Puzzle #100 - Happy New Year! (Fillomino)

Let's get right to today's Fillomino puzzle.

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Puzzle #99 - Tri-Place (0)

Almost to 2020, can you believe it? This year just flew by- can't wait to see what amazing puzzles next year holds, and I'm also really hoping to do much better at speedsolving. I'm beating some really experienced solvers sometimes when comparing semi-casual times, so maybe I'll actually finish one of those tests at some point.

Anyway, onwards to the puzzle, a Tri-Place. It's a very, very rare puzzle type- not even 10 examples out in the wild, that I could find. For only 0 as a given, this one immediately jumped to mind- zeroes don't give much, but they should give enough to have an interesting solution. I hope you agree.

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Puzzle #98 - Tapa (1)

Tapa is a good genre. It's also very common, but less so in the database. I'm running out of things to say.

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Puzzle #97 - Yajilin (2)

Yajilin is the most common puzzle type on puzz.link. There's even quite a few with this sort of theme. Not that saturation is going to stop me from making these if I want to!

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Puzzle #96 - Fivecells (3)

Time for a throwback to the first 3 puzzles I posted here, which were FiveCells puzzles. I really enjoy this type and the addition of invalid cells (for non-standard grid shapes) makes for a lot of fun potential.

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Yes, it's in the shape of a 3. I've solved a couple 3 only FiveCells before, but they were all on rectangular grids.

Puzzle #95 - Herugolf (4)

It's time for a moving puzzle on the blog- a Herugolf! I don't know how to make these as interesting as some other puzzles.

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Puzzle #94 - Cave (5)

I made this Cave back when I made the other ones, mostly to see if I could make an interesting Cave from only one number. This is the puzzle that started this whole series.

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Puzzles #92 & #93 - Nurikabe (6)

Two Nurikabe puzzles today- both good attempts at this theme, but one is much, much better. Spoilers: it's the bigger one. Merry Christmas to any solvers checking this out :)

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Puzzle #91 - Sashigane (7)

Compared to the last few Sashigane puzzles here, this one is much easier.

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Puzzle #90 - Kurotto (8)

Who honestly expected to see Kurotto in here? I wasn't even sure if this construction would be possible until I really started thinking about it, at which point I determined 8 was plausible.

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Puzzle #89 - Tasquare (9)

Tasquare isn't even the most obscure type I'm breaking out for this little series. It was very difficult to make this puzzle under the restriction, but overall it was a reasonable process and this is definitely a type I want to make more of.

You know, like every single type ever.

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This grid shape isn't too weird, is it?

Puzzle #88 - Country Road (10)

Technically, this Country Road puzzle is a variant in that the rules normally require visiting every room, while this puzzle trivially can't.

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I really liked making this one.

Puzzle #87 - Nanro (11)

Yes, you read that right. This is a Nanro puzzle that only gives the number 11 in the grid. And only 1, to boot.

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Bonus content: This scrapped puzzle that was almost the original version of this one. Unfortunately, I made a bad deduction and the given 2 wasn't forced, and there was no way to keep that chain of logic intact under the theme.

Puzzle #86 - Shikaku (12)

Welcome, dear readers, to the themed set of 13 puzzles I mentioned last week. One puzzle a day until the new year, each using the number of days (minus one) as the sole number given in the grid, and each being a different puzzle type. Well, Christmas gets 2 puzzles, but I have a good reason for that.

Today's puzzle is, as the title says, a Shikaku that only uses the number 12. This was much easier to make than I expected it to be!

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Puzzle #85 - Loop and Shading? (Slitherlink)

This is not a Slitherlink puzzle. At least, not a normal one. This is a SLITSerlink puzzle. What's the difference? It's very simple- follow all normal Slitherlink rules. Additionally, the inside of the loop must be a valid LITS wall.

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This puzzle is very difficult and requires some lookahead at points, but taking into account both the Slitherlink and LITS style deductions in combination does give a solution path that does not require bifurcation at any point. Ended up being too hard and people did bifurcate to solve in the showcase, and I placed second to last :/ I really don't know what people like.

Puzzle #84 - Snowflake (Slitherlink)

Tis the season to try a bunch of things in the last corner in a solver to make sure I didn't mess up constructing, falalalala, lala la la. It's a Slitherlink.

