Maze Sprint

What is Maze Sprint?

Maze Sprint is a six-stage navigation race built from deterministic perfect mazes. Every cell is connected, there is exactly one simple route between any two points, and the exit is placed at the farthest cell from the start. That makes each stage fair and provably solvable while still producing a different route for every seed.

The run begins with a compact 5×5 grid and grows to 10×10. Later stages introduce one-way energy gates and striped time hazards. Optional diamond boosts sit mostly in side branches: collecting one costs extra steps, but adds time and points.

How to play

• Touch: swipe across the board. A swipe moves exactly one cell and must clearly favor one axis, so diagonal gestures never choose a surprising direction.
• On-screen controls: use the four large direction buttons below or beside the maze.
• Keyboard: use the arrow keys or WASD.
• Reach the ring-shaped exit before the signal timer reaches zero.
• A diamond boost adds 1.5 seconds the first time you collect it.
• A striped triangular hazard removes 1.1 seconds the first time you enter it.
• Chevron gates are one-way. You may cross in the direction of the chevron, but cannot immediately retreat through the same gate.

Scoring

Clearing a stage always awards 2,000 points. Up to 2,500 extra points come from spare time, and up to 2,000 come from matching the BFS shortest path. Each collected boost adds 600 points, while each triggered hazard subtracts 250.

The fastest visible route is not always the best score. A nearby boost may be worth the detour; a deep branch usually is not. Read the route before committing through a one-way gate.

Strategy tips

1. Scan before moving. The start, exit, boosts, hazards and gate arrows use different shapes so the route remains readable without relying on color alone.
2. Budget a branch. Compare the distance to a boost with the 1.5 seconds it returns.
3. Respect chevrons. Collect anything behind you before crossing a one-way gate.
4. Avoid repeat work. Perfect mazes contain no loops, so every wrong branch must be retraced.
5. Protect efficiency. The stage bonus compares your actual step count with the true BFS shortest path.

Daily challenge

Daily mode gives every player the same six generated mazes, features and timers. Only accepted movements and the terminal timeout event enter the replay trace. The server regenerates the plan from the daily seed, replays those inputs at their logical timestamps and checks the final state hash before accepting the score.

FAQ

Can a generated stage be impossible?

No. The generator carves a spanning tree and verifies the start-to-exit path with BFS. Gates are placed facing forward on that proven route, so following the shortest path always reaches the exit.

Why did my diagonal swipe do nothing?

Maze Sprint uses axis locking. A gesture must travel at least 24 pixels and favor horizontal or vertical movement by a clear margin. This prevents an almost diagonal swipe from moving in an unintended direction.

Does pausing consume stage time?

No. The renderer uses the platform's pause-aware logical clock. Timers, scoring timestamps and replays all freeze while the host pauses the game.

Does it fit landscape screens?

Yes. Portrait uses a stacked maze and D-pad. Short landscape and desktop viewports move the controls into a side rail, keeping the entire game inside the gameplay viewport without document scrolling.