One Card Mazes is back on Kickstarter for a third season

 One Card Mazes is currently running their third Kickstarter for a third set of their puzzles. Well, I got to do my part to get the word out.

Each One Card Maze (so far) is a maze that fits on both sides of a card. They aren't designed to be written on but to be followed with your mind's eye. There are two ways to manipulate the maze. Arrows leading off the edge that let you flip the card to the other side and spins that let you change the orientation of the card. There are doors on the mazes that you can only pass through if the card is oriented correctly. (You see, the doors are arrows and you can only pass through ones that are pointing up)

My first exposure to One Card Mazes was through a design contest. Well, they've come a long way since then. I was concerned when I first saw them that the core mechanics would be too simple. Instead, over the course of a whole bunch of mazes, I have come to the conclusion that the core mechanics are super accessible, allowing room for mazes that at least I struggle with lol

However, they built on that formula in the second season by adding bosses, who you have to defeat. As well as fledgling mazes so people like me could have mazes they could solve in only a couple of days.

The third season, well, they just keep on stepping it up .

One of the two sets of cards will be an interconnected maze. Cards will have connections from one card to another. The other set of cards is going to take the jump from being puzzles to being a two to four player game. I think they’ll be able to played as a regular mazes too.

How will it all work? i have no idea. I am really curious, though. One Card Mazes keeps exceeding my expectations. Seriously, making a game where you have to mentally follow along is surprisingly hard and they've done a bang up job of it.

Oh, there's also a stand alone, in hand game about Cthulhu on the Kickstarter. Palm Island was a transformative experience for me so I'm excited about that as well. 

I usually keep at least one or two One Card Mazes in my bag or wallet. They've come in handy to keep my sanity. When we had a flat tire, One Card Mazes helped me make the hours go by. I'm on board for their latest Kickstarter and doing my small part to spread the word.

And if you're reading this years after the fact, hunt them down. They're good.

Season Two of One Card Mazes builds on core ideas

Earlier this year, I wrote about the first season of One Card Mazes. And I now I’ve been asked to review the second season, which will end up on Kickstarter pretty soon. Okay, disclosure taken care of.

Short version if you don’t want to read any further, the second season builds on the ideas that made the first bunch of mazes fun. If you like puzzles, good stuff.

One Card Mazes are a collection of mazes where each of one fits on both sides of a card. Name’s totally self explanatory.

Here are the two clever bits mechanically speaking. There are paths that lead off the edge of the card. You flip the card over to continue that path. More interestingly, there are also spins, spots on the board that let you change the orientation. And you need those because there are doors in the maze shaped like arrows, and you can only pass through them when the arrow is pointing up.

Now, you don’t actually draw on the maps. Well, I guess you could, but the really not designed that way. As you re-orient the maze, you are going to be backtracking a lot. Maybe actually drawing on the maze would help but it also might make it a lot more confusing. I play with the mind’s eye. Or mind’s pencil.

When I first tried the original demos, I was concerned that the mechanics weren’t strong enough to support a bigger series of mazes. After I bit the bullet and bought season one, which brought the total number of mazes up to twenty-two, I realized that the rules might be simple but they have a broad enough scope to create a variety of engaging mazes. And that’s where I had a new concern. The fact that I was terrible at them lol

The season two preview I’ve looked at actually addresses both those concerns. Season Two includes two new types of mazes: Fledgling and Boss.

Fledgling mazes are simply mazes are easier. The two prototypes that were in the preview had instructions as part of the mazes but I don’t know if that will be the case for all of them.

In addition to being steppingstones to help me wor, my way up to more difficult mazes, like, you know, the ones in the first release, I can see these being good gifts to introduce other people to the system. I can even imagine handing them out in the classroom.

Boss mazes, on the other hand, are literal game changers. Because, they, like, change the rules. Instead of just getting your way through a maze, you have to defeat some kind of antagonist. 

On one side of the card, there is a central area with some kind of opponent on it. The preview has a gelatinous cube, a boxer and Cthulhu to give you an idea of what I’m talking about. The examples have three to four hit points that are displayed as numbered arrows.

You defeat a boss by entering that area in the correction orientation and number order. If you skip a number, you lose. Which just means you start over, or at least backtrack from where you came from.

Boss mazes don’t just add a dash of theme. They are longer, less forgiving mazes that have you will be exploring more of the entire board. Without removing the core elements of flipping, and re-orienting the card, they take the system to the next level. They don’t replace the core mechanics, they elevate them.

So, with these two different types of mazes, the guys who make One Card Mazes are bookending the entire system. They have something for folks like me who need some help and they have something for those jerks who need more challenge.

And One Card Mazes aren’t just cute and/or clever. They have real value. I keep a few in my wallet (they take up a lot less space than a full card game) When, all too recently, I was stuck on the side of road in the middle of nowhere with a flat tire, I was very glad for that. During the four and a half hours of waiting, with a phone that was nearly dead and needed to be saved for being used as an actual phone, One Card Mazes helped me keep a little sanity. Not all of it, oh no. But more than I would have had otherwise.

I am much more of a gamer than a puzzle person but One Card Mazes have done well for me. When that Kickstarter goes live, I’m on board.

Revisiting One Card Mazes

 Last august, I found out about the One Card Maze collection. I printed out the promos and found them interesting but I was good. Since then, I’ve gotten more invested in the series and even bought the first season. (Which was released on PnP Arcade a month later, which I found hilarious)

Okay, there puzzles are just what they say on the tin. There are mazes that fit on the two sides of a card. Part of the idea is that paths that lead off the edge will take you to the flip side. The other major mechanic is that certain areas will let you change the orientation which determines which paths are open.

As I have mentioned in the past, the One Card Mazes remind me of the Flipuzzle collection. And, as I have said before, from a sheer technical brilliance, Flipuzzles have the edge. There is some amazing creativity going on there.

However, One Card Mazes are better for casual play. Flipuzzles can be hard to parse, particularly if you get distracted. They reward, maybe even require, constant concentration. One Card Mazes are much easier to just figure out where you are.

Another big plus is that One Card Mazes are available and I’m pretty sure Flipuzzles aren’t.

So here’s what happened. For years, I kept a copy of the nine-card game Down in my wallet. THEN I discovered Flipword (yeah, same designer) and that lived in my wallet. And then I switched to a smaller wallet lol.

While I can no longer carry Down or Flipword, I can carry a One Card Maze or two around. There are the four initial demos that I looked at and got me interested. The first collection is 18 more. And there are more clearly being designed.

And, what’s hilarious is that I am _terrible_ at them. I can fidget away on one forever and it doesn’t click. Still, they are for moments like waiting in the car so they still work perfectly.

I prefer games over puzzles but puzzles are great too.