ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

I wrote this article on Medium about mazes. DROD people will get it. Also, it is filled up with screenshots from DROD where I used the editor to create example mazes. Technically, it is not an article about DROD, but... actually, it is full of DROD, and designed to send a few new players into the community.

Top 10 Mazes You Can’t Solve By Following the Right Wall

If you like the article, maybe heart/follow me on Medium.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

uncopy2002
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 431
Registered: 07-28-2014
IP: Logged

#11: the maze is 3D.

disoriented
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2401
Registered: 08-07-2007
IP: Logged

File: u.png (70.1 KB)
Downloaded 594 times.
License: Public Domain

uncopy2002 wrote:
#11: the maze is 3D.

From the article:


____________________________
34th Skywatcher

Best to PM me, since I might miss your message on CaravelNet chat.

---

[Last edited by disoriented at 10-16-2016 09:34 AM]

Insoluble
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1639
Registered: 09-04-2014
IP: Logged

Somewhat along the lines of #3 and #5:

A maze constructed on the surface of a Torus [\shameless plug]

____________________________
Links to neat forum tools that I always have trouble finding:

uncopy2002
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 431
Registered: 07-28-2014
IP: Logged

From the article:

Click here to view the secret text

×

Oops, I guess I didn't read it thoroughly. Too much stuff mentioned inside.

I suppose the algorithm is like this?

A maze constructed on the surface of a Torus

Hey, we haven't even mentioned general topological spaces yet, where regions are defined to connect to each other in peculiar ways, including one-way connections! I once did a thorough thinking about mazes in general topological spaces, and basically, if you actually try to map out such areas, you might get aperiodic tiling like Wang tiles, which means you need to look infinitely forward to actually determine where exactly you are!

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

uncopy2002 wrote:
I suppose the algorithm is like this?

Suppose we always look at the direction we just moved. Then for the set of all possible directions of movement, we order them carefully, and in every turn, try them from the first in the list to the last, and take the first move that can be made.

Right-hand rule is a set ordered as [right, forward, left backward]. For higher dimension just add their respective directions onto the list.

I think your algorithm works if all the directions in the set are relative and not absolute. You wouldn't just add an absolute "up" and "down" to the set. It would be more like "turn up" and "turn down". The representation of you in the maze would rotate on an extra axis so that if you move absolute-down, you are then facing absolute-down at the next node, and moving relative-forward from that second node means continuing in the absolute-down direction.

I didn't try this out though. It could be wrong. There's probably an elegant way to do it with absolute directions in the set too. But it can't just be trying them in the same order on each node. That would make you stalemate between two nodes forever after reaching a dead-end node.

I bet somebody is going to link a paper that describes the solution in ruthless academic detail and ruin all the fun.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

---

[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 10-18-2016 06:04 AM]

uncopy2002
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 431
Registered: 07-28-2014
IP: Logged

Oh, I was indeed referring to relative direction. So it's like a disarmed Beethro instead of wielding with a sword.

mtomato
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 17
Registered: 05-16-2016
IP: Logged

A maze without walls.

Imagine a room where the floor is made of pressure plates, and at the opposite end of the room is a closed door. The only way to open this door is to traverse this invisible maze made of pressure plates. Triggering a wrong pressure plate means that you have to start from the beginning, and there may or may not be a signal to let you know of your failure.

It's a pretty common puzzle in video games. The correct path may be revealed by clues or maybe the player has to find a map of the maze. Anyway, following the right wall is not going to work... except for on the map itself.

---

[Last edited by mtomato at 10-22-2016 12:13 AM]

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

mtomato wrote:
A maze without walls.

Imagine a room where the floor is made of pressure plates, and at the opposite end of the room is a closed door. The only way to open this door is to traverse this invisible maze made of pressure plates. Triggering a wrong pressure plate means that you have to start from the beginning, and there may or may not be a signal to let you know of your failure.

Sure!

I think this and the "moving walls" variation could be more broadly classified as a multi-state maze. Within that larger bucket, there are many interesting possibilities.

From a classic DROD player's perspective, your design is a No-No because it hides information. Sometimes, I wish for a DROD spinoff game that was perfectly fine with hidden information. I enjoy a good tar-over-the-walls maze at times. And deductive logic games like Minesweeper or any of the Everett Kaser games are quite fun.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

uncopy2002
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 431
Registered: 07-28-2014
IP: Logged

So, what if when you can also walk diagonally? You know, just like in DROD.

I'm currently too busy to formulate a thorough proof, but I think it'll break the algorithm easily because you can then make one-way trip segments that will catch a maze-traversing algorithm with a certain order of preferences in a dead loop, and then make the whole maze such that you require a>b and a<b, which simply cannot happen.

Dischorran
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3414
Registered: 09-10-2005
IP: Logged

Conversely, does there exist a maze that can be solved by following the wrong wall?

____________________________