Puzzles #197 & #198 - Jagged River (Gokigen/Creek)

I have to say, when I set out to create a puzzle that would work as both a Gokigen and a Creek, I didn't expect to run into problems filling the last corner. See if you can guess where it was from the redundant clues- though I'm still pleased with the construction and aesthetic here, even if both turned out a little easier than anticipated.

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And with that, I managed to post at least one puzzle every day this month!

Puzzle #196 - Exponential Hybrid (Masyukabe)

Man, it's been a little while since I created a hybrid of multiple genres- while brainstorming some variant puzzles I want to create, I hit on Masyu and Nurikabe and decided to construct it now rather than later. Solve as a standard Masyu puzzle. Additionally, all connected groups of cells not on the loop must contain exactly one number, indicating the size of that group as in Nurikabe. The loop may not pass through numbers.

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My current posting plan is one more pair of puzzles tomorrow, then a bit of a break until I can post my next puzzle duel construction, then puzzle #200. After that, the next 25 should all be variants and hybrids so I can focus on that area some more, and then I'll work in the puzzles from my upcoming contest on LMI (starting in about a month!). I should be able to reach 270 by the end of the year...

Puzzle #195 - Lost in the Labyrinth (Nurimaze)

Now that I've actually learned how to find topological arguments, I can make much more interesting Nurimaze puzzles than I used to. Granted, this is only the second one that I've ever made, and the first ignored circles and triangles, but still- I can't see myself coming up with this a year ago!

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Puzzle #194 - Three Out of Five (Snake)

It's kind of amazing how quickly my opinion on Snake puzzles has turned around, now that I understand how to make some deductions in them. I still end up having to try things out to see the implications a lot of the time but I'm getting better- for instance, I made a bad deduction when constructing this puzzle but could easily add a clue to both improve the theme and the solve!

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Puzzle #193 - Fourced Triangle (Nurimisaki)

Nurimisaki seems to have no end to interesting clue combinations, as the ruleset can force quite a bit from a few seeds. Guiding that process is still fascinating to me, and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of what the type can do.

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Puzzle #192 - Framed Yet Again (Gokigen)

I've noticed that my design style tends to eschew clues that can obviously only resolve in one way in my puzzles. So when I realized that I could use a bunch of 0 clues in a Gokigen puzzle to set up a series of interesting deductions, I jumped at the opportunity.

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Puzzle #191 - Slanted (Double Choco)

Mmmmmm, chocolate. Double Choco might not be as delicious, even if it is quite a fun type. Thanks to Jamie Hargrove for giving this a testsolve, since I was only mostly sure of uniqueness.

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Puzzle #190 - Happy Birthday to Me (Snake)

So, I turn 26 today. A lot of puzzle bloggers in the past have made huge birthday puzzles, but I didn't feel like making another giant yet and still felt like theming a puzzle on my age. After a bit of thought, I went with a Snake puzzle, since 2 clues are quite interesting in the genre.

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Puzzle #189 - Checkered (Gokigen)

Today I learned that constructing Gokigen with an aesthetic takes a lot more thinking ahead than most other puzzle types. I have no further commentary on this puzzle.

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Puzzle #188 - Unbalanced (Gokigen)

As of this Gokigen puzzle, I successfully managed to post a puzzle every day for a month! This was really tough to find the time for with everything else I've been up to (finalizing a contest for LMI starting early October) and general life stuff. This puzzle was constructed on my phone while I was outside, because the break-in hit me and I wanted to get the continuation I had in mind written down before I forgot it.

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Puzzle #187 - Good Knight (Nurimisaki)

Symmetry as a visual theme is fairly standard in my puzzles, as it guides the construction process and results in some striking designs sometimes. Nurimisaki has proven very difficult to apply symmetry to, as the rules of the puzzle can often result in a cascade of deductions into a contradiction. I managed to succeed here, though, and with an extra restriction!

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Puzzle #186 - Clueless? (Nurimisaki)

A somewhat common theme for Nurimisaki puzzles is to only use numberless circles. I wanted to go one step farther in this puzzle and not have any adjacent circles, which proved very difficult to force a unique solution with. I made this after noting that an arrangement of circles I placed in tomorrow's puzzle gave a ton of information on its own, and thought it was worth building a puzzle around.

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Puzzle #185 - Rejected (Skyscrapers)

 A while back I submitted a few puzzles to GMPuzzles. One was broken (I've fixed it since), one was rejected (this Skyscrapers) and the rest have an intent to be used. When I sent in the puzzles I knew that this was the weakest of the set. That said, I still like the solve here- I'm guessing the lack of visual theme is what killed it.

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Puzzle #184 - Odd Idea (Balance Loop)

Since I've used a lot of even numbers in my Balance Loop puzzles, I thought I'd try making one themed around odd numbers. I ended up with a bit of a light bulb shape and found some interesting deductions along the way.

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Puzzle #183 - Star Under Siege (Balance Loop)

I still think that my Balance Loop puzzles tend to be more heavily clued than those by other people, and also tend to rely on even numbers more. It's always interesting to me to see where my style ends up going towards when constructing various types, and doubly so that it usually only takes 3 or 4 puzzles to find it.

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Puzzle #182 - Blemished (Balance Loop)

The pains of fixing ambiguities in Balance Loop puzzles- the patch is fairly obvious, I think. Still, I like the resultant logic and the remainder of the puzzle enough to not mind the slightly broken symmetry.

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Puzzle #181 - Shades of Gray (Balance Loop)

I have to say, the fact that Balance Loop circles give no information on whether the loop turns on that cell can make uniqueness pretty difficult to force, sometimes. I had to add an extra pair of circles from my original aesthetic to get things to work out here, but it still looks nice enough and solves well.

