Puzzles #684 & #685 - A/B Testing (Fillomino, Cross the Streams)

My other two submissions for The Sixty Second Logic Showcase are a bit different. In both cases, the puzzles turned out much harder than I expected or wanted them to, so I had to add clues to nerf the puzzle. In both cases even the nerfed puzzle was something I knew was overshooting the difficulty side of things, though again my incorrect understanding of the timing component of scoring meant I wasn't too worried about the overshoot if the quality was way up there. And I felt for this Fillomino, it was. The Cross the Streams I thought had an outside chance of being quick enough for a secret reason but would almost definitely be the slowest puzzle in the set if not enough people caught on. Somehow I'd never made one of these before either!

I'll show and link the original version of the puzzles first - I'll include an image of the nerfed versions I submitted at the bottom of this post. I will not be linking the nerfed versions, however.

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The Fillomino here took a half dozen aborted attempts and as many hours across a few days of trying, while the CTS took a much shorter time due to the nature of the puzzle. Honestly I think the Fillomino took me more time than every other puzzle I made for this showcase combined, even tomorrows' bonus pair!

And here are the nerfed versions - the Fillomino gets an extra pair of clues that smooth out the toughest part of the solve (but it still has a lot of steps) while the CTS gets more concrete values and less uncertainty in a few key clue rows. I don't think either of these changes moved the needle all that much.

Puzzles #673 - #678 - One to Eight Collection

So, I've been sitting on this one for a while. As I write this, entries are open for Logic Showcase 66. I constructed this set of 6 puzzles for Logic Showcase 56, with the task of constructing 1-6 puzzles with 37 or fewer cells. I immediately thought of revisiting dividing a 6x6 grid into eight regions of sizes 1 to 8 each. Some of these clue types were obvious - Palisade and Checkered Fillomino - some took a bit more thinking - Symmarea and Kropki Pairs - and some were much more experimental - Thermo and Difference. If you only do one of these, do the Thermo, it's absolutely my favorite. The Symmarea was the biggest struggle to construct - turns out even finding a solution with rotationally symmetric 1-8 regions is hard. The most disappointing is the Difference since I needed the "cheater" even clues to avoid killing the puzzle extremely prematurely.

Rules for the puzzle are in the first link, and reproduced at the bottom of this post.

penpa interface (all in one)

Divide each grid into 8 regions, each having exactly one region of size 1 to 8 each. Each grid has its own set of rules.

Checkered Fillomino: Numbers indicate the size of the region they are contained in. Regions must be two-colorable.

puzz.link interface      penpa interface

Palisade: Numbers indicate the number of edges drawn around the cell containing the clue. The edge of the grid counts as a drawn edge.

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Symmarea: Numbers indicate the size of the region they are contained in. All regions must be 180 degree rotationally symmetric.

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Thermo: Starting from the bulb, each thermometer cell must be part of a region with a strictly larger area than the previous.

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Kropki Pairs: Regions separated by a white dot must have areas that differ by exactly 1. Regions separated by a black dot must have areas with a ratio of exactly 2 - one is twice as large as the other.

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Difference: Regions separated by a gray dot must have areas that differ by exactly the number on the dot. An E stands for an unknown, positive even number.

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Puzzles #513, #514 & #515 - So Many Bees Part 2

For secret solver last year, I was assigned to write a puzzle for dylanamite. I did not write a puzzle, I wrote a 26 puzzle set that I'll be posting over the next 7 days, ending on the 10th with the full PDF that was sent. When Jamie signed Dylan up (Dylan would have anyway) he did so with the comment "please send me so many bees". And so, I sent so, so, so many bees.

Just so many bees.

Dominion of Bees

Standard Dominion rules apply.

I actually started making this puzzle as an 11x11, but in order to get the deductions I wanted to stick I had to enlarge the width to 13. Then the height had to grow to 13, and eventually all the way to 17 to have enough space. In the end, I think this ended up being one of the hardest puzzles in the entire set, and certainly the hardest non-variant. Also I made the puzzle image with emoji because why not, I was already going full meme with this set. The emoji could abbreviate to C (sea), U (you), B (bee), I (eye), T (tea) and Y (why), though there's no significance to this. I just thought it was funny.

