Mouse in the Maze (1959) was the first computerized maze game. And you would be correct…which is why the word “arcade” is so important in my first sentence. Then, because we have short attention spans and can’t seem to keep on subject you may think - - - 1959 ? There were computer games in 1959 ? Yes, and those computers filled an entire room !!

Gotcha video game poster

And we are back. For now. Gotcha ! Also from my research, Gotcha was the first color video game. Today it would be hard to find a game not in color, but I do recommend 2 Japanese games featuring Samurai - Trek to Yomi and Ghost of Tsushima: Kurosawa Mode that look amazing in black and white. It didn’t take me long to get off track.

Let’s look at the gameplay of Gotcha. I will describe what you will see in the gameplay video below. Like all early games things were pretty simple. Two small specs are in a maze looking structure - they are a plus sign and a box. The goal is for one player to pursue the other, and then they switch roles. Each round has a time limit between 30 seconds and 2 minutes depending on the machine you are playing on. You get a point for catching the other person. In the background is a beeping sound that gets louder and closer together the closer a person is to being caught. Worst. Soundtrack. Ever ?

Does this look like a fun game ? No. But in 1973 it may have kept you busy for a few minutes when you weren’t playing Pong !

 

Ken’s Labyrinth. Ken's Labyrinth is a first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by Ken Silverman when he was 17 years old and published by Epic MegaGames in 1993. The game is notable for being one of the first FPS games to feature interactive sprites and textures, as well as for its innovative use of the Build engine.

Silverman began development on Ken's Labyrinth in 1991, when he was still a teenager. The game was originally called Walken, and it was inspired by the Wolfenstein 3D engine. Silverman quickly realized that he could do more with the engine than just recreate Wolfenstein 3D, so he began to add new features and ideas.

One of the most significant features that Silverman added to Ken's Labyrinth was the ability to interact with sprites and textures. This meant that players could interact with objects in the environment, such as vending machines, slot machines, and even the enemies themselves. This was a major innovation at the time, and it helped to set Ken's Labyrinth apart from other FPS games.

Another innovative feature of Ken's Labyrinth was its use of the Build engine. The Build engine was a new rendering engine that Silverman developed specifically for the game. The Build engine allowed for more detailed and complex levels than previous FPS engines, and it also allowed for more realistic lighting effects.

Ken's Labyrinth was released in 1993, and it was met with positive reviews from critics. The game was praised for its innovative features, its challenging gameplay, and its tongue-in-cheek humor. Ken's Labyrinth was also a commercial success, selling over 100,000 copies.

Take a look at some of the gameplay:

The success of Ken's Labyrinth helped to launch the career of Ken Silverman. Silverman went on to develop the Build engine, which was used in many popular FPS games, including Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, and Blood.

Here are some additional facts about Ken's Labyrinth:

  • The game was originally released as shareware, with the first episode available for free. The full game was available for purchase.

  • The game was inspired by the Wolfenstein 3D engine, but it also incorporated elements from other games, such as Doom and The Legend of Zelda.

  • The game's levels were designed by Ken Silverman and his friend Andrew Cotter.

  • The game's soundtrack was composed by Ken Silverman.

  • The game was released for MS-DOS, and it has since been ported to other platforms, including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Want to give it a quick play ? There are plenty of emulators out there. Here is one to try.

 

Entombed. In the 1982 during the height of arcades jammed with people trying to play another maze game, Pac-Man, Atari came out with a scrolling maze game called Entombed. It seems to be an attempt to capitalize on the maze/chase game play of Pac-Man but with the bonus of a scrolling screen !!! It was not very popular. At one point you could buy it for 82% off based on the picture of the box front I found.

Entombed video game box

The story of Entombed the game is you are an archaeologist and have fallen into catacombs filled with zombies. You need to get away from them without getting stuck in a dead end (and thus entombed). I guess dead end has a new meaning here. There is also a “Make-break” block and if you capture it you are able to make a wall or break thru a wall - great for escaping those pesky zombies. Personally I prefer Daryl’s crossbow or Michonne’s katana, but a make-break is fine. The longer you survive the faster the gameplay becomes as was pretty standard with games from this time.

