Thrill of Introducing Someone to DTD

I believe that there are two things that are the best life has to offer--the "pleasure of giving respect" (Tobias Wolff, Bullet in the Brain) and the pleasure of watching someone experience a treasured pastime, to which you've introduced them, for the first time.

I experienced the latter delight today. J's interest in DTD was piqued by this very blog, and spurred by encouragement from E and me, J played it for the very first time! E and I gathered around J's shoulders, explaining the rules and providing tips, and generally enjoying watching someone go through what we had once gone through. "I'll say what C said to me the first time I played," E said. "I've certainly never seen anyone play like that before!"

Of course J is starting out on easy mode. An interesting, V-shaped maze that could turn out to be useful even in the harder modes! And that gets us to the first pleasure listed above--that of giving respect. DTD certainly encourages this in the use of private scoreboards among friends, especially as they picture the mazes used to achieve the impressively high scores. I love looking over in the library to see E at work on a new style of maze and using ideas I had never thought of! Sharing respect and exchanging ideas and new experiences--what more could we want?

So, did you save a screenshot of your very first maze?? If so email it to dtddtdblog@hotmail.com!

Drawing Inspiration From Our Surroundings

E and I were walking around in Greektown, and she noticed that certain designs in the sidewalk could make a great maze. The Grecian spirals were beautiful, but they also served as inspiration for a new maze. I feel that in DTD it is easy to stick with one type of maze, making small tweaks as you gain experienced with it. But it is also necessary to expand your horizons and move onto a new maze when yours gets old. For instance, my current maze has gotten me past 8000 points on hard, but I can't see to get past that barrier, so it is time to move on. Here's what it looks like:

On 10K gold I can play with other mazes, for instance this Greek spiral inspired maze:
So, where do you get the inspiration for your mazes??