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Easy as a Unusually Large Amount of Bees

The rules of this Easy as ABC variant are as follows: Place symbols from the range given outside the grid into some cells so that each row and column contains each symbol once. A clue outside the grid represents the first symbol seen in the corresponding row or column from that direction. A clue with an X over it must be false. Some symbols and empty cells are given.

Outside clues and what they can represent:

🅰️:🅰️🆎 - 🅱️:🅱️🆎🐝 - 🩸:🅰️🅱️🆎🅾️

Most of the wacky bee themed variant rules I came up with before constructing worked out pretty well. This one didn't. Easy as ABC is already a fairly weakly clued genre, and all I did here is weaken the clues even farther. Also the theming is based on the phrase "passerby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood" alongside an unusually large amount of bees being something that wouldn't be easy. The "X" clue is such a kludge that I'm sad about, but since this is already such a wild variant rule I didn't mind adding one more to fix a logical error.

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FilloBEEno

The rules of this Fillomino variant are as follows: Divide the grid into regions of orthogonally connected cells. Two regions with the same number of non-bee cells may not share an edge. Clued cells must belong to a region containing the indicated number of non-bee cells.

This variant rule is simultaneously very legit and also a complete one-off. I don't think there's much else to do with uncounting cells, at least with Fillomino. I think I've seen this done with Shikaku before where the region structure can work with the variant in a way that Fillomino doesn't.

puzz.link interface      penpa interface

Puzzle #493 - Wacky Variant Sudoku

Zimodo is more active than I am in the CTC Discord. This isn't really saying much as I just lurk there, but still. His Yajilin Yacht request was a "wacky variant sudoku" which stumped me for a while. I don't make a lot of Sudoku puzzles and I definitely don't experiment with variants much. Even the Christmas Tree Conundrum I made a year prior was just a bunch of single variants combined with other puzzle types.

Combined with other puzzle types... well, that was all the prompt I needed once I realized it. Why not make a Killer Sudoku where you have to find the cages, and all cages have to obey Fillomino rules? I needed to add some kropki pairs to get the puzzle started but the combination worked really nicely.

Full rules:

• Standard Sudoku rules apply - place the numbers 1-9 exactly once each into every row, column and 3x3 box. Additionally: 
• Divide the grid into killer cages containing 0 or 1 small numbers. Cages of the same size may not share an edge. Numbers may not repeat within a cage. If a cage has a number, then it gives the sum of all numbers placed in that cage.
• White dots separate numbers where one number is exactly one more than the other. Black dots separate numbers where one number is exactly double the other.

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I'm honestly kind of proud of this one. It's well outside my comfort zone, has a cool theme (check the numbers) and a nice solve path.

Puzzles #359 & #360 - Hexagony Fillomino

So, Fillomino was an obvious choice for inclusion in Hexagony. The rules don't care at all about the shape of the cells, only edge connections. The two contest puzzles both took a completely different style, while for the example I ended up with something similar to Eric's contribution.

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I tried really, really hard to not need that 6 to make everything resolve uniquely in the way I wanted it to... Ultimately it was necessary, no matter what I changed to try to use 5s instead.

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Hexagonal Fillomino is quite tough to construct, as everything has so many possible options for where to expand. I ended up with a somewhat subtle break-in here, and then I just made the rest of the puzzle flow around. This was still worth 15 points, however, as tracking connections to see where things are forced is somewhat time consuming.

Puzzles #305 - #316 - Pentomino Puzzle Pack

Yes, you did in fact read that right- this post contains 12 puzzles. I had an idea for a pentomino themed set and yesterday, decided to see if I could get the entire pack together that day. I managed to construct all 12 puzzles and left the testing for today, fixed a few errors I had made, and here it is. I'm extremely proud of this set even without the fact that I put it together in a day.

Get the puzzle pack here!

This post won't have preview images or rules for each puzzle, but I will link them all here. The pack has a penpa link with answer check and rules written in alongside an image, so the pack can be solved physically or digitally without issue. The U puzzle has the variant of unequal lengths.

F  I  L  N  P  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

puzz.links for P, W and X can also be used. There was no way to make one for Z, unfortunately. Comments after the break.

