Create Isometric Mazes with Mazes 2D Tiles

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to create isometric mazes with Puzzle Maker Pro – Mazes 2D Tiles. We recommend you start by reading Getting Started with Mazes 2D tiles, so you understand the basics of this program.

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First Steps

To create an isometric maze, select “Isometric – Classic” from the Grid Type dropdown menu. You’ll see a preview of the maze, using the current settings (1)

To use your own tiles, click “Browse” (2). To select a folder, just select one of the images in that folder, and click “Open”. That will select the entire folder, not just the single image.

If the preview panel is not centered, you can do so by moving the mouse wheel when you hover over the image.

Isometric - Full Square

The diamond shaped maze is what we call the ‘Classic’ variation of isometric. This is the isometric style you often see in video games. However, we also offer the option to fill the entire canvas with isometric squares. This option is called "Isometric - Full Square". This will add more cells to create a square maze, as seen in the picture below. We also recommend this option if you want to work with masks. Below is an example of a maze generated with the Isometric Full Square option selected.

Creating and Using your own tiles

It is possible to use your own tiles for Mazes 2D Tiles. You can find this information at Mazes 2D Tile Format and Naming Conventions.

Making isometric tiles yourself sounds more difficult than it really is. There are multiple ways you can go about it:

You can use regular square tiles, and our Tile Multiplier Add-On. With this method, you will only really need 5 or 6 square tiles for the maze, and two additional images for a start and end point. This can even be done in powerpoint if you don't have Photoshop or equivalent. Here is a video on How to Create Square Tiles with MS Powerpoint. Do note that while the tile multiplier will rotate images for you, it does not add the suggested depth shown in the example images on this page.
You can draw the isometric tiles yourself. We have tutorials on how to do this in Adobe Illustrator, but this can be done in other graphic programs as well. A Video on making Isometric Tiles with Adobe Illustrator, The Text for making Isometric Tiles with Adobe Illustrator
Last but not least, you can find isometric tiles on the web. There are both free and paid options available, although most free sets seem to only be available in 32 or 64 pixels. Depending on your maze and your image settings, this could lead to a blurry final maze. An example of other tiles can be seen below:

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Isometric maze using public domain tiles (Tiles downloaded from https://opengameart.org/users/kenney)

As you can see in the image, there are some 'holes' in the maze. We have selected 10 Empty Cells, and because there is no '0' image, which would be an image with 0 connections to the tiles surrounding it, these are left empty. This can result in a 3D effect when you use isometric tiles.

The video demonstrates how to create square tiles in MS Powerpoint. The actual tiles are just an example, you can create anything you want, as long as the tiles are square (height and width are equal). After drawing and editing the tiles, you save them as PNG images, using thenaming format that’s required by Mazes 2D Tiles.

You can find more tutorials on the Mazes 2D Tiles tutorials page. Video tutorials can be found in the Mazes 2D Tiles Playlist.

Question 3

Generate Isometric Tiles from your Square Tiles (Video)

Accepted Answer

With the Tile Multiplier for Puzzle Maker Pro – Mazes 2D Tiles you can create a real 3D looking isometric maze from your own square tiles. Each flat tile turned into a 3D cube alike isometric tile. Choose your own shading for the 3D effect. The video demonstrates how this is done.

You can find more tutorials on the Mazes 2D Tiles tutorials page. Video tutorials can be found in the Mazes 2D Tiles Playlist.

Question 4

Getting Started with Mazes 3D Isometric

Accepted Answer

The full tutorial can be found here:

Question 5

Height Map Editor Tutorial - Quick Overview

Accepted Answer

The Height Map Editor is an interactive tool to create your own 3D landscape. You can raise and lower individual squares (blocks) and level entire rows and columns.

There is one basic rule for the height of the cells: cells in front have to be lower than cells in the back. (Otherwise there would be a path on the back of the cell, which is not visible).

The Height Map Editor always applies this rule automatically, which may cause some unexpected results when you’re changing the height of some cells. That’s why there’s an Undo option, so you can always go back to the previous version of the height map.

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