Puzzle #693 - One, Two, Slitherlink!

Someone shared with me a giant and quite difficult Slitherlink using only 1 and 2 clues. You know the drill by now, I wanted to try making one that was a bit more reasonable in scope, and for a bonus challenge, I did so without any border clues as those can given some really easy freebie deductions. If you know one specific rarer pattern, this should be pretty straightforward.

puzz.link interface

Puzzles #679 & #680 - Twin Snakes (Slitherlink)

I also made two Slitherlink puzzles as potential submissions for Logic Showcase 56, but elected not to submit either. I don't remember which of these was better than the other, but I do remember that if I had other good slitherlink ideas or other similar ideas for other genres, I was going to throw it in. Ah well, it is what it is.

puzz.link interface

puzz.link interface

Puzzles #671 & #672 - 24HPC Extras (Slitherlink, Sukoro)

I made two puzzles for the 2024 24 Hour Puzzle Championship that went unused, one for each round. I made a Slitherlink for Epsilon in the Greek round, but we went with djmathman's massive Numberlink instead, to be funny.

puzz.link interface

I also made a Sukoro (also known as Infection) for the Cancer slot when it was empty. I said I was going to do so the next day, went to go to sleep, couldn't sleep, checked the sheet and chat, saw it was still empty, and made this puzzle. I go to post it and someone else posted a Cancer slot Tren in the time this took to make, and since I had a bunch of puzzles in the rounds already, the Tren was used instead. I really like this puzzle though, I'd never tried to make a Sukoro before and you also don't usually see clue layouts this dense for it.

puzz.link interface

Puzzle #645 - S is for... (Slitherlink)

I completely forgot I had this old Slitherlink lying around until recently. It was originally intended for PuzzleDuel until I made a puzzle I liked better for that role, and then this one just say in my spreadsheet for months and months, forgotten. There's not even anything really wrong with this puzzle either, it's just a bit plain.

puzz.link interface

Puzzle #572 - Pairs (Slitherlink)

Lately, djmathman has been making some large Nikoli-style Slitherlink puzzles. I decided to try to make a puzzle that had a bit more flow and a bit less bite to it than my usual puzzles, and what easier starting point is there than a 33 in a corner? The rest of the puzzle made itself, though I did tweak it several times to reduce the difficulty of the middle and emphasize a logically flowing theme throughout.

puzz.link interface

Puzzle #570 - Time for Slitherlink

After the Pentominous puzzles, a little while later I decided to make a small Slitherlink puzzle. I wanted to have a sparser kind of layout than my usual with no "free" openings - I didn't completely succeed there as there's still one common pattern present, but this probably ended up making the puzzle nicer overall.

puzz.link interface

Puzzle #551 - Three of Threes (Slitherlink)

This kind of Slitherlink structure, with evenly spaced out 3s has some interesting properties that I don't fully understand. The consequences when interacting with 1s and 2s are pretty hard to track, but 3s are somewhat approachable. So, I made this puzzle to try to get a feel for the structure better.

puzz.link interface

Puzzle #382 - Subdivided (Slitherlink)

Very minor mechanics spoiler for The Witness below the break.

Puzzle #365 - Hexagony Slitherlink

Construction for Hexagony actually stalled for a while here, as I barely had any ideas for how to construct a hexagonal Slitherlink. I had a small piece of a break-in in mind with no ideas for where to go further until one day I just sat down and worked it out.

penpa interface

This puzzle is nicknamed "Off by Three" due to the different sections- I'm actually amazed by the depth of the logic in this layout, given the symmetry and clue theming. I especially love how the last two parts end up resolving.

Puzzle #304 - Grazing Fields (Slitherlink (Aqre))

Recently, the get-to-know-each-other-well in the Puzzlers Club Discord has become active again. I asked a couple people what kind of puzzle I should make, and got back "an Aqre variant", "a Slitherlink for logic-race", and "a 13x14".

puzz.link interface

I think I delivered.

Solve as a standard Slitherlink puzzle. Additionally, no 4 consecutive cells in a line may all be inside or outside the loop. Good luck with this one.

Puzzle #294 - The Other Snake (Slitherlink)

I made another Slitherlink puzzle. It turned out pretty tough. I really like the break-in I came up with here and most of the rest of the solve- there's one part that I don't like as much, but at least it's still thematic.

puzz.link interface

Puzzles #212, #213 & #214 - Aries (Slitherlink S&W)

My puzzle contest over at LMI, Puzzle Zodiac, concluded recently. The consensus seems to be that the set of 25 puzzles (and 13 examples) is of extremely high quality, and also quite tough as a competition set. This consensus is borne out in the results, as the contest had only one finisher! One of the toughest puzzles in the set was the second Slitherlink (Sheep and Wolves) puzzle, and I'm very pleased with how all of these puzzles turned out. For the puzz.link links, all sheep (S) are replaced by a 4 and all wolves (W) are replaced with a ?.

puzz.link interface      penpa interface

old puzz.link interface

This was the example puzzle for the type- I wanted to make a relatively simple puzzle with a touch of antisymmetry.

puzz.link interface      penpa interface

old puzz.link interface

Puzzle 1 on the test, worth 30 points, and themed on the Aries sign. I started by placing down all of the sheep and wolves, and then tried to keep the pattern largely intact with numeric clues to specify the rest of the puzzle. It turns out there's a lot of interesting deductions that follow from the layout here.

puzz.link interface      penpa interface

old puzz.link interface

Puzzle 2 on the test, worth 60 points, and themed around a domino pattern with sheep and wolves on opposite sides. In contrast to the other slitherlink, where I used the variant rule to drive the layout, I wanted to use the variant sparingly but still have it drive large parts of the solve. My favorite part of the solve is how the left side resolves- there's some intricate steps to discover that I put a lot of effort into trying to create and preserve.

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.

puzz.link interface

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.

puzz.link interface

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.

puzz.link interface