Kickstarter: Mazing Playing Cards Combine Mazes and PlayingCards

For most the idea of combining mazes and playing cards is fairly new. To some it is even unheard of. However, combining the two does not seem like a long shot. Mazes and playing cards are closely tied together by illusion, puzzle solving and logic. "Can you figure it out?" is one question that is asked before beginning any maze puzzle. Similarly, that same question is asked when someone is fooled by a card trick.

This week (7/21 to be exact) the Mazing Deck was launched by Teach By Magic, a company that creates unique educational lessons taught through magic and puzzles. The Mazing Deck was created to be "a maze that functions as a deck of cards" that provides a challenging yet fun experience. This ends up serving two functions - the first being a fully functional set of playing cards and the second being 52 solvable mazes that will challenge all.

Click here to visit the Mazing Deck on Kickstarter.

Each maze in the Mazing Deck was designed by Brian Daniel South at TeachByMagic.com, who has been drawing mazes since he was a little boy. For each card maze, people can start at either pip and work their way to the other pip. This makes cheating harder as you can't just go backwards to solve the maze. Interestingly enough, each card in the Mazing Deck can be combined together to create one big "choose-your-own-adventure" maze.



The deck features a back that is closely related to the Bicycle Rider Back but instead features a "magician maze back" as seen here courtesy of Teach By Magic:



Here is an example of the number card also courtesy of Teach By Magic:



The project will be in funding for $12K on Kickstarter for 31 days and cease funding on July 24th. If funded, the Deck will be printed by USPCC and feature Bicycle stock/magic finish. Teach By Magic is not new to the USPCC process as they have created many different educational/magic decks with USPCC in the past such as their line of flash cards.

Despite being a unique concept, the Mazing Deck is not the first playing card deck to feature maze puzzles. The first was the successful "The Hedge" deck created by The Faro Playing Card Company, which ran on Kickstarter in February of this year. The difference with The Hedge Deck is that it was designed to pay homage to the hedge mazes that were made popular in Europe during the 16th-18th centuries. It does not offer more in depth puzzle solving the Mazing Deck offers with the combination maze and the court cards are closer to traditional court card design.