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Puzzle #180 - What Do We Appreciate? (Balance Loop)

Balance Loop is a genre that took me a while to start understanding, and honestly it only started clicking when I started constructing this puzzle. The rules are stronger than they first appear, as the type has less "basic" deductions than most other types, but it still has a depth of tools available.

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I know, a puzzle that isn't a variant, shocking! 😀

Puzzle #179 - Hidey Holes (Liar Nurimisaki)

 You guys know the drill by now. Solve as a regular Nurimisaki puzzle, except all numbers in the grid are lying and should actually be another number. So a 3 can see 2, 4, 5, 6 or more cells, but never 3.

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Puzzle #178 - Glass Houses (Liar Skyscrapers)

So. It turns out that Liar Skyscrapers was actually possible to construct for a 5x5. I almost can't believe that this works or that I managed to do so. Solve as a normal Skyscrapers puzzle, except every number is lying and should actually be a different number. So a 2 can see 1, 3, 4 or 5 numbers, but never 2.

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Thanks to Deusovi, TGE and edderiofer for testsolving this- it took a couple tweaks to fix but it was possible to fix.

Puzzle #177 - Pants on Fire (Liar Yajilin)

This is a Liar Yajilin. Solve as a regular Yajilin, except every clue number is lying and should actually be a different number. So a 2 clue can see 0, 1, 3, 4, 5 or more shaded cells, but never 2. This type was a little harder to work with than Shakashaka- I think I have one more of these full liar puzzles in me.

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Puzzle #176 - Liar (Liar Shakashaka)

This is a Liar Shakashaka puzzle. Solve as a normal Shakashaka, except every number in the grid is lying and should actually be a different number. So, a 2 can have 0, 1, 3 or 4 triangles next to it, but never 2.

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Puzzle #175 - Giant PUZL (LITS)

 I've been trying to keep a pace of daily puzzles lately, and so far I've been succeeding. I've also kept up a tradition of every 25th puzzle being... a bit more involved or larger, and though 175 is a bit of an odd number, I still wanted to go for it, and decided to make my largest puzzle yet. For this, I chose LITS due to the potential for a wide variety of interactions with similar theming, and because the last milestone puzzle was a loop. I guess next time should be some sort of placement puzzle?

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Thanks to Freddie Hand for testsolving this- fortunately the fixes I had to make from the original version worked as expected.

Puzzle #174 - Irregular Gate (Heyawake)

Even though I made four Heyawake puzzles a while back, none of them used non-rectangular regions. So I decided to explore a couple themes with irregular regions, and though my first two attempts went nowhere I did hit on this central theme that I like quite a bit. The theming on each side was secondary but ended up working out nicely- I had forgotten exactly how much weight the standard Heyawake rules could pull, if they needed to.

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Puzzle #173 - Thirty Nine (Kakuro)

For how common of a genre Kakuro is I've never had a real desire to try making one until very recently, while thinking about highly constrained sums. 39 is highly constrained in 6, 7 and 8 cell groups, so... I had to try utilizing that. It was a bit of a headache to try to keep some of the logic I discovered intact, and hopefully it survived into the final puzzle.

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update to fix uniqueness in the lower left (thanks rob!)

Puzzle #172 - L O O P (Simple Loop)

So I made another puzzle for Puzzle Duel, this time I tried my hand at making a Simple Loop puzzle. I don't think it turned out trivial, though it is slightly easier than I'd have liked.

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Puzzle #171 - Chaos (Yin Yang)

I feel like with a Yin Yang puzzle it can either look pretty or have a satisfying solve path. Yesterday I went with the former (and an extra property) while today I went with the logic. I don't think my intended deduction can be circumvented here, though my testsolve arrived at the same conclusion a different way.

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Yes, this does look similar to the last one. I was feeling inspired.

Puzzles #169 & #170 - Black and White (Yin Yang/Shirokuro Link)

Yep, it's another chimera today. Shirokuro Link is still not the most interesting genre and Yin Yang is finally something I'm getting a handle on constructing... even if ensuring uniqueness without breaking the logic is very tough. The intended logical path ended up breaking a bit here but the resolution was pretty enough that I elected to keep it.

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Puzzles #167 & #168 - White and Black (Masyu/Shirokuro Link)

It's been a while since I last constructed a puzzle chimera, and I've had a couple ideas for them bouncing around for a while that I've only just gotten around to start making. This one works as a Masyu and Shirokuro Link and unfortunately has a very small symmetry break. However, there's one logical step that I like quite a bit and attempting to fix the symmetry would sacrifice that, and so the puzzle lives on in its slightly flawed form.

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Puzzle #166 - Around the Block (Skyscrapers)

After making some algorithmically generated puzzles (place smallest clue in first unspecified cell in reading order, deduce everything, repeat) and ending up with a Skyscrapers, I elected to make a standard one. This was the result, and I'm very pleased with it.

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I know 5x5 Skyscrapers aren't the most interesting, but I think this one has enough going for it.

Also, as a bonus, here are some of the algorithm puzzles- don't expect anything groundbreaking here :P

Yin Yang - Hitori - Cave - Skyscrapers - Kurodoko

Puzzle #165 - Tilted (Gokigen)

It turns out that solving a bunch of Gokigen (also known as Slant) puzzles doesn't really equip you for how to construct them effectively- keeping the intended logic intact while ensuring that everything can be specified is very difficult, at least for me.

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I'm not sure how much longer I can keep daily puzzles coming, but I'll see what I can do.