Minos Maze Maker Lite
Twisty passages unleashed!
Only for Mac
Free
Minos Maze Maker Lite is a versatile maze generator that creates myriad mazes and their solutions for you to print or use in your own publications. Add them to your newsletters, make and sell your own books, or even craft games from them. The puzzles you create are all yours to distribute and sell, royalty-free, no commercial license needed. Make them sweet and easy, or make them diabolically difficult. You will be building and printing professional-looking mazes right away.
This is the Lite version of Minos Maze Maker, which contains many of the ready-to-use features of the Full and Pro versions.
FEATURES:
* Quickly create one, or dozens, or hundreds of wildly unique mazes.
* Choose from several built-in maze shapes: Square, Circle, UL-Wedge, LR-Wedge, Round Peg-Square Hole, Mushroom. The Full and Pro versions have many more.
* Create mazes ranging in size from 8x8 up to 20x20. Full version goes from 5x5 to 50x50, Pro goes up to 80x80.
* You are not stuck with regular square cells... you can choose mazes to be built with square, hexagon, delta/triangle, or "octo-grid" cells.
* All created mazes are yours to use and publish and make money with, no copyright restrictions or restrictive "commercial use" clauses!
* Work without a net... you never need an internet connection to create, save, and print your mazes.
* Your work is safely yours. Your mazes stay on your computer. Minos Maze Maker never requires you to create an account, and never stores any of your information in the cloud.
* Draw normal walled mazes, or draw lines along all the inner paths.
* Easily change the maze difficulty. Simply move a slider from "very easy" mazes to "very hard" mazes, without worrying about all the details of how it works.
* Customize the cell wall colors and thicknesses, and even make them wiggly for that hand-drawn look.
* Easy printing of the maze and/or solution right to your printer.
* Export high-quality images of your mazes and solution keys for layout/publishing in your own books, newsletters, social media/web/blog, games, classroom handouts, or CNC/laser-cutter machines. Supports PNG. The Full version also supports PDF, JPEG, SVG, ESP File, and POV-Ray file formats.
* Save a "snapshot" your custom layout settings so you can instantly build other mazes with the same "look".
* Mazes will always be built with only one guaranteed solution, no islands here!
* Supports Dark Mode and Full-Screen mode.
* Comprehensive built-in 60+ page User Guide, containing tutorials and tips and describing every option, getting you up-to-speed right away.
(The name "Minos Maze Maker" hints at the the story of the ancient Greek king Minos who hid his Minotaur monster away in a labyrinth.)
more * Maze title font size more carefully shrinks to fit on a single line if text gets too long.
* Added the puzzle title (if it is not empty) into the Stats table.
* User guide updates for user tips and SVG export sections.
* BugFix_26022201: If you minimize then re-expand the main window, the title field will now allow edits and update the Preview window correctly (Thanks DaveR)
* BugFix_26032103: Under the Title tab, the popup menu "Display title on (puzzle/solution/both)" now correctly shows the setting you chose.
2.4.0 24 Mar
* Changed the User Tip window title to correctly mention "weekly", and also added text at the bottom to say how to get more tips immediately, as well as adding a note in the user guide (Thanks James R!)
* Separated the vague app menu item "Reset to Defaults" into TWO new different items: "Reset Document Settings to Saved Defaults" and "Reset Document Settings to Factory Defaults", and more clearly described their differences in the user guide.
* Corrected app icon support for MacOS 26 and older.
* Reworked all the buttons to be opaque so they are more legible under MacOS 26.
2.3.1 08/11/2025
* You can now specify whether the maze title appears on the puzzle page, the solution page, or both (under the Layout:Title tab.)
* Updated the App and Doc icons for MacOS 26/Tahoe.
* User interface beautification project for MacOS 26 - Re-wrote the descriptive text boxes above the control tabs, to be more concise. Intro Screens cleanup, added User Guide Info button on the screen next to the DONE button. Finished adding the optional stone background texture into the export and bulk-builder windows.
* When user first opens the app, the "user tip" will not show up right away, but instead will wait a week before displaying... making the initial user experience less "popup-cluttered".
* Added Action menu item STOP to stop building maze.
* User Guide cleanup, now the menus section at the end has every menu item listed in the table of contents.
* BugFix: The Bulk-Builder guide (Pro feature) under the Help menu is available for reading.
2.3.0 19/09/2025
* You can now turn off/on tooltips on the main window and menu bar, with a new button under the App Settings window's "Appearance" tab.
