Category Archives: Maze Solutions

You Can See Yourself Out: A Collection of Fun, Irreverent, Festive, & Wild Hand-Drawn Mazes

Posted on by Standard 2
You Can See Yourself Out: A Collection of Fun, Irreverent, Festive, & Wild Hand-Drawn Mazes (Front Cover)

Well then, it’s finally here. I finished maze book number two! This one is better than the last one, I promise. The first was sort of a test run just to see how Amazon KDP works. I wholeheartedly appreciate everyone that bought that book, but this one just objectively looks better and much more time was put into its creation. It ought to be much more challenging and enjoyable, IMHO.

It’s called You Can See Yourself Out: A Collection of Fun, Irreverent, Festive, & Wild Hand-Drawn Mazes. Thanks to @brain.d.37 on Threads for suggesting the title!

This book a collection of a bunch more larger mazes, and a few small ones that I have been drawing since late 2023. There’s no common theme other than most of the mazes have a silly vibe. A few have no vibe at all. There’s aliens, rodents, yard work, holiday stuff, rock n’ roll, a treasure map, food, retail aversion, gross stuff, & more.

You Can See Yourself Out: A Collection of Fun, Irreverent, Festive, & Wild Hand-Drawn Mazes (Front Cover)
You Can See Yourself Out: A Collection of Fun, Irreverent, Festive, & Wild Hand-Drawn Mazes (Front Cover)

I hope you consider picking up a copy for yourself, & maybe even one for a friend? If not, just sharing the link to someone who you think may enjoy it, or just sharing it in general would be awesome.

The link is https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F9Y7SFXS and I’d love if you could share it, review it, favorite it or save it to a list… anything to help even if you’re not interested in a purchase. You could give me a good (or terrible) review or add it to your list on GoodReads too, if that’s your thing.

I had fun making a collage with punk ‘zine vibes for the cover. I busted out the mixed media, printed on weird paper, got two cutting, ripping, & coffee staining… and unearthed the leopard & cheetah print tape.

All of the mazes were hand-drawn, scanned in, edited (& “solved”) in paint.NET, & put together with Open Office. I haven’t stepped into the world of digital drawing yet, and I like my free programs. Someday, I’ll probably dive into GIMP a little more.

You Can See Yourself Out: A Collection of Fun, Irreverent, Festive, & Wild Hand-Drawn Mazes (Full Front & Back Cover)

I love drawing the mazes, and it’s a great creative outlet like blogging or making music or playing out live. I’m sitting on a pile of old ones that I can convert into a book… but I need to make sure they’re all solvable and do the solutions.

Find the tone! Guitar amp stack maze collage.

Some are too big to fit on my scanner, and scanning with my phone has less than desirable results… so I’m gonna have to go somewhere like a FedEx Office store and hope they can help before they all disappear. I have a problem picking up any notebook that catches my eye and is the right price, regardless of size & paper type. I like the feel & the calming of pen on paper.

Some of the ones that I have posted here in writing goofy emails/letters to companies probably can’t be included because of copyrights or trademarks when I include their products. (Unless La Choy/Conagra, Pizza Hut, Sheetz, Dollar Shave Club, Pepperidge Farm, Disney/Lucasfilm & more sign off on it, or it falls under fair use? I guess I could have included this one or these two.)

I guess I did figure this whole thing out.

Because I have been excited about this, and I made a small collage with leftover bits, I popped up some new merch designs in my TeePublic & RedBubble stores with that new collage & the book cover images. I do have some older designs there with a few of the mazes that are featured in this book too. If you have an account & follow me on either of those sites, it may help my stuff get seen a bit more. I’d appreciate any form of liking/sharing/tagging if you’re so inclined!

TeePublic "You Can See Yourself Out" merch by AIXeLsyD13
RedBubble "You Can See Yourself Out" merch by AIXeLsyD13

In fact, check out all these designs from or inspired by the book, you can get them on all kinds of merch at each store! (I ordered a sticker, a magnet, a coffee cup, & a hoodie so I’m already in the hole.)

Cover & Collage Designs:

Mazes featured in the book:

So, what do you think? Any of it catch your idea? Any ideas for maze merch? Think you’ll pick up a copy?

