Building a Better Mouse Maze

Citation

Enright J & Faben JD (2016) Building a Better Mouse Maze. In: Demaine ED E & Grandoni F (eds.) 8th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms, FUN 2016, June 8–10, 2016, La Maddalena, Italy. LIPIcs: Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics. 8th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms, La Maddalena, Italy, 08.06.2016-10.06.2016. Saarbrucken/Wadern, Germany: Dagstuhl Publishing, pp. 15:1-15:12. http://www2.idsia.ch/cms/fun16/; https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2016.15

Abstract
Mouse Maze is a Flash game about Squeaky, a mouse who has to navigate a subset of the grid using a simple deterministic rule, which naturally generalises to a game on arbitrary graphs with some interesting chaotic dynamics. We present the results of some evolutionary algorithms which generate graphs which effectively trap Squeaky in the maze for long periods of time, and some theoretical results on how long he can be trapped. We then discuss what would happen to Squeaky if he couldn’t count, and present some open problems in the area.

Keywords
graph; evolutionary; genetic algorithm; traversal