The interesting aspect of the game is that because of the amount of data needed to generate mazes was too big to be stored on the hardware an algorithm was written that generates a maze on the fly as the game is played. That means each time you play the game the maze will be different ! Pretty ingenious.

There has also been a collegiate paper done exploring the history of the game and discussing the reverse engineering of the game by John Ayock and Tara Copplestone called Entombed: An archaeological examination of an Atari 2600 game. It is an interesting, but technical 33 page read.

The graphics of the game look very 1982. And the gameplay appears to be….well….. also very 1982. I guess it would become more interesting with 2 players playing at the same time ?

Here is a look at some game play from The No Swear Gamer:

So if you want to enjoy mazes in video game form, try this classic game from 1982….or maybe just go with Pac-Man. Either one. But, Pac-Man.

 

The Amazing Maze Game. Sounds amazing. This arcade game from 1976 had to be included for one main reason. In 1975 the arcade game Gun Fight became the first to use the term GAME OVER. That could have been the end of it. But in 1976 a few games adopted the practice, including this one, helping popularize the use across arcade games in the future. The game features a randomly generated maze each round. If you play against another player, you each start at the others goal and race across to see who solves the maze fastest. These are mazes in their most basic form. You’ll notice in the gameplay videoafter a maze is generated you get a countdown of 5 seconds to study it.

 

Ali Baba and 40 Thieves. Video game gameplay can be so unique. When I find a game with unique challenges and gameplay I love it. I really love when something is new to learn and strategize about. I like figuring out how things work. This is not that game. This is Pac-Man with minor tweaks themed after the ancient folk tale from the Middle East. The hero, Ali Baba looks like Pac-Man in a red hat. The board, the use of question marks (power pellets) to chase thieves (ghosts). No regular pellets to chomp, just money bags to gather and protect. Just watch the gameplay video. While many games were developed that were Pac-Man knock-offs at this time, this was a unique spin on it.

 

Zzyzzyxx. How do you pronounce this game from 1982 ? I don’t know but I am saying it aloud right now with confidence. If you say anything with confidence people will believe you if they themselves do not know the answer. Well, this game centers around taking our hero, Zzyzzyxx, through a brick maze to collect gifts for Lola. He is pursued by an evil trio who apparently…I am going to make up the motivation here, but pretend I am writing it with confidence….do not want Lola to have the gifts. The bricks of the maze move, which give this a Frogger feel. Always last in any dictionary of games, Check out the gameplay.

 

Triple Punch. I had to include at least one grid capture game in this roundup of maze games. This arcade game came out in 1982. Our main character is a carpenter who sure does look like Mario to me. How was legal even back then ? Our carpenter moves across the maze pathways on the screen to surround areas and capture them. Four different enemies chase the player and try to stop him from capturing the blocks. You can punch enemies 3 times to kill them. Check out the gameplay:

 

Heiankyo Alien. This game was extremely popular in Japan when it was released in 1979. It is one of the first “trap” games, where you lure your enemies into a trap. It is also considered the first maze chase game, coming out before Pac-Man and Rally-X the next year. In this particular game you are a policeman who digs holes in a maze for aliens to fall into and then buries them inside. The graphics are very basic. There are nine levels to the game with each level featuring additional number of aliens. If an alien touches you, you lose a life. I really enjoy the graphics they created for that ! Check it out in the gameplay video:

 

Frisky Tom. When I saw the name of this game from 1981 I knew I had to check this out. Tom is a plumber who must protect the water pipes from the damage of 3 mice. The different types of mice each try to ruin the plumbing in a unique way. Tom climbs the pipes to fix them and can knock off mice, except for the purple ones which kill him. Bombs that are allowed to explode also take a life. I am a huge fan of pipe mazes (they do not look anything like this). I like all types of games involving pipes, and this one is a unique twist on pipes and pipes. Here is the gameplay:

Which of these games have you played before ? Any that seem interesting to you ?

Tribute to Pac-Man, the Ultimate Maze Game

How does Pac-Man, the classic video game end up on a website about mazes ? Well Pac-Man takes place in a maze. It is considered one of the first maze chase games - a genre it popularized that quickly expanded to over 100 games.