If you happen to get something, post a photo or video of yourself with it, & tag me on social media! I’m @AiXeLsyD13 pretty much everywhere.

I love these (A maze solution submission.)

Posted on by Standard Reply

This came from nowhere the other day, attached to an email, no name or text in the body.

It’s the solution to an OLD maze from 2012: Shift Spiral Spin [Maze]

Please, come forward and take credit! I can tag you on socials or link to any projects you have going on.

I’d love to know how you found it! I try to post them to my maze board on Pinterest if I remember. There are a ton here and on my Instagram, or my maze Instagram.

If this inspires you to do one, that would be awesome. Post on social media & tag me @AiXeLsyD13 on just about everything. (Except PayPal. Whoever has that must be a real asshole because I have been using AiXeLsyD13 since like Angelfire and AOL Instant Messenger.) I am trying out Threads and Blue Sky while Twitter is becoming 𝕏. I gave up on Mastodon and that one other one I forget the name of.

You can also email it to me like this anonymous solver did at world.and.lunar.domination@gmail.com.

☡🚧🚨🚨🚨🚧 SPOILER ALERT! Solution Below: 🚧🚨🚨🚨🚧☡

Reader-submitted solution to a 2012 maze that I inexplicably called “Shift Spiral Spin.”

Neat Maze Solution [✏ Can you do it? (Another Maze)] and (I think) fan mail!

Posted on by Standard 6

I recently received an email containing a solution to one of my mazes, along with a what I’ll interpret as a fan-letter and some constructive criticism.  Check out the incredibly detailed solution & the message below:

✏ Can you do it? (Another Maze) SOLUTION

✏ Can you do it? (Another Maze) SOLUTION

And the accompanying email:

From: Rick Jaspers
Date: Mon, Jun 25, 2012
Subject:
To: world.and.lunar.domination@gmail.com

Hi, I saw a post in which you asked people to solve a maze, and send the solution to you, but I just can’t seem to find the post now. Oh well, here is my solution.

It was a great maze! Your style of utilizing tight squiggly paths and many dead ends made it a real challenge to solve. I enjoyed the complexity and design of this wonderful maze.

I did find a couple issues that I should bring to your attention. I hesitate to say anything because I fear it could be taken in the wrong spirit. But I assure you that even though we don’t know each other, I wish you every success with your mazes. The things I found are very minor, and things I have done many times myself, and not caught until much later. Furthermore none of these issues keep this from being a very good maze.

With that said, this is what I found (refer to the attachment for a visual):

The areas marked in red are closed off from the rest of the maze so the solver is not able to get into them from the starting line. This is an easy fix, open up an end in each of these areas, and you have created additional dead end to frustrate the solver.

The second thing is the three loops marked with green dotted lines. Some maze designers use loops, others do not. Personally, I don’t like using loops except in certain specialized mazes. As the designer, you get to chose the rules you apply to your designs. Since you only have a small amount of loops, I am thinking that they were not intentional. Again, if you did not mean to include loops, they are easy to fix. Closing off one end makes yet more dead ends. Having loops along the solution route adds a further complication of having alternate paths which lead to the end, and these other ways to get to the finish must be shown when you provide solutions.

If you can bare one more suggestion, here it is. As you make the last turn for the finish line, the trail forks off into three paths. When solvers are so close to the finish, they can see which path is the right one. I would recommend closing off the two false paths at this point, and finding another place to open them up, so you create two more dead ends right at the finish.

These are all minor things, but I hope they help. I don’t see myself as an expert maze designer. Many of my mazes are poorly designed. I lack a mathematical sense, which can be very helpful in designing mazes. Also I have a really horrible sense of direction, seriously. I am constantly getting lost when I go places. But I enjoy making mazes, so I do it.

I sincerely hope you can find a way for more people to enjoy your fine mazes.

Rick Jaspers

So, I wrote back…

From: Waldo Lunar <world.and.lunar.domination@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jun 26, 2012
Subject: Re:
To: Rick Jaspers

Wow Rick!

Thanks for taking the time to complete the maze & for all the pointers!  How did you find me?

I should be able to look through them to find the one that this matches without a problem.

I don’t know if I really “design” mazes, I kind of just draw them.  I do appreciate your advice though… it would be easier to complete without the loops, and more challenging without the areas that are closed off.

