How to create Basket Weave Mazes with Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D Bricks

How to create Basket Weave Mazes with Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D Bricks

This tutorial applies to Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D Patchwork Bricks.

The tutorial "How to use Mazes 2D Squares" describes how to use the generic options for Mazes 2D.

The module Mazes 2D Bricks for Puzzle Maker Pro contains two maze puzzle types:

• Patchwork Bricks, and
• Patchwork Basket Weave

This tutorial focuses on Patchwork Basket Weave

Mazes 2D Patchwork Basket Weave lets you design your own maze using the Basket Weave pattern. You can customize the size of the basket, and there are quite a few colorization options, resulting in a more playful (or artistically fulfilling) maze.

The module includes

• 1 Basket Weave pattern in 8 sizes (2 to 9 bricks/cells per tile)
• 5 colorization options, and color randomization control

In addition to the Basket Weave options, this module includes the 'standard' maze generation and style options in the Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D collection.

Note: The Masks Add-On is not available for this module.

Creating Patchwork Basket Weave mazes

Select Mazes 2D in the main Puzzle Type dropdown menu, then select Patchwork Basket Weave in the (maze) Type dropdown menu. Click "Next Preview" to quickly get a first impression. (Changing settings does not automatically create a new preview, because you may want to change multiple settings, and the mazes, especially at larger sizes, may take some time to generate).

On the special Basket Weave tab, you can see four groups of settings

1. Select the size (number of bricks) for each tile,
2. Select the Color Style and Accent Color
3. Select the Accent Color for Color Style 1
4. Select the Randomization Style for Color Styles 2 and 4

Basket Weave Steps

The number of Steps determines the number of bricks in each 'tile'. You can select a number between 2 and 9, resulting in 2 to 9 bricks horizontally in the first tile, and 2 to 9 bricks vertically in the second tile, etc.

Please be aware that larger tiles (e.g. Steps 7,8,9) will result in mazes that take less steps to solve (because the cells are larger).

In the screenshot above you can see a 20 x 20 grid, using tiles with 3 bricks each. At the right side and at the bottom, you can see that some of the tiles are cut off. That's because 20 is not a multiple of 18. You'll see 6 full tiles and 2 thirds of the tiles at the right and at the bottom.

To prevent this, you can use the option "Full Tiles Only", that will use the largest number of tiles possible without cropping any of them.

Basket Weave Colorization

There are 5 colorization options for Basket Weave mazes:

0. None - no additional colors will be applied
1. Bricks - Color Range: A custom color range will be calculated (see below). Brick 1 in each tile gets Accent Color 1, the last brick gets Accent Color 2, and each brick in between gets a color 'between' the other two
2. Bricks - Random Colors: Each brick gets a random color, but bricks in the same position will get the same color
3. Tiles - Checkerboard: Every other tile will be colored with the Accent Color, creating a checkerboard pattern
4. Tiles - Random Colors: Each tile will get a randomized color. Some tiles may get the same color

Color Range

The Color Range option used the two colors Accent Color and Accent Color 2, and will calculate steps between the RGB values of these colors. Let's say Accent Color = RGB (255,20,0) and Accent Color 2 = RGB (255,162,154). When there are three bricks in each tile (Steps = 3), the middle tile will get the 'averaged' color RgB (255, 91, 77). 91 is exactly in the middle between 20 and 91, 77 if exactly in the middle between 0 and 154.

This brief explanation is just to get a feel for it. It's best to play with the colors and find results that appeal to you. This mechanisme will work with grayscale colors as well.

Random Colors

For random colors, a new color is selected 'near' Accent Color. The "Randomization Range" slider determines the maximum percentage that the new color can be changed from the Accent Color. When you use bricks with random colors, Brick 1 in each tile will always get the same color, etc.

When you select Tiles with Random Colors, each tile (the bricks in each tile) will get a different random color.

That's all... it's a Basket Weave is a simple pattern, that gets a unique look and feel with the colorization options.

Further Reading

• Puzzle Maker Pro - Mazes 2D Overview
• Puzzle Maker Pro - Style Options
• Puzzle Maker Pro - Time Saver for Mazes 2D