Maze Muncher

How to play Maze Muncher

1. Steer the Muncher, an eraser, through the chalk maze and erase every graphite dot (10 points each). Clear them all to finish the maze; the next one is faster.
2. Turn early: a turn you press before a corner waits for the next opening, so you can line up turns a couple of tiles ahead and take corners cleanly.
3. Four Smudges hunt you. Blot goes for the tile you are on, Drip cuts you off 3 tiles ahead, Splat flanks you from the far side of Blot, and Wisp chases until it is within 6 tiles, then backs off. Coloured x marks show where each one is aiming.
4. The Smudges switch between Scatter (each heads for its own corner) and Chase. Before every switch they flash a ! or ~ and the mode chip blinks; when they switch they turn around.
5. Eat a Fixer pen and the Smudges go pale and run: catch them for 200, 400, 800 and 1,600, plus 2,000 for all four on one pen. Pale time shrinks every maze. Bonus stationery appears twice per maze for extra points.
6. You have three lives, with an extra one at 10,000 and every 25,000 after. A best of 15,000 opens the Circuit maze and 40,000 the Subway maze; skins open at 20,000, 60,000 and 120,000.

About this game

Maze Muncher is a maze chase with its own cast, drawn on a blackboard. You play an eraser block with a bite wedge, clearing graphite dots from chalk corridors whose lines shimmer like a hand-drawn cartoon. Four ink blots called Smudges hunt you, and each has a brain you can learn: Blot goes straight for you, Drip cuts you off ahead, Splat flanks you using Blot's position, and Wisp loses its nerve up close. Every Smudge shows where it is aiming with a small coloured mark, and flashes a warning before the pack switches between Scatter and Chase, so you can read the danger rather than guess it. Grab one of four Fixer pens and the tables turn for a few seconds: chain all four Smudges on one pen for a big bonus. Each maze is faster and the pale time shorter, down to a single second from maze 11, so runs build from relaxed to frantic. Turns are buffered, so a press made a couple of tiles early is taken at the next opening on keys, swipes or the on-screen pad. Three layouts open as your best grows (Chalk, Circuit and Subway), the Daily maze is a fresh generated layout that is the same for everyone that day, and Maze Maker lets you draw your own maze on the grid: its checker circles any dot you cannot reach and explains every problem before you play. A reload brings your run back paused.

Controls

• ←↑→↓WASDSteer (press early: the turn waits for the next opening)
• PEscPause and resume
• EnterPlay (menu) or play again (results)
• MouseClick the on-screen pad; paint walls in Maze Maker (right-drag erases)
• 1234SpaceZMaze Maker: pick Wall, Dot, Pen or Empty, paint at the cursor, undo

On a phone or tablet: Use the D-pad at the bottom left, or swipe anywhere on the maze; a turn you press early waits for the next opening. Pause sits at the bottom right. Upright, the maze fills the width with the pad under it; sideways, the pad sits in the side margin. In Maze Maker, tap or drag on the grid to paint with the chosen tool. Left-handed swaps the sides; the controls can be set to Auto, Always or Off in the pause menu.