Do you have any of your mazes up online anywhere?

Would you mind if I posted your email in a blog along with your solution?

Thanks for writing!
-Eric
aixelsyd13.wordpress.com

Permission granted:

From: Rick Jaspers
Date: Wed, Jun 27, 2012
Subject: RE: Maze Solution
To: world.and.lunar.domination@gmail.com

Hey Eric,

I enjoyed doing your maze, so no problem. Much more challenging than any of mine.

Originally, I found your site when I did a WordPress Topics Search for “Mazes”, and was able to get a hold of you because your e-mail was listed on your About page.

I do not have any mazes on-line. I no longer own the rights to the 33 in the published book. All of the other mazes I have done are part of unpublished or unfinished books. I guess I don’t like the idea of putting mazes on-line that I am trying to get into print.

You are welcome to do whatever you wish with the solution I made, and if you want to include my e-mail, that is fine also.

Rick

That’s pretty cool!  Rick had to take some serious time solving the maze & doing his photo-editing work in the solution.  This encourages me that there are more people out there who dig mazes, & we all may benefit from me getting a book published.  Maybe I can put more though into my mazes, instead of just doodling.  I certainly could use more money to buy goofy guitars.

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Maze Solution! Peculiarly Perplexing Path

Posted on by Standard 1

We have another maze solution!  This one is from Jennifer B, she said her son worked through the Peculiarly Perplexing Path in a half hour.  I hope the family is able to roll through some more of my mazes, and glad you’re having fun with this one!

From: Jennifer B.
Date: Sat, Mar 3, 2012 at 9:06 PM
Subject: I DID IT! The Peculiarly Perplexing Path – Maze Solution
To: world.and.lunar.domination@gmail.com

Hey there,

I couldn’t resist sharing your latest maze with my kids. They love a challenge! Here is my 11 year old’s solution.
JenniferB

Check it out…

Cool!  Jennifer’s kid rocks! Thanks for taking the time to solve it & for taking the time to send it in!

As always, if you try any of my mazes, send a scan or photo of the solution to world.and.lunar.domination@gmail.com!

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Curvilinear Course [Maze Solution]

Posted on by Standard 6

So, we have a solution to one of my ridiculous mazes by Chris Thornborrow of the Labirintia Project:

Chris writes along with his solution…

Hi there,

Wow it took over an hour. In the end I started blacking out dead end paths to narrow the search down. This meant I found a start at the finish first and then worked toward the start. As you can see I had to black Out huge amounts. Very confusing very hard maze. How the hell did you design this?

I wrote back to Chris, saying…

Hi Chris,

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to try the maze & to send a photo! I haven’t got many responses yet. I hadn’t heard of the blacking-out method until recently.

I don’t really design the mazes, as much as “just draw”. I try to always keep an open path until the end. Sometimes I work form both the start & the finish, connect two paths, and try to close off all the others. Sometimes I have multiple paths.

If you’d like to try this maze for yourself, you can here: Curvilinear Course [Maze]  –  Try not to look at the solution above first, though.

Solutions have also come rolling in from Eric Yano, to a handful of mazes at once!  Are you brave enough to try?

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Solutions to several mazes!

Posted on by Standard 5

Well, Eric Yano (of local weblog Valley of Steel) stepped up and has completed (or almost completed) 8 of my mazes.  He’s got a unique method of solving.  He fills in the dead ends, leaving the “good” path open.  Some of these don’t show a good path, so either I screwed up in drawing, or Eric got overzealous in filling-in.

Check out this awesome *.pdf with Eric’s notes and the url’s of the mazes attached:

The mazes he’s completed or attempted are as follows:

Maybe Eric will be the one to complete them all before anyone else?  Don’t forget some of the older ones…

They need some solution love too!  I’ve seen some of them being re-pinned on Pinterest.  I try to ask those people to also email their solutions to world.and.lunar.domination@gmail.com, but I haven’t received any other attempts yet.

How would you like the solutions presented?  Is this link to a pdf good?  Is the individual blog post good?  Should I post a photo of the solution in the comments of each maze?  Should I just post a link o the solution to prevent “ruining” it for anyone else?  Is anyone reading these besides Eric?

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