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Puzzle #83 - Belt Loops (Slitherlink)

Slitherlink is one of the most well known puzzle types out there today, behind only the mainstream Sudoku and Kakuro. It was also completely impenetrable for me for months, until something finally clicked and I could start making deductions in the type. And not too long after that, Logic Showcase #11 (Slitherlink Variants) was started.

So I made a variant Slitherlink before I made a vanilla one and made two afterwards just for this blog.

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Puzzles #81 & #82 - Addendum to the Addendum (Sashigane)

Firstly, I'd like to thank Pavel Curtis for the opportunity to contribute to the Ænigmatic Addendum series. Well, it was an open offer to the Puzzler's Club server, and I just happened to be around at the time and have enough confidence in my constructing abilities to give it a shot. Looking over the available list of genres, Sashigane was the one I was most familiar with and, as a region division puzzle, I thought I had a reasonable shot at it.

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My first attempt is shown above- if you followed the first link to the page, you'd know that this was not the puzzle used for the Addendum. I had to make a second puzzle because this one was too easy, not helped by the fact that I wanted to force a deduction on the border with cells that must be used by non-border things to resolve it all late in the puzzle, but failed. I still learned a lot about how to fill a Sashigane in making this, though.

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I took the feedback on my first attempt to heart (too many arrows, adjacent clues give too much information) and worked very hard to avoid that, and also embed some intricate steps. One part of the puzzle resolves easier than I would have liked, but apparently it's also non-trivial so I suppose as the constructor, I knew what the placed clues were trying to make. I also had to make a small fix here before sending it off- I made a bad assumption about how the 9 had to resolve but fortunately could fix it easily enough, which is why you're seeing this now!

Fair warning, this is probably the hardest puzzle on this blog so far. I think I have a harder one coming in a few days, though.

Puzzle #80 - Antisymmetric S (Sashigane)

Antisymmetry is a fun theme. Sashigane is a fun genre. Let's combine them. This puzzle is probably a little easier than yesterday's, and I like the construction much more.

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Tomorrow you guys get 2 puzzles. :)

Puzzle #79 - Bolt From the Blue (Sashigane)

Today's Sashigane puzzle is an interesting one to me. Back near the start of this blog, I posted a 7x7 puzzle with 12 givens. This is a 10x10 puzzle with 14 givens, and much more interesting logic. Originally this would have been a 9x9 with a 9 clue in the middle, but I wasn't able to find a way to do what I wanted with that arrangement. Maybe someone else can manage that theme?

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Puzzle #78 - Rain (Cave)

I can't believe that the top left corner of this Cave puzzle works. It's definitely on the trickier side of Cave puzzles, at least from those that I've seen.

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Next up, one of my favorite types and a fun story.

Puzzle #77 - Square Numbers (Cave)

While I was making my Cave puzzles, I wanted to explore different styles for them. First, I made one with diagonally touching givens (to be posted tomorrow). Then I made this one with orthogonally touching givens, followed by yesterday's non-rotationally symmetric puzzle.

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Puzzle #76 - Moon Cave

And we're back! Unlike last time I started posting puzzles again, I actually have all (well, all but two) of this batch of 25 pre-made, mostly because the bulk of this pile is themed together. But you guys will see that in about a week and a half :)

Anyway, this is a Cave puzzle that I made to make an easier one. I've been slowly working through Colossal Cave Collection and as a result have gotten a much better understanding of the type, so these few will be much better than that first 7x7 I made.

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Who needs adjacent clues? Not me any more.

Puzzle #75 - Top O' the Tapa

Alright, time for a bit of a break on posting puzzles again, but first one more Tapa puzzle. I decided to try to make this one 17x17 (previous largest posted grids being 13x13 and the 15x15 Akari) and it's actually the largest grid by area I've constructed yet.

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Thanks for reading this far! I don't have any concrete plans for what I want to post here next, but I do have a couple of separate puzzle related projects either complete and waiting for someone else, or currently in progress.

Puzzle #74 - Divisive Questions (Tapa)

Another Tapa puzzle.

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The question marks on this one just kind of happened.

Puzzle #73 - Questionable (Tapa)

??? ??????? ?? Tapa ????????? ?? ?????. ?????????????? ? ?? ??? ? ??? ????? ? ???! ???. Remember that question marks indicate an unknown, non-zero number.

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For some reason, this was the easiest Tapa to make yet.