* Big User Guide clarification/updates to the Bulk Builder section on pages 19-21 and top of page 24, and to the Title section on the bottom of page 35, to make it easier for you to see how to add an automatic puzzle counter to the title of your exported or bulk-built puzzles (Thanks DaveR!)
* Added descriptive text bubbles above the controls in each tab of the Application Settings window.
* BugFix: The broken SEARCH capability in the User Guide and Bulk Builder Guide windows (under the Help menu) is now fixed!
2.2.1 08/08/2025
* All mazes will now USUALLY have just ONE path at the start or end marker, instead of multiples.
* Setting the difficulty level to 1 will always choose the very shortest solution path found, and setting it to 11 will always pick the very longest found. The inner settings will pick a random solution within the range from shorter to longer.
* Made the progress window slightly transparent so we can more easily see the underlying preview progress.
* Added a SEARCH field at the top of the user guide window for simple searching of words or phrases (Thanks JamesR)
* Added a "Save to PDF file" button on the user guide window for opening with other PDF viewers and on other devices. (Thanks JenO)
* Added illustrated "user tips" to the software, which will automatically pop up once a week. You can turn off the user tips from the Settings dialog, and/or step through them manually from the "Next User Tip" menu item under the Help menu.
* Added a top-level "View" menu to more easily enter/exit full-screen mode.
* BugFix: The very lowest difficulty (1) will now always choose the shortest possible solution length and the very highest difficulty (11) will now choose only the longest solution length.
* BugFix: All mazes should now find many more possible solutions, meaning you will now very rarely see the "Maze could not be built..." error.
2.2.0 05/06/2025
• Added a new wall drawing style: "All Walls+Path".
• Renamed menu items and updated user guide descriptions for "Save Document Settings as Defaults" and "Reset Document Settings to Defaults" so they correctly describe what they do.
• Bugfix: Rectangle shapes can now be any even or odd width (i.e., the rectangle "Short Side Size" slider now works properly.) [Bugfix_2410081] (Thanks Zolymar)
• Bugfix: Fixed the alignment of the warning text displayed when the maze shape is less than 10x10.
2.1.1 25/10/2024
* Small mazes (12x12 and smaller) will cycle through more varied solutions as you hit the BUILD button, instead of often repeating the same solution. (Thanks JamesR)
* Maze building now works a little harder to find more possible maze solutions, and more accurately chooses between shorter and longer paths (based on difficulty.)
* Added a "What's New" Help menu item to display list of new features in this release.
* All Font-chooser popup-menus (Title, Maze-Phrase, S/E letters,...) now display the list of fonts *in* the font itself for WYSIWYG choosing.
* New "Infinity" (lemniscate) shape added.
* Added a separate path color for the SOLUTION page, so that you can now have a "Path-only" maze with a black path for the puzzle, and a (different) light gray path for the solution side, allowing you to then set the solution marker to be a more visible black line.
* RENAMED the geometric shapes so they are shorter and have no space or dash in their names.
* Added "Filename Layout" popup menu to the EXPORT window, allowing you to re-arrange the order of the exported filename components.
* Added other arrow style options (Thick, thin, pointy) for the solution arrows. (Thanks Jen)
* Export pane now displays more info about image size in inches.
* When Export detects that you are about to overwrite an existing file, the warning dialog is reworded and has a new button "Overwrite all", so you can plow through and overwrite prior exported files easily. (Thanks Thomas!)
Bugs Fixed:
* Export "Dimensions" prompt is a little clearer and refers to 72 DPI (or 96 DPI for SVG) to more closely match expectations, especially with PDF files. (Thanks JamesR)
* Export Filename text field now detects and disallows pasting text that is multiple lines or too long.
* Export & Print are no longer allowed when you open an empty window and have not yet built a maze.
* Added a checkbox in the Export dialog letting you turn on/off a warning if about to overwrite existing files when exporting. (Thanks Thomas!)
* Fixed up About Box scrolling weirdness on MacOS 12 and newer.
* Puzzle Title Text entry field is easier to read in Dark Mode.
* Resetting all colors to B&W no longer clears any already-built maze, but just refreshes the colors, as it should.
* Fixed a slight "color drift", where saving and re-opening a document would re-load any saved white colors as slightly darker not-quite-whites.
* Fixed a problem where resizing the main window could make the title-bar go up off the top of the screen, and "going full-screen" didn't arrange the window properly, now fixed. (Thanks Jen!)
* Added a new "no-direction" image for the Start/End wall direction buttons when you drag the marker into the interior of the maze. (Thanks JamesR)
* The printed page margins are wider now (Thanks SteveD!)
* Shrank the Intro Screen so it fits on tiny MacBooks, but is also slightly resizable (Thanks JamesR!)
