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---
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title: "About Sketchy Maze"
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draft: false
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---
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_Sketchy Maze_ is a "drawing-based maze game" themed around hand-drawn maps
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on paper. You can draw your own custom levels and make them look
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like anything you want. Draw a castle or a cave, and you decide which colors are
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solid or which are fire, and drag-and-drop some
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"[doodads](/guidebook/doodads.html)" such as Buttons, Keys and Doors to spice
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it up.
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<img src="/images/v0.11.0-shapeshifter.png" class="portrait" alt="Gameplay screenshot">
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Oh, and those doodads? You can make your own, too, and program them in JavaScript
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to do whatever you want. See some
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[example doodads](https://code.sketchymaze.com/declassified/doodads) or you
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can learn from the game's built-in scripts. Without needing to even _look_ at
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any JavaScript, you can create doodads in-game which have your choice of _basic_
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generic script behaviour: to create a "fire" hazard, a solid hitbox, behave as
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an Anvil, and so on. See
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[Creating Custom Doodads](/guidebook/custom-doodads/index.html) for details.
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# Inspiration
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When I was a kid growing up in the 1990's, in the era of the Sega Genesys and
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Super Nintendo, and with the proliferation of 2D platform games like
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_Sonic the Hedgehog_ and _Super Mario Bros._, I used to enjoy drawing my own
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custom level ideas with paper and pencil and then "play" them with my imagination.
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I'd usually draw a side-view, 2D platformer type of maze; and draw in some locked
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doors and keys, buttons, breakable floors, spikes, and so on as you would expect
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to find in any platformer game. Then I'd imagine a character working their way
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through the maze, or I'd walk it through with anybody who would listen and describe
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how the level plays out.
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When you're just drawing with a pen and paper, the maze can be anything you want.
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You can draw a castle or a cave, place little gizmos and traps throughout the
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level and create puzzles. Do you want the red pixels to mean "fire" and burn the
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player? The 'fire' attribute on that color will do the job and you can draw whatever
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shape you want for your level hazards.
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# _Sketchy Maze_ is a "Forever Project"
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I have a [list of features](/features/) I _really_ want for the "1.0" launch of the game, but
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I'll plan on continuing development for as long as I find it interesting and will
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release free updates to everybody who buys the game just once.
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I've always wanted to make a videogame, and always liked to learn about game
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design and everything, but never actually made anything worthwhile until
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_Sketchy Maze._ Over time, I realized that I don't actually want to build
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"a video game," what I wanted was a game _project_. Something I could just work
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on and add features to, more of a game "platform," something long-term like
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Minecraft.
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# Custom Content Encouraged
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While the game ships with a [handful of built-in doodads](/guidebook/doodads.html) to
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spice up your level, you can also create your own and program them to do
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whatever you want, with JavaScript!
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I want to see what sorts of creative things people can come up with. While the
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_theme_ of Sketchy Maze is "hand-drawn maps on paper", the engine is actually
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quite flexible and you can create full-color pixel art levels. The
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[`doodad` tool](/guidebook/doodad-tool.html) can convert PNG images into levels
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and it is not difficult to adapt full-color pixel art maps into playable levels
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for this game. I once tested this early on in development to convert the full map of
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_Super Mario Bros._ 1-1 into a _Sketchy Maze_ level in order to stress test how my file format works for
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densely packed levels with a lot of color. It worked!
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See the [example doodads](https://code.sketchymaze.com/declassified/doodads)
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where there will be example custom doodads that behave like some of the game's
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built-in ones. The [JavaScript API](/guidebook/custom-doodads/scripts.html)
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is documented in the [Guidebook](/guidebook/) that comes with the game. Stay
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tuned for some tutorials that walk you through how to create custom pixel-art
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levels and make your own doodads.
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# See Also
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For more information about _Sketchy Maze_, please see the following links:
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* The [Guidebook](/guidebook) site that ships as part of the game includes tons
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of end user documentation and screenshots. Be sure to check it out!
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* The [Frequently Asked Questions](/faq) page will offer more information in a
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"Q&A" format.
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