Puzzle #72 - Seeing Double (Tapa)

Multi-digit Tapa clues can be tough to get a handle on when solving but then give a lot of information. It turns out that they're even tougher to get a handle on when constructing!

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The rules link doesn't cover ? clues, which behave as an unknown non-zero number to be determined while solving. Yes, that means that the ? ? clue ends up forced by the surrounding clues. It's possible to make a Tapa entirely out of ? clues...

Puzzle #71 - Insert Tapa Pun Here

As the title indicates, today's puzzle is a Tapa puzzle. Tapa used to be my favorite logic puzzle, before I started playing around with LITS and region division puzzles more. I... may have solved the entirety of the Tapa selection on Otto Janko's site before the advent of the puzz.link database.

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Puzzle #70 - Chips 2 (Curve Data)

Curve Data is an insanely weird genre that was recently added to puzz.link. Naturally, I tried making one.

This is not that puzzle. My first few tries were horribly, horribly broken and unworkable.

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I shared this puzzle with the Chip's Challenge community as well, just because. Hi James!

Puzzle #69 - No Time to Stop (Detour)

Today I've prepared another Detour puzzle. Detour is a creation of Wen and was featured in... WAPC Part 2 to no one's surprise. The rules are very simple: draw a loop through all cells in the grid. Each numbered room must contain exactly that many turns.

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This is definitely a genre I've gained some appreciation for after constructing some. It never felt constrained enough when solving but after tinkering with some variances, a small change can actually force a lot.

Thus concludes the WAPC puzzle tour of the ones I made and the types I found interesting enough to make.

Puzzle #68 - Detour

This is a Detour puzzle. What's Detour, you ask? Detour is a creation of Wen and was featured in... WAPC Part 2 to no one's surprise. The rules are very simple: draw a loop through all cells in the grid. Each numbered room must contain exactly that many turns.

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Puzzle #67 - Has An Interesting Solve, Usually? (5)

This is another Haisu puzzle. Haisu is a creation of TheGreatEscaper with the following rules:

• Draw a path on the cells of the grid, starting on "S" and ending on "G". The path must visit all cells. A number N in a region means that the path passes that cell on the N-th entry into the region. For example, a 2 means the path must pass that cell on its second entry into its region.

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I really, really like how this puzzle ended up turning out given the dual themes.

edit: Small ambiguity in the lower left corrected.

Puzzle #66 - The Path Less Traveled (Haisu)

Today I have another puzzle type that's much less known outside of Puzzlers Club- a Haisu. Haisu is a creation of TheGreatEscaper with the following rules:

• Draw a path on the cells of the grid, starting on S and ending on G. The path must visit all cells. A number N in a region means that the path passes that cell on the N-th entry into the region. For example, a 2 means the path must pass that cell on its second entry into its region.

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This one ended up with a lot more numbers than I would have liked to make sure it was unique, but I don't think it gives too much information. Like Foursight, it can be tough to force anything concrete.

Puzzle #65 - Much Love (Foursight)

This is another Foursight puzzle, themed around, well. You'll see. The type has a ton of fun theme potential!

Foursight is an original creation by wormsofcan, heavily inspired by Yajisan-Kazusan, and was featured in WAPC Part 2 with a pretty tricky but fun puzzle. This genre is one of my absolute favorites and I wish there were more puzzles of the type. Be the change you wish to see and all that, so... I made a couple.

The rules are as follows:
Shade black some tetrominos on the grid. Tetrominos may be rotated and/or reflected. Tetrominos may not be adjacent to each other. The remaining white cells must form a connected region. Cells with clues may be shaded. Each unshaded clue gives the shape of the first tetromino seen in the given direction, or X if there is no such tetromino. Clues that end up shaded are irrelevant and may or may not be true.

As before, no interface or link here. Just a puzzle with a theme I'm very happy with.

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Puzzle #64 - 4x4x4 (Foursight)

Nope, it's not in 3D. Foursight is an original creation by wormsofcan, heavily inspired by Yajisan-Kazusan, and was featured in WAPC Part 2 with a pretty tricky but fun puzzle. This genre is one of my absolute favorites and I wish there were more puzzles of the type. Be the change you wish to see and all that, so... I made a couple.

