THE DESIGNER
THE DESIGNER
Jason Allemann,
Jason Allemann,
LEGO
LEGO
®
®
fan and designer
fan and designer
of the LEGO Maze
of the LEGO Maze
"Growing up I was always fascinated with how
things worked. I have never actually owned
one of those original wooden mazes, but I
would always be drawn to them whenever
visiting someone who had one.
"After building a few small mazes it didn't
take long before I was building larger
mazes to run a LEGO
®
soccer ball through.
I originally tried to recreate the wooden
version of the labyrinth maze as faithfully
as possible, but it quickly became
apparent that this wasn't practical.
"I decided to decrease the size of
the maze and eliminate the holes. By
having the ball fall into depressions,
the maze could be built using fewer larger
plates.
"One of the limitations of the original wooden
toy is that it is always the same. There is no
way to make it more or less difficult, or modify
the maze to have a different play experience.
As I was designing this model I really wanted
to embrace the customization that having it
built out of LEGO pieces would allow.
"Not only can people modify the difficulty of
the mazes to gradually increase their skill,
but they can create mazes that follow specific
patterns, themed mazes, mazes with multiple
pathways to the finish. The possibilities seem
almost limitless."