Puzzle #272 - Filling Space (Aho Fillomino)

Aho is a puzzle genre so rare, that I actually couldn't find any rules page for it outside of puzz.link, nor could I find any examples but those in its database. It's a fun twist on Shikaku where regions with areas divisible by 3 must be L-shaped, while areas not divisible by 3 must be rectangular. I thought it could be fun to add the core restriction from Fillomino where regions of the same size may not share an edge.

So in summary: divide the grid into regions where each region contains exactly one circle. The area of the region dictates the shape it should take- an L* if it's divisible by 3, and a rectangle if it isn't. Regions of the same size may not share an edge.

*Unlike Sashigane, each end of the L may be any size. As an example, a 21 may be satisfied by cutting a 2x2 out of a 5x5 square, among many other possibilities.

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The coolest step during construction ended up just barely not working, with a second possibility I had overlooked. Thankfully the rest of the logic ended up working out better than I intended, again due to a missed possibility that had a neat step to eliminate. See if you can guess what I'm referring to!

Puzzles #237, #238 & #239 - Sagittarius (Sashigane Fillomino)

As Sagittarius is an arrow, I knew that for the Puzzle Zodiac I needed a type with pure arrow clues. The most common type like that is Sashigane, and as I wanted a common type, uncommon type and variant in each class of puzzle, I decided to combine it with the Fillomino rule. I've seen a few puzzles with this variant before and so I knew it added some interesting depth.

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I tried for a while to make a 6x6 example without much success- like Foursight, this type really needs some room to move in order to work.

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Puzzle 17 on the test, worth 30 points, themed on the Sagittarius sign. I wasn't sure if I would be able to manage making the puzzle with just an arrow out of arrows, but after the top left worked out I really did try. I ended up with about 6 solutions, and so added another arrow in the corner to resolve the rest uniquely.

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Puzzle 18 on the test, worth 40 points, and a failed attempt at an anti-symmetric (sum to 10) theme. I thought I had it at one point but there were two solutions, so I adjusted the back half of the solve, and made sure to maintain the focus on only circled number clues as a counterpoint to the prior puzzle. I love it when a puzzle genre can be used to make such different puzzles as these two, and I think that shows through most of this set.

Puzzle #100 - Happy New Year! (Fillomino)

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

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Puzzle #35 - Arrow (Fillomino)

Last Fillomino puzzle for now. There are some pretty non-standard deductions in here and a fully diagonal axis of symmetry is also fairly rare.

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Please leave a comment on this one if you enjoyed it- it's probably my favorite puzzle I've made thus far!

Puzzle #34 - Counting in Circles (Fillomino)

This would be my favorite Fillomino of this batch for the theming that I spent ages on, but then it turns out I constructed what I think is a more interesting solve path immediately after.

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Puzzle #33 - 33333333333 (Fillomino)

33333333333 Fillomino 333333 3333 3. 333333 333 333333333333.

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Made at the same time as the other ones, though it doesn't have an axis of symmetry, I still like the flow of this puzzle.

Puzzles #31 & #32 - That Which Hides (Fillomino)

Enough Kropki for now, it's time for one of my favorite genres, some Fillomino! The first of these is to demonstrate a property of implied polyminos, and the second one was my entry for Logic Showcase #4, which placed in the middle of the pack. Here's hoping for a better placement for Showcase #5!

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 The only requirements were to have at least one hidden polymino and to have at least one axis of symmetry. I have a couple more puzzles I made with these restrictions coming up that I couldn't quite make work before the deadline, unfortunately.

Puzzles #17 & #18 - Prime Time (Kurotto, Fillomino)

The two puzzles in this post were constructed for entry in Puzzler's Club Logic Showcase #2, which required a puzzle with only number clues, and only the numbers 2, 3, 5 and 7 were allowed. Each of those numbers had to appear at least once. First I tried to make a Kurotto puzzle, but this was enied due to the empty circles. I'm not the biggest fan of how I made it unique but I like the theme.

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After it was denied, I constructed a Fillomino puzzle, which placed third. Solving it shouldn't be too hard, but demonstrating that it's unique is much more interesting and it uses some novel deductions rarely seen in the type.

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I'm up to 24 puzzles for the blog, with 2 more planned to build up to puzzle 25. I think I'll try to make every 25th puzzle a bigger or more involved one. As always, enjoy :)