How to Create Shard Mazes in Puzzle Maker Pro

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Overview

A Shard Maze is an angular, stained-glass maze — a panel broken into straight-edged glass pieces you trace from Start to Finish. This tutorial covers making one in Puzzle Maker Pro, from choosing a shape to exporting the puzzle and solution. The module uses the standard Settings / Style / Titles tabs (there is no Masks tab — Shard shapes are not maskable). New to the puzzle itself? Read How Shard Mazes Work first.

A finished Shards maze

Required Modules

  • Puzzle Maker Pro – Shard Mazes
  • Shard Mazes come in two editions: Creative and Productivity. Creative makes both shapes (Shards + Craquelure), static print/PDF, and Puzzle Book Studio (full control of fonts, titles, page numbers, layout, trim). Productivity adds JSON web output + online gameplay, Time Saver, and Puzzle Book Studio with multiple puzzle sets. (There is no silhouette masking for Shard.)

A free demo of the module is available, so you can try Shard Mazes before buying.

Preparation

Nothing is needed — no images or lists. For your first maze, the Shards shape at its default count and the Default path is a comfortable start. Each maze is generated with exactly one continuous path from Start to Finish.

Choose the Shape

On the Settings tab, pick the Shape:

  • Shards — a few full-length oblique cuts break the panel into big convex glass pieces.
  • Craquelure — short cracks branch and stop at each other, crazing the panel into many small tiles.

Both shapes are available on every edition.

Set the Shape Options

  • Shards (count): how many oblique cuts slice the panel — more cuts make more, smaller shards.
  • Craquelure (count): the target number of cracked tiles — higher makes a busier, denser maze.
  • Aspect: Square, Portrait, or Landscape. The maze is letterboxed into the page, never stretched — match your page shape here.

(The count control follows the shape you pick — Shards uses the shard count, Craquelure the crack/tile count.)

Generate and Preview

Set the Quantity to 1 while you dial in the look, then generate a preview. Each maze is unique, and Puzzle Maker Pro builds the matching solution at the same time, with S and E markers at the ends. Because the pieces are large, each passage opens a small doorway rather than the whole shared edge, so the walls stay crisp. Raise the Quantity and the same settings produce a whole batch — single and batch are the same workflow, just a different number.

Set the Title

On the Titles tab, choose how each maze is named. Smart Titles is the same control on every module — see How to Create Smart Puzzle Titles — so what is Shard-specific is the list of options (examples for a Shards maze; the same feeds the Description, which defaults to “Find the path from the start to the finish.”):

  • Maze Shape — e.g. “Maze (Shards)”
  • Maze Shape Size — e.g. “Maze (Shards 500)”
  • Maze Shape Grid Size — e.g. “Maze (Shards 40 cells)”
  • Shape — e.g. “Shards”
  • Shape Size — e.g. “Shards 500”
  • Shape Grid Size — e.g. “Shards 40 cells”
  • Custom — your own text (default title “Maze”)

(On a Craquelure maze the same options read “Maze (Craquelure)”, “Craquelure”, and so on.)

Style It

Walls, the solution line, the floor, the Start/Finish markers, and the doorway size are all on the Style tab and shared across every maze; see How to Customize Maze Appearance. The door-size control is especially relevant here — it sets how wide the small openings between large pieces are.

Export

Outcome

You can now make Shard Mazes end to end — bold shards or fine craquelure, one or a whole book — titled, styled, and exported for print or the web.

Further Reading

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