Parents' Guide to Mazecraft

At first glance, the chance to play and design maze-oriented games seems great, but the lack of instructions and the varying quality of each maze can complicate your fun. In Mazecraft, players can publish only 10 mazes but can create an unlimited amount, customized with elements such as doors, booby traps, bunnies, and other creatures. There aren't many details about how the design tool works, but it isn't too hard to figure out how to select, add, and move items through trial and error. Other aspects involved in creating a maze, though, can be more confusing. As a player, you are told you can have only one design theme -- a Greek maze -- until you unlock level 2. But it's unclear what level 2 is exactly, or how to reach it. When you try to publish a finished maze, you're also told you need to give friends a secret code to access it because your creation will only be available on the app's public maze listing once it has gotten a few ratings. That's not necessarily true, since published mazes can appear in a matter of hours on the Latest board, which contains recently made games.

Other sections are equally unclear. Mazes provide very little instruction, so you'll have to figure out how to use items and solve puzzles, which isn't always very helpful. Before you can publish a maze, you have to complete a trial run to prove that it can be finished, but faulty mazes can get you stuck in areas without an idea of how to get out. Other mazes may prompt you for a password before you can cross the finish line. Like other apps based on user-submitted content, quality and consistency can be an issue. Controls can also be glitchy, making it hard to react when you need to quickly bypass hazards. With better controls, instructions, and more tool help, Mazecraft could provide an opportunity for creativity and play and a chance for kids to use logic skills. But with its current format, it's all too easy to get stuck or get tired of cranking out mazes, making Mazecraft more frustrating than fun.