Chapter 2 - Designing Your Own Maze Adventure

Now that you’ve taken your first steps into Adventure Game and learned how to move your character, use tools, and control actions with code, it’s time to go deeper. In this chapter, you’ll become a maze designer—a creator of exciting puzzles that players can explore and solve. Your job is to plan, build, and test your very own maze game using everything you’ve learned so far.

What Is a Maze?

Let’s begin by understanding what a maze is. A maze is a collection of paths that lead from a starting point to a goal. Some paths may be long, winding, or even tricky. Others might be blocked by obstacles or lead to dead ends. A good maze challenges the player to think, try different routes, and keep going until they find the way out.

You may have seen mazes on the back of kid’s menus at restaurants, in video games like Pac-Man, or even in real life—like a cornfield maze at a pumpkin patch. In all of these mazes, the goal is the same: find your way from the entrance to the finish. In Adventure Game, you’ll design a maze that other players can solve, and the goal will be reaching a star—a special item that lets the player know they’ve completed the maze successfully.

Planning Before Building

Before you jump into creating your maze with code, it’s important to plan it out. Game designers always start with a plan. They don’t just build things randomly—they think about where things go, what the challenge will be, and what the player should do. That’s why you’ll use something called the Maze Planning Worksheet.

On this worksheet, you’ll draw your maze layout. You’ll decide where your paths will go and where your trees (which act like maze walls) will be placed. You’ll also decide where your player will start and where they will find the star to win the game. The worksheet helps you answer important questions like:

Where is the entrance to my maze?
What is the shortest or longest path?
Where will I put obstacles to make the game more interesting?
What will my message board say to help the player?

Planning also helps you be more efficient. That means you won’t waste time guessing where things should go—you already know! Think of it like drawing a treasure map before you go on a treasure hunt.

Opening the Maze Template

Once your plan is finished, it’s time to bring it to life. Open the Adventure Game app and go to the Maze Template. This is a special project space made just for mazes. It has a basic setup that you can change however you want.

Start by using Edit Mode to move or delete trees. Trees can block the player, so they act like walls in your maze. Use your plan to guide you—try to match the design you drew on your worksheet. Be creative! Your maze doesn’t have to be perfect the first time, but it should match your idea.

Now, let’s talk about the message board. This is a box in your game where you can leave a message to the player. You’ll code the message board to display a helpful sentence when the game starts. It might give a hint or explain what the player needs to do. For example, your message could say: “Find the key and unlock the star!” or “Watch out for the Glitch!” The message should be typed clearly and should help the player understand your game.

Adding Obstacles and Using Code

Next, it’s time to make your maze more exciting. One way to do this is by adding obstacles. These are things that block or challenge the player. You can use items like cones, bushes, or even characters like the Glitch to create fun and tricky parts of your maze.

You’ll find all of these items in the Backpack—a special inventory where you can grab objects and drag them into your maze. After placing the obstacles, you’ll need to code them so they do something when the player interacts with them.

One important coding tool is the Pick Up command. You used this in the last lesson, and now you’ll use it again. For example, you can make it so that when the player picks up a key, it triggers something to happen, like a door opening or a path being cleared. This makes your maze interactive and fun!

You can also use coding parameters—these are extra details that help tell the game exactly what you want. For example, when you code “When tapped,” you can add a parameter to make the object jump, disappear, or speak. These tiny details can make your maze feel more alive and exciting.

Testing and Debugging

After you’ve finished building and coding your maze, it’s time to test it! Switch to Play Mode and try solving your own maze. Can you reach the star? Do the obstacles work the way you expected? Is the message on your message board clear?

If something doesn’t work quite right, don’t worry! This is where you debug your game. Debugging means finding and fixing any bugs, or mistakes, in your code or design. Maybe you forgot to code an object. Maybe the star is blocked by a tree. Maybe your message board isn’t showing the message. Go back to Edit Mode and fix it!

Testing and debugging is how every great game gets better. It’s not about getting everything perfect on the first try—it’s about learning, trying again, and making your maze awesome.

If you finish early, you can challenge yourself by adding even more fun. Try using a new command block, adding a surprise obstacle, or even letting a friend test your maze. If your class has time, you might even get to showcase your game to others.

When you share your maze, you’re not just playing—you’re also teaching. You’re helping your classmates see what’s possible, and you can learn from their ideas too. Talking about your maze helps you practice being a confident speaker and a thoughtful coder.

Wrapping Up

You’ve come a long way in your coding adventure! In this chapter, you learned how to plan a maze, build it using the Maze Template, code objects and instructions, test your game, and fix any problems. You turned a blank space into a puzzle-filled adventure that other players can enjoy.

Creating a maze game is a big step in becoming a real game designer. You’ve used creativity, logic, and problem-solving skills to make something that others can play and learn from. Give yourself a big pat on the back—you did it!

In the next chapter, you’ll use storytelling skills to design a game that includes characters, missions, and even dialogue. Get ready to turn your maze into a full adventure story!

Vocabulary Review

Term	Definition
Maze	A collection of paths from a starting point to a goal, often with obstacles or dead ends.
Maze Template	A special setup in Adventure Game used to create maze-based games.
Star	The object a player must reach to win the game.
Message Board	A tool in the game that displays written instructions or hints to the player.
Obstacle	Something that blocks the player’s path or adds a challenge in the game.
Backpack	A tool in Adventure Game that stores game items you can add to your maze.
Pick Up Command	A coding block that allows a character to collect an object in the game.
Debug	To find and fix mistakes (bugs) in a game’s design or code.
Test and Learn	A process where you try out your game, check for problems, and improve it.
Edit Mode	The part of the game where you create and code your maze.
Play Mode	The part of the game where you play and test your maze.
Plan	A drawing or outline used to design your maze before building it digitally.