Puzzle #605 - Molten Lava (Double Choco)

Before WPC 2023, I ran a Puzzle Getchu!, a contest themed on Ape Escape. I had intended to queue these puzzles for posting before WPC, but didn't have the time. Better late than never!

The third level is Molten Lava, and I went with the chocolate association of lava cakes for a Double Choco. The contest puzzle was 10 points and I'm quite happy with it, though the version I used was a slight nerf from the original version, since I missed an option.

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The original version isn't that different - just shuffling the right side numbers around - but breaking in is a bit harder. I'll just give an image for this version.

Puzzles #548 & #549 - IPC 2023 Round 3 Extras

I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to construct puzzles for the Indian Puzzle Championship this year. Before getting into some of the puzzles I prepared, you can acquire the full set of puzzles at the link above. The IPC (and LMI, a phenomenal puzzling site) operate at a loss, so if you want to throw some support their way it would definitely be appreciated.

These two Double Choco puzzles weren't used because they were 6x9 instead of the 6x6 limit. I do really love the theming and solves on these though, and it was worth a shot since I was struggling to come up with more good 6x6 puzzles with some bite.

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Puzzles #542 - #547 - IPC 2023 Round 3 (Double Choco)

I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to construct puzzles for the Indian Puzzle Championship this year. Before getting into some of the puzzles I prepared, you can acquire the full set of puzzles at the link above. The IPC (and LMI, a phenomenal puzzling site) operate at a loss, so if you want to throw some support their way it would definitely be appreciated.

This year, round 3 had a wild structure: thirty-six small puzzles, 6 each of 6 types, and 6 giant/large puzzles. It was not intended to be finishable and even my testsolve times of the entire round would come in a bit over the 1 hour time limit, without accounting for my 6th. Insanity. Anyway I made a bunch of small Double Choco puzzles and don't really have comments on them individually. Puzzle links first, images after unlike my usual order.

Double Choco 1    Double Choco 2    Double Choco 3

Double Choco 4    Double Choco 5    Double Choco 6

The first two puzzles here led off the round with the classic "IPC" "2 23". From there, using only 2s and 3s just kind of happened - one antisymmetric puzzle that took a very long time to find, a numberless, and two that mostly focused on a clean chocolate layout. I made a couple more of these, but that's what tomorrow is for. :)

Puzzle #476 - Bulletin (Double Choco)

I am extremely proud of this Double Choco that was featured in Tambox Bulletin #22. It's a theme I'd wanted to try to execute for a long while and only just got around to trying. I had a few near misses including a lot of variations with a 7 instead of an 8 that had only 2 solutions left, and this version with the 8 is a bit rougher in places than I was originally going for. That said there's still a clean logical solution path through this puzzle which is thematically a bit absurd.

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Puzzle #387 - Trick or Treat (Double Choco Symmetry)

Recently, someone on Puzzler's Club was solving a Double Choco and made a mistake with a 2, thinking it had to be a certain way that it didn't. That mistake gave me an idea- what if it did have to be that way? So I made this Double Choco with the additional rule that all regions (combined light and dark, so the parts you outline) must be point symmetric, as in Spiral Galaxies. The first two iterations both missed a possibility but this one is unique I swear.

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Puzzle #260 - Close, But Not Quite (Knapp-Daneban Double Choco)

Knapp-Daneban is an interesting variation where all given numbers are off by exactly one. I thought applying it to Double Choco would be interesting, and made this puzzle with 10 different numbers. Getting some initial deductions proved quite challenging here. Another interesting interpretation of K-D Double Choco would be to have the regions be one cell apart from each other- I think it's been done?

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Puzzles #218, #219 & #220 - Gemini (Double Chocolate)

One of the easiest genre picks for the Puzzle Zodiac was Gemini. Double Chocolate literally has double in the name! I tried to keep a balance of different types of puzzle in the contest, and region division ended up filled first due to another obvious choice later on.

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I themed the example puzzle on the fact that it's an example. Probably overclued, but I wanted to make sure that it showcased a reflection to make it clear that those are allowed.

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Puzzle 5 on the test, worth 30 points, and themed on the Gemini sign. It took me longer to settle on a shaded cell pattern for this grid than it did to make the rest of the puzzle- I've always been partial to different kinds of symmetry for shaded cells and numbers in this type, as it can result in some wildly varied kinds of deductions.

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Puzzle 6 on the test, worth a whopping 80 points, and themed vaguely on a chocolate wrapper. This is one of those grids where a couple things just kind of worked out, in large part due to the logical theming. But still, those corners gave me a ton of trouble and I kept running into endings that were impossible to satisfy at all when constructing this.

Make sure to check back tomorrow for the Foursights- they won't show up on puzz.link/db, which is where I know most of my traffic comes from :P

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 #148 - Bittersweet (Double Choco)

Given how popular Double Choco has been lately, I'm surprised it's taken me this long to post one. They're hard to make due to juggling both placed numbers and dark/light cells and aesthetics in both departments. Ultimately, I'm very pleased with this puzzle despite not having all the even numbers on one side and the odd numbers on the other side.

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Wen: i only just noticed the theme

Wen: which is pretty magic tbh

Wen: nicely done :)

If that isn't a glowing review I don't know what is 😇