What this tool does
A square maze whose carver keeps turning the same way, so the corridors wind outward in a visible spiral. You start in the centre cell and finish at the top-left edge. Grids from 13 to 29.
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Spotted something off with this tool?
A maze that spirals, and starts in the middle
Most mazes are carved by a walker that turns at random. This one has a preferred direction and mostly sticks to it, rotating that preference every so often, which produces long curved runs and a shape you can see before you start solving.
You begin at the centre cell and work outward to an opening at the top-left edge. That reversal matters. Solvers come at a maze from the outside by habit, and being dropped in the middle takes away the standard trick of starting at the exit and working back.
The spiral is not perfect, and that is the puzzle
If the carver always turned the same way you would get a single unbranching corridor and no maze at all. The preference is probabilistic, so it breaks — and every break is a junction where a dead-end branch peels off the main spiral.
Those branches are what catch you. They look like the spiral carrying on. Four or five cells later they stop, and by then the eye has committed.
Difficulty controls how often the spiral breaks
It is not a size setting — size is separate.
On easy the carver holds its direction about 85% of the time, giving long clean arcs and few false turns. On hard it holds about half the time, and the result barely reads as a spiral at all: the shape is still there underneath, but it is interrupted often enough that recognising it stops helping you.
Generate the same size on easy and on hard and put them side by side. They look like different tools.
Size
Five options from 13 to 29 cells square, defaulting to 17. The odd numbers are deliberate — a spiral needs a true centre cell to start from, and an even grid has four cells in the middle and no centre.
Twenty-nine on A4 is dense. Full size, fine pencil.
The rest
A solution page on request, a seed to reproduce an exact maze, and A4 or US Letter.
The maze is perfect: every cell is reachable and there is exactly one route from the centre to the exit, so a solver who is stuck has definitely gone wrong rather than been unlucky.
A use worth knowing
Spiral mazes are unusually good for a child who has decided mazes are boring, because the page looks like a picture. The visual pattern gives them a reason to pick it up, and the dead ends make sure it is still a maze once they have.
Print at 100% on A4 or US Letter.
FAQs
Quick answers
Is the path strictly a spiral?
It strongly prefers spiralling, but the carver still adds branches and dead ends to keep the puzzle interesting.
Where does the path start?
At the centre cell. The exit sits at the top-left edge.
Can I print the solution?
Yes. Toggle the solution option to add a second page with the route overlaid.
How big can it go?
Up to 31×31. Larger means a longer spiral with more dead ends.
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Further reading
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Why mazes are great for kids' development
Mazes are one of the few activities that exercise pencil control and forward planning at the same time. Which is why they suit the years just before formal handwriting.
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Printable maze difficulty: matching mazes to ages
Maze difficulty has two independent dials, and confusing them is why a maze is either too fiddly or too easy. Here is which to turn for which child.
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