12 reasons why Pac-Man was iconic:

  1. It created the first recognizable video game character

    Before Pac-Man you drove a tank, car, spaceship, plane or paddle. There were not characters that you cared about, only things you used.

  2. It was embraced by female gamers

    Before Pac-Man most games were war, strategy, and racing and were mostly played by males. When Pac-Man was introduced 60% of the players were female.

  3. It popularized the chase maze genre of video games

    Pac-Man wasn’t the first maze chase game, but it’s popularity made the playing style popular and quickly led to copycat games.

  4. It was an original hunter becomes the hunted game

    The tension of being chased by ghosts quickly flips to hunting ghosts when you eat that power pellet. Great gaming.

  5. It crossed over into popular culture and became collectible

    With an animated TV Show (IMDB), a hit song, lunchboxes, toys, and cereal to name a few things. In fact there were so many items and it became so popular in pop culture that it has made Pac-Man products highly collectible. I found this book that highlights them (and it is from 2002, imagine how many more items there are now): Pac-Man Collectibles by Deborah Palicia

  6. The ghosts in Pac-Man are the first example of AI in a video game

    Each of the four ghosts have different and consistent AI behaviors. Blinky, the red ghost is always chasing you and speeds up once you’ve eaten so many dots in each level. Pinky (pink), tends to move counterclockwise around blocks and looks to ambush you. Inky (blue) moves sporadically. Clyde (orange), rarely approaches you.

  7. Ms. Pac-Man was the (almost) original girl power

    Ms. Pac-Man was the 2nd playable female video game character when she debuted in Feb 1982 (Lady Bug’s debut was Oct 1981). But, she was definitely the most famous.

  8. Ms. Pac-Man was one of the first video game sequels

    And like The Empire Strikes Back, it was better than the original. It also featured 4 different mazes vs. one maze for Pac-Man.

  9. It is rooted in simplicity, like many early great games.

    Eat all the dots. Avoid the ghosts. With that anyone is up to speed and can quickly play the game.

  10. It created the cut scene/intermission in a game.

    As the first game to feature cut scenes, it helped make Pac-Man a relatable character and gave life to him and his family, including Ms. Pac-Man.

  11. It was the first game to inspire a guidebook:

    Mastering Pac-Man by Ken Uston. Learn the Pac-Man patterns and you can play for a long time !!!!

  12. It helped standardize that each level was more difficult than the last

Do you remember this song ?

Fun facts I learned when researching Pac-Man:

  • Atari manufactured 12 million video game cartridges for the Atari 2600 system despite not having sold that many systems to play them on yet. They eventually sold only 7 of the 12 million cartridges. So 5 million Pac-Man games needed to be destroyed. That number is more than the infamous ET game debacle !

  • Pac-Man was originally called Puck Man in Japan (because he looks like a puck), but when it came to the US they changed the name fearing vandalism to the game. I found the Miss Puckman game below on a trip to The Netherlands !

Miss Puckman Arcade Game

Miss Puckman Arcade

  • Pac-Man is considered the highest grossing arcade game in history @ $2.5 Billion dollars in quarters (and that number is climbing and probably out of date as we speak) ! Maybe most impressive is $1 billion of that was spent in the first year alone.

  • The first perfect game was completed in 1999 by Billy MItchell, exposing the screen bug on screen #256 (called the kill screen) and the highest possible score of 3,333,360.

  • Pac-Man’s design inspiration came from a pizza missing a slice.

  • Pac-Man’s name was inspired by the Japanese onomatopoeia (a word that sounds like what it is describing) for “munch” and “chomp”, Paku-Paku

  • There is a secret hiding spot in the maze where the ghosts cannot find you if they aren’t looking at you. Do you know where it is ?

BONUS CONTENT FROM THIS SITE:

This is a site dedicated to mazes so of course I made a maze of Pac-Man many years ago, using Excel of all things. The goal is to reach the cherry. The download is below ! I made this before I understood how designing mazes worked (I’m still learning) so it has long dead ends.

Pac-Man Maze
download the maze

I also started a comic strip on the site that deals with all things maze and labyrinth related. A new comic comes out every Wednesday until I run out of ideas… Here is a future comic, previously unpublished, that you get to see early that I think any Pac-Man afficionado would appreciate.

Pac-Man in a maze comic strip