The rules are as follows:
Shade black some tetrominos on the grid. Tetrominos may be rotated and/or reflected. Tetrominos may not be adjacent to each other. The remaining white cells must form a connected region. Cells with clues may be shaded. Each unshaded clue gives the shape of the first tetromino seen in the given direction, or X if there is no such tetromino. Clues that end up shaded are irrelevant and may or may not be true.

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As I write this, I'm slowly working on another one of these for the next post. Hopefully it doesn't take as long to make as this one!

Puzzle #63 - Separate Yet Whole (Yajisan-Kazusan)

One more Yajisan-Kazusan puzzle for now. This one has a very unique theme that I don't really think I've seen before, outside of a Liar variant where all clues are infinity.

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This is probably one of the best puzzles I've constructed yet, even if it may look a little overclued.
Tune in tomorrow for a novel type invented by another Puzzler's Club member, that can't have a solving interface...

Puzzle #62 - 3, 2, 1, FORE (Yajisan-Kazusan)

This is another Yajisan-Kazusan puzzle, this time 10x10 and probably a good bit harder.

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Puzzle #61 - Slightly Deceptive (Yajisan-Kazusan)

This is a Yajisan-Kazusan puzzle.

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Fun fact! I originally tried constructing this on paper while visiting relatives. It turns out that without an undo button, I really, really struggle to avoid writing myself into a corner.

Puzzle #60 - Kurochute

Kurochute is a genre so obscure on puzz.link, that I can't find a single rules page on the internet. Naturally, I found this interesting and as there are currently no examples in the database, I made an easy one.

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The rules are as follows:

1. Shade some cells so that all numbers have exactly one shaded cell exactly that many cells away.

2. Shaded cells can not be adjacent.

3. All unshaded cells must be connected.

4. Numbers can not be shaded.

I like the type, it has some nice potential!

Puzzle #59 - Moon Landing (Star Battle)

This was my entry for Puzzler's Club Logic Showcase #7. The only requirements were that the grid had to be 11x11, and should have 11 of something. Naturally, an 11x11 Star Battle would have 11 regions.

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I still don't really know how to make a Star Battle. This took several days to hammer out a puzzle that even worked, let alone had some interesting logical steps. I believe this placed 4th- right in the middle of the pack.

Puzzles #57 & #58 - Different Thinking (LITS)

These two puzzles are a little weird to think about- a LITS variant titled "Different LITS". What does that mean? It means follow all standard LITS rules, with the added restriction that no two shaded tetrominos can share a shape and orientation. So you can have up to 4 T pieces, for instance, but they must all be in different directions.

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Altogether, the 4 large puzzles in the last 4 posts were worth a total of 150/1000 points on the 2 hour test. If your solve times for the set were under 18 minutes, congrats! You were on pace to finish... if you didn't fail at Times Zone.

Puzzles #55 & #56 - Competition LITS

The next two puzzles were the example and leadoff puzzle from WAPC Part 2, a standard LITS puzzle.

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Yes, the smallest region in that puzzle is in fact size 8. That was the entire goal when constructing and in test solves, this tripped up some people for a little while.

Puzzles #53 & #54 - A Powerful Constraint (Fivecells)

These two puzzles were the example and contest puzzle for Noncongruent Fivecells. Follow all standard Fivecells rules, with the added restriction that no two regions may be the same shape. Rotations and reflections are counted as the same shape for these puzzles.

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Yes, the example puzzle does in fact have more clues than the contest puzzle. It's also unique from only the 1s- the 2 and 3 only help the solve path, but they do help significantly. Constructing both of these were very challenging, and I used qhex for testing packing fits on partial starts to make sure that the puzzle could even work.

Puzzle #52 - Competition Fivecells

My competition set for WAPC Part 2 (see previous post) for details) consisted of a Fivecells, a Fivecells variant, a LITS, and a LITS variant. I've always enjoyed region division types and shading puzzles, and LITS a favorite even within that subtype.

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The theme here is fairly obvious and I enjoyed constructing this quite a bit.

Puzzle #51 - PZC @ LMI (Nurimaze)

About a month ago, Puzzler's Club ran a series of two logic puzzle tests on LMI. I contributed a few puzzles to the second part, which I'll be posting here over the coming days. Sorry for the delay in continued posting of puzzles, I've been a little busy and was waiting to put the finishing touches on a couple extended projects before resuming.

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This Nurimaze puzzle is one I made for possible consideration but ultimately decided it wasn't interesting enough to even offer. I really like the type, but they're hard to make!