The History of Wall Maze
Wall Maze is a modern abstract strategy game that turns a simple race across a grid into a genuine battle of tactics, just by adding a handful of walls.
Games of Walls and Paths
Race games in which the players change the board while they play are an old idea in abstract strategy: instead of only moving forward, a player may spend a turn putting an obstacle in the other player's way.
It belongs to a broader family of "blocking maze" games, where the board itself changes shape over the course of play rather than staying fixed the way a chessboard does - each wall a player places permanently reshapes the paths both pawns can take for the rest of the game.
Simple Rules, Real Depth
The entire rule set fits on a single card - move your pawn or place a wall, reach the far side to win - yet the tension between racing ahead and spending a turn to block your opponent instead gives it real strategic depth.
Games like this are also a good exercise for computer programs: there are very many positions, but each one is easy to describe (two pawns, the walls on the board and the rule that a path must stay open). The computer opponent in PaperGames judges a position mainly by comparing how many steps each pawn still needs to reach its goal.
This Version
PaperGames plays on a 9x9 board with ten walls per player. Placing a wall is a small mode of its own: tap "Place a wall", tap anywhere on the board to preview the nearest legal wall there, and confirm - a deliberately forgiving target on a touchscreen, rather than needing to hit a precise spot.
Why a Different Name
The same game principle is also sold under the name Quoridor, a registered trademark of Gigamic. PaperGames is not affiliated with Gigamic or that game and therefore uses its own name, Wall Maze.