squared_maze 0.1.0

Maze generator and A* solver with ASCII and image rendering

squared_maze

Tiny Python package to generate grid mazes, solve them with A* and render ASCII and PNG visualizations. The project includes utilities to pick valid start/end cells, force a maze to become unsolvable, or introduce additional solutions by breaking walls.

Features

• Generate perfect mazes (recursive backtracker) as a grid where 1 is walkable and 0 is a wall.
• Solve with A* (src/squared_maze/solver.py).
• Render ASCII (grid_to_ascii) with customizable symbols.
• Render PNG images (Pillow) with start (green), end (red), path (blue), walls (dark gray) and floors (light gray).
• Helpers: find_valid_cell, make_unsolvable, make_multiple_solutions.

Quick install

This project requires Python 3.8+ and Pillow for image output. Install the dependency into your environment:

pip install pillow

Running the example notebook

Open the example notebook examples/maze_example.ipynb with Jupyter or run it in a supported environment (VS Code/Jupyter Lab). The notebook demonstrates:

• generating and solving a maze
• saving two images (with and without the path)
• creating an unsolvable variant
• creating a variant with multiple distinct solutions

If running the notebook from the repository you may need to add the project src folder to PYTHONPATH. From the repository root you can run a small script or open a Python REPL like this:

python3 -c "import sys; from pathlib import Path; sys.path.insert(0, str(Path('src').resolve())); from squared_maze import generate_maze, astar, grid_to_ascii; g=generate_maze(12,20,seed=42); print(grid_to_ascii(g, None))"

Basic usage (script)

from squared_maze import (
		generate_maze,
		astar,
		grid_to_ascii,
		save_images,
		find_valid_cell,
)

# generate
grid = generate_maze(12, 20, seed=42)
start = find_valid_cell(grid, seed=1)
end = find_valid_cell(grid, exclude={start}, seed=2)
path = astar(grid, start, end)

print(grid_to_ascii(grid, path, start, end))
save_images(grid, path, start, end, cell_size=24, out_prefix='maze_out')

API (key functions)

• generate_maze(rows, cols, seed=None) -> grid
• astar(grid, start, end) -> list of coordinates or None
• grid_to_ascii(grid, path=None, start=None, end=None, ...) -> str (customizable symbols)
• save_images(grid, path=None, start=None, end=None, cell_size=16, out_prefix='maze') -> (fn_no, fn_yes)
• find_valid_cell(grid, exclude=None, seed=None) -> (row, col)
• make_unsolvable(grid, start, end, astar_fn, ...) -> bool (modifies grid)
• make_multiple_solutions(grid, start, end, astar_fn, ...) -> bool (modifies grid)

Notes

• The generator produces a perfect maze (a spanning tree). That means there is exactly one path between any two room cells until you deliberately break walls (e.g. with make_multiple_solutions). Use find_valid_cell to pick valid walkable start/end cells.
• Images are saved to the working directory. Filenames are returned by save_images.

Contributing

• Small, self-contained patches are welcome. Please keep docstrings and code PEP8-compatible and add a short test if you change core behaviour.

License

• This repository does not include an explicit license file. Add one if you intend to publish or share the code.