How to Play

Getting started

On the maze home page, pick a difficulty (levels 1 to 20), choose a game mode, and hit Start. A fresh maze is generated on the spot. You don't need to download anything or sign up.

Have a maze code? Paste it into the code field. Once it's recognized, the difficulty adjusts automatically and Start takes you into that exact maze. It's the easy way to race friends on the same maze.

The timer starts the moment you make your first move. Time spent studying the maze before setting off doesn't count against you.

The two game modes

In Character view, you follow right behind a tiny explorer as they wander the corridors. A minimap in the corner, covered by fog of war, keeps exploring exciting. Press the First-person view button on the game screen to switch to a camera at the character's eye level.

In Overhead view, you look down on the whole maze and plan your route. Zoom with the mouse wheel or a pinch. If you zoom in until the maze outgrows the screen, a minimap appears.

You choose the mode when you start, and it can't be changed mid-game. Want the other mode? Head back home and start again with the same code.

Keyboard controls

Overhead view

Move north, south, east, and west with the arrow keys or WASD. Up always means up on the screen (north). The camera never rotates, so you never lose your bearings.

Character view

W or the up arrow walks forward, S or the down arrow steps back, and the left/right arrows turn 90°. In the default layout, A/D sidestep without turning and Q/E turn. You can swap the roles of A/D and Q/E under Key layout in the settings.

Both modes

Esc pauses the game (the timer stops too), and M reads out your current position for screen reader users.

Mouse controls

In Overhead view, click a cell and your explorer walks straight in that direction until they hit a wall. They won't find a path for you; they simply walk the way you clicked, so finding the route is still up to you. Zoom with the wheel and pan with a right-button drag.

In Character view, click the left 30% of the screen to turn left, the right 30% to turn right, and the middle to walk forward.

Touch controls (phones and tablets)

The default is the jog dial. Drag the knob toward where you want to go, and keep rotating while dragging to change direction smoothly. Prefer buttons? Switch to the virtual D-pad under Touch controls in the settings.

You can also swipe anywhere to move, and in overhead view, tapping a cell walks straight toward it. Drag with two fingers to pan, pinch to zoom.

Auto-run (overhead view)

Turn on Auto-run and your explorer keeps walking in the last direction you moved. Press a direction key and they just turn that way and keep going. When a wall blocks the path, they stop and wait for your next input. It saves your hands a lot of work in mazes with long corridors.

Fog and the trail

In character view at difficulty 4 and up, fog of war covers the minimap, so you only see the cells you've visited and the straight corridor you're currently facing. This mode is about memorizing the maze as you explore.

You can lift the fog with the Remove fog button on the minimap, but it's one-way: once removed, it can't be turned back on for that run. Whether you kept the fog is saved with your finish time and shown separately in the rankings.

Turn on Show trail to draw a line along the path you've taken. Your footsteps are recorded even while it's off, so the full route appears the moment you switch it on. If you turned it on even once, the record is marked as using an assist.

Records and rankings

When you reach the goal, your finish time appears and the result is saved on this device automatically. To make it public, enter a nickname (up to 20 characters) and choose “Post to global rankings.” Choosing “Do not post” still keeps it in your records.

My records keep the 50 fastest times per maze code in this browser. Global rankings show the top 10 worldwide; only the nickname and result submitted with “Post to global rankings” are public.

There's also the Weekly Challenge, where everyone takes on the same mazes, one for each of the five difficulty bands. A fresh round starts every Monday (UTC).

Settings

From the in-game settings menu you can change your character (dog or cat), the key layout and the touch control style. In Character view, the First-person view button on the game screen switches the camera between third person and first person. Your choices are remembered in this browser.

In overhead view on desktop there's also the Spreadsheet theme, which disguises the maze as a spreadsheet. It looks like serious office work, but the maze underneath is exactly the same.