How To Draw a Totally Sweet Brain Maze

Problem statement: You know those 14-page kids’ maze books that sell for $4.99 on the spinning wire racks of your local drugstore? And do you know how long it takes your budding puzzle genius to solve the entire book? About 14 minutes. That’s $21.39 for an hour of entertainment. You’d be better off hiring a creative babysitter from your local university’s childhood ed program.

The Solution: Or you can simply and entertainingly create your own mazes. Stop! Don’t immediately cave to self doubt! Turn that “I can’t” into an “I can!” Soon, you’ll be a-MAZING! (author’s note: you get that this is intentionally over glee club, right?)

Just follow these simple steps:

Step #1: Define your game space. Any enclosed figure works. Points for creativity. This gets none.

Step #2: Draw short curved lines (as in #'s 1, 2 & 3), to define a path of standardized width.

Step #3: Continue drawing short, curved lines, including ones like line #4, which creates a split.

Step #4: Here's the crux–ALWAYS leave at least one path open. If there's always an open path, you guarantee your maze will be solveable. Continue short, curved lines that define paths of defined width.

I’ll post a high-res version of the maze that heads this post at www.garthsundem.com. Oh, and if you’re into this sorta brain candy, check out my new book, Brain Candy: Science, Puzzles, Paradoxes, Logic and Illogic to Nourish Your Neurons (Three Rivers Press, 2010). Despite the fact that my human operating system only marginally supports the antiquated application “pen”, I illustrated the heck out of it with mazes, doodles, puzzles, and even–yes–a flipbook!