-and much more-
2.1.0 26/09/2024
-Re-organized User Guide sections so the "How To" section comes before the "Details" section.
-Added "how-to" sections to the User Guide for setting up single batch settings or multiple batch setting "templates" for professional workflows.
2.0.1 30/12/2023
-Bumped minimum supported Mac OS version to 10.14 (Mojave), and native support for Apple Silicon Macs.
-Now has more shapes available: Square, Circle, UL-Wedge, LR-Wedge, Round Peg-Square Hole, Mushroom
-Finally added mini icons for each shape in the puzzle shape drop-down menu, for quick visual identification (Thanks Marina & others)
-Added "Arrows" back in as a new Start/End style (Thanks Marina.)
-Added the iso-Triangle (Delta) cell shape style (thanks for the nudge, Nick & Lisa!)
-Export has a major UI update, now there is a single EXPORT menu item, which brings up a window for you to choose the export directory and if you want to export the answer file at the same time.
-Maze building is faster, and searches deeper/harder for good maze solutions.
-Added ability to turn OFF the outer wall openings on Start/End areas (Thanks Marina.)
-You can now choose a letter for the “Start” and "End" markers. Note that the character can be Unicode in any language/alphabet, even emoji (Thanks Marina.)
-Added EXPORT button down next to PRINT button (Thanks Marina and others)
-Added a "Set all colors to B&W" option to App menu, for easy global change for printed publications (Thanks Marina!)
-Added (?) button at lower right of main window for instant access to the user guide.
-Export has a "Reveal Directory in Finder" button, which will open the directory you have chosen, so you can easily access it from the Finder later.
-Maze title text font size will auto-shrink as the text gets longer, to reduce problems with verbose paragraph text as a title. Works on the Preview and on the printed pages.
-If you choose Walls:Paths to be either "outer wall and path" or "path", then the maze builder tries to insure only a single path from the start and end cells.
-The Application "Preferences" menu item is now renamed (per Apple's change in MacOS 13) to "Settings".
-You can now choose your own font for the Start/End Marker letters.
-Cell Shape popup menu now has the common/technical shape names listed, and the names are consistent with the Stats display now. (e.g., Sigma, Delta...).
-Added "Contact Author" help menu item that sends me an e-mail.
-Removed the tab numbers at the top of the Intro Screen to help de-clutter screen.
-The Main and Layout tabs you selected when you quit the app will be remembered and popped back to when you run it again.
2.0.0 24/10/2023
-BIG New Feature: Maze PATH style (See Layout/Walls.) Now you can choose to draw path lines along all the maze corridors, instead of walls beside the paths. This is possibly most useful when exported as SVG/PDF for cutting of a maze with a router/cricut/CNC machine.
-Big layout changes to the Layout tab, broken into Maze/Cell/Wall sub-sections.
-Added 5 new shapes: Vertical Oval, Chevron-Up, Chevron-Down, Chevron-Left, Chevron-Right.
-Allowed slightly smaller size (10x10) for shapes (Jen)
-Cleaner user interface, and better preview display in dark mode. (Thanks Katya!)
-Updated the maze-maker so it makes nicer looking mazes on EASY difficulty.
-Reworked the Intro Screen, adding a PRIOR button and refining the user interface for easier navigation (Thanks Katya!)
-Swapped position of Export and Appearance in the Prefs window. (Thanks Katya!)
-Added a small "not yet built" prompt under Maze Preview whenever maze is cleared.
-Huge update to the last page of the Intro screen, which now shows a scrollable table of ALL my software products, and clicking any row will open that product's web page. (Thanks Katya!)
Changed PREVIEW area to toggle via radio-buttons.
-BugFix: Resizing the window now updates the preview's maze title text size.
-BugFix: When using Arrow Solution markers, and the END cell for the maze solution is not touching an edge wall, the last arrow in the solution becomes a non-directional cell dot instead.
-BugFix: Maze wall "width" popup menus now describe wall thickness in a "relative way" (not fixed point size), so actual thickness is indeed relative to (and scales with) exported image size.
1.1.0 21/10/2022
* Maze title font size more carefully shrinks to fit on a single line if text gets too long.
* Added the puzzle title (if it is not empty) into the Stats table.
* User guide updates for user tips and SVG export sections.
* BugFix_26022201: If you minimize then re-expand the main window, the title field will now allow edits and update the Preview window correctly (Thanks DaveR)
* BugFix_26032103: Under the Title tab, the popup menu "Display title on (puzzle/solution/both)" now correctly shows the setting you chose.
more Version 2.4.0 24 Mar
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