What it does

Research Maze is a local Canvas experiment that generates a new 21 × 21 maze, accepts keyboard or on-page direction controls, draws the player's trail, times the run, and keeps the best ten results in the current browser.

Local experiment

The maze, movement, timer, and leaderboard run in the browser. Scores are stored locally and are never submitted to an online leaderboard.

Before you start

• On desktop, click outside the player-name field before using the arrow keys.
• On touch devices, use the four large direction buttons below the board.
• Enter a player name of up to 32 characters before finishing if you want it saved with the result.
• A new random maze can be easier or harder than the previous one; records are not normalized for maze difficulty.

Quick workflow

1. Enter a name in Player.
2. Select New Game to generate a fresh maze and reset the current timer, steps, trail, and victory message.
3. Move with the keyboard arrow keys or the ▲, ▼, ◀, and ▶ controls.
4. Follow the open white cells from the upper-left start to the right-edge exit. The exit uses a hamburger image when the asset loads and a green fallback otherwise.
5. On completion, review elapsed time and steps in the victory message and Leaderboard.
6. Select New Game to try another procedurally generated board.

Controls & outputs

Control or output	Current behaviour
Player	Sets the name saved with a completed run; empty names become Player.
New Game	Generates a new 21 × 21 maze and resets the current run.
Arrow keys	Attempts one-cell movement when focus is not in an input, button, select, or editable element.
Direction buttons	Provide the same one-cell movement for mouse and touch input.
Steps	Counts successful moves only; attempts into walls do not increment it.
Trail	Marks previously occupied cells, keeping at most 500 trail entries.
Victory message	Reports the name, elapsed seconds, and successful moves.
Leaderboard	Shows up to 10 local results, sorted first by time and then by steps.

How it works

Each new game fills a 21 × 21 grid with walls and uses a randomized recursive-backtracker algorithm to carve connected paths from grid position (1, 1). The exit is opened on the right edge and connected to the carved maze.

The timer starts on the first direction attempt, including an attempt blocked by a wall. Only successful moves update Steps and the trail. Reaching the exit ends the run, rounds elapsed time to two decimal places, and inserts the result into the sorted local top ten.

Data, privacy & external services

• Leaderboard entries are stored in browser localStorage under mazeRankings.
• No name, score, movement path, or device data is uploaded.
• Clearing this site's browser storage removes the leaderboard.
• The game loads the Einstein player and hamburger exit images from this website; simple drawn fallbacks are used when those assets fail.

Limitations

• Movement is grid-based. The app does not use device tilt, accelerometer input, continuous marble physics, or multiplayer networking.
• Local scores are specific to the browser profile and device; they do not sync across browsers.
• Random mazes vary in route length and difficulty, so leaderboard times are informal rather than directly controlled experimental comparisons.
• The Canvas provides a concise accessible label, but it does not expose every wall and path as navigable screen-reader elements.
• There is no in-app control to clear all saved rankings; clear the site's browser storage if required.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to check
Arrow keys do not move	Move focus out of the Player field or a button, then try again; on mobile use the direction controls.
A direction press does not increase Steps	The attempted cell is a wall; only valid moves count.
The timer started before the first valid move	Timing begins with the first direction attempt, even if that attempt is blocked.
The exit image is missing	Use the green exit fallback; gameplay is unchanged.
A completed score is absent	Browser storage may be blocked or full, or the result may fall outside the fastest ten.
You want to remove rankings	Clear site data for this origin in the browser settings.

Open Research Maze

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