How to play
Use arrow keys or swipe to move the yellow dot to the green square.
About Maze Explorer
Maze Explorer hands you a brand new maze every time you play. You are the yellow dot in the top left corner. The way out is the green square in the bottom right. Between the two lies a tangle of corridors, and exactly one route that works.
How to play
On a computer, use the arrow keys. Each press moves the dot one square, if there is no wall in the way. On a phone or tablet, swipe in the direction you want to travel. One swipe is one step, so a long corridor takes a series of quick flicks.
The maze is a grid of ten squares by ten. Reach the green square and the game announces that you have escaped. Tap for a new maze.
There is no timer, no move counter and nothing chasing you. You cannot fail. The only question is how directly you can find your way.
Every maze is different
The layout is generated on the spot by the game, so there is no stock of levels to run out of and no chance of learning a maze by heart. The method it uses carves winding passages through the grid, which tends to produce long, twisting corridors with a fair number of dead ends branching off.
It also guarantees two useful things. Every square in the maze can be reached, so the exit is never sealed off. And there are no loops. Between any two squares there is exactly one path. If you find yourself back where you started, you have retraced your steps, not walked in a circle.
How to solve a maze faster
Look before you move. The whole maze is visible from the start, so you can plan with your eyes before you commit. Many people find it easier to work backwards from the green square, tracing the corridor that leads out of it until it meets territory near the start. Dead ends are much easier to spot from the far end.
Break the journey into stages. Find a junction about halfway and solve the first half, then the second.
When you reach a fork, glance down each branch. Short dead ends can be ruled out without taking a step.
If you would rather not think at all, there is a method that always works in a maze like this. Pick one wall, say the one on your right, and follow it without ever letting go. Turn right whenever you can, go straight when you cannot, turn left if that is the only choice, and turn back at dead ends. It is not the shortest route, but because this kind of maze has no loops, it will always bring you to the exit.
Who it is for
Mazes are good for spatial thinking and for learning to plan a few steps ahead, and because there is no pressure they suit young children well. A ten by ten grid is big enough to need some thought and small enough to finish in a minute or two. Adults can make it harder for themselves: solve the maze by eye first, then try to walk it without a single wrong turn.
Maze Explorer is free and plays in the browser on any phone, tablet or computer. There is nothing to download, and there is always another maze.