Mazes of Waverly Place: Interactive Algorithmic Art Generator

abstract: This paper is a supplement to our interactive algorithmic art generator project which can be found at weiverlyroe.github.io/waverlyplace. For this thesis, we demonstrate how with certain input we can algorithmically generate art, specifically a playable random maze with exactly one solution. We explore interactive and algorithmic art and how our mazes are a form of both. Through examining several maze generation algorithms, we show that an ideal representation of a single-solution maze, called a perfect maze, is a spanning tree of a planar graph. The final algorithm is a re-imagining of Kruskal's Minimum Spanning Tree Algorithm with these adjustments: (1) potential edges are ordered randomly rather than sorted and (2) certain edges are forced in the maze in order for the wall structure to display the player's text input. Lastly, we discuss improvements which could be made and features which we plan to add to the project in the future