maze_generator: 0.1.0 and beyond...

[mjrlowe]

Hello everyone, I just released version 0.1.0 of maze_generator, a Javascript module (compatible with Deno, of course) for generating mazes that I've been working on over the last couple of months.

You can use it to generate mazes with 12 different algorithms (I've just added true Prim's and 10print) and there are at least two more algorithms coming soon.

maze_generator is probably the least useful package on nest.land but I would say it's the most fun! It's also very easy to use. Printing a maze to the console is as simple as Maze.create().generate().printString().

Here's two examples demonstrating the kinds of images that maze_generator can create:
[.display() currently only works in a HTML document with a canvas element.]

A 60x60 10print maze. displayMode is set to 2 (line drawing).

This one is using the recursive backtracker algorithm, starting in the top left. In the display settings, displayMode is set to 1, strokeWeight is set to 0 and coloringMode is set to "distance". Essentially you are seeing the cells coloured according to the distance from the top left cell, and walls aren't drawn.

This update also introduces Maze.createWidget(), which creates a little interactive HTML widget (inspired by this). This only works in the browser (at least for now) and I still need to do some work on it, but it should be useful for embedding maze generator programs into webpages.

I have a bunch on features planned--including braid mazes, weave mazes, directional bias, seeds and hopefully eventually I will implement mazes of different shapes. I also still need to fully document a couple of features.

Feedback and contributions are welcome: like most people I'm new to Deno and also this is the first module, so I might not have implemented best practices.

I'm enjoying seeing the Deno and nest.land community develop and I look forward to hearing anything you have to say about my hobby project!

[zorbyte]

Wowee this looks really neat! 👍

[t8]

This is so cool! That colored maze is unlike anything I've ever seen before. What gave you the idea to create something like this, and what is your favorite maze generation algorithm?

[t8]

Also, kudos on your documentation over there. It looks very comprehensive and easy to understand.

[mjrlowe]

Thanks!

I think the recursive backtracker (randomized depth-first search) algorithm produces the best-looking mazes but some of my other favorites are the Aldous-Broder algorithm for its simplicity and the recursive division algorithm because of how different it is from all the others.

My inspiration mostly is mostly Jamis Buck's stuff on maze algorithms, including his blog, his CoffeeScript implementations and his "Mazes for Programmers" book.

Walter D Pullen has has made some great resources on mazes, including the desktop maze app Daedalus and the maze classification page of the Think Labyrinth website.

See also:

• The Wikipedia page
• Coding Train: Maze Generator (recursive backtracker)
• EnslavedInTheScrolls' mazes
• History of the 10 PRINT algorithm

I mostly just wanted to create this so that I have a single Javascript tool that can do all sorts of maze generation things.

[t8]

Interesting... I found myself fascinated in that coding train video you linked. Thanks for sharing more info! I had never thought about the complexities of procedural maze generation until you posted this.

[littledivy]

This is super cool! Great work.

[mjrlowe]

Thank you!