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.

puzz.link interface      penpa interface

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

puzz.link interface      penpa interface

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

penpa interface

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.

puzz.link interface      penpa interface

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.

penpa interface

Puzzles #535, #536 & #537 - IPC 2023 Round 2 (Akichiwake, Symmarea)

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.

Round 2 is traditionally puzzles from the same categories as Puzzle Ramayan that year, but of different types. I picked Made In India (since Akichiwake was recently gaining prominence and it's a Prasanna invention) and Regions (since I like making region division). I started out by making the second puzzle here with a construction that got away from me, in the pursuit of a restrictive theme and layout. I then took that knowledge and used it to make another puzzle that also got away from me a bit, though since I started smaller the final puzzle ended up being much more reasonable, though still one of the harder puzzles in the round at 50/450 points.

puzz.link interface

puzz.link interface

For region division I went with a Symmarea because it's a fun type and I'd never made one before. It gave me a lot more trouble than I anticipated and I almost switched genres to something easier to make. I'm glad I persevered though, since I ended up with a really slick 90 point puzzle at the end of the process. Lesson learned, don't try a restrictive theme (cloned rings) for a first construction of a genre that dead-ends easily.
Over a month after the IPC, I realized there were two ways to resolve the last value. The original version of the puzzle is linked below - the image and first link are the fixed version, the second link is the original.

puzz.link interface

original, two solution version (penpa)