Copying textfiles and editing short text entries is the general process for making a maze. All files will be in folders inside of the Data Folder.
Using visuals and sounds in the presentation of challenges can allow the integration of educational materials into an engaging game. Each room provides various opportunities to insert visual, animated, and audio materials.
Making a maze is like making a puzzle where each piece fits any other piece. Mazes are made from rooms and each room can have a room that fits to the north of it, to the east of it, to the south of it, or to the west of it.
Rooms can be arranged in whatever order a Maze Maker chooses. Each room piece is made by creating a textfile (0001.txt, 0002.txt, 0003.txt, etc...). Starting with '0001.txt', each textfile has a part that tells the Challenge Maze Software what piece to put to the north, to the east, to the south, or to the west.
The Challenge Maze Software allows different things to be put in each room piece based what is written in the room textfiles. There can be passages, rewards for players, and other things that make rooms look different.
All things that can be put in a room piece are held in folders and are reusable (usually by typing their name in an another entry) in other rooms too. Even room pieces that already have things in them are reusable to start other rooms and mazes.
Each download of the Challenge Maze Software comes with room pieces and things to put in those rooms pieces. The room pieces and things are organized into the download's folders.
It is possible to create new things (like images and sounds) that can also be placed in folders and used in any maze's room pieces. This includes creating images that change the background appearance of the rooms themselves or visual academic content.
Making mazes can be sped up by copying a pre-made maze that is included in the download and then changing a few text entry options in rooms to tell the Challenge Maze Software which things to put in those rooms.
Editing maze files incorrectly can cause well functioning mazes to stop working. To avoid major problems, any maze folder (or other properly functioning files) should have a back-up copy made prior to editing. Copying the entire Data Folder when all mazes are functioning properly will assure the ability to restore the functionality if any problems occur that are too difficult to figure out.
Tutorial Pages
After finishing the tutorial, the process of making mazes becomes much quicker.
Go in order. Each part of the tutorial builds on the parts before it.
Make sure to carefully read all the text.
The font used in the images of the textfiles is 'Lucida Console' size 12.
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