Puzzles #681, #682 & #683 - More Showcase Backlog (Kurodoko, Tapa-Like Loop, Rail Pool)

Continuing the backlog, these were some of my entries for The Sixty Second Logic Showcase, where the prompt was to make a good puzzle that the median solver would take... sixty seconds on. I'm really happy with everything I made for this showcase, but in hindsight I should have attempted a more scattershot approach for estimating timing, as I misjudged where the median would be. All of my estimates were spot on relative to each other, but they were also about 50 to 60 percent longer than I had guessed, from assuming a larger overlap with logic race. Due to the combined scoring on votes and timing, and the timing component being a quadratic decay instead of a linear decay like I had misread, I placed very poorly in the final rankings despite doing pretty well in the unranked votes only ranks.

Anyway, onto the puzzles I submitted that I have one version of!

I started with a Kurodoko with what I hoped was an interesting logical theme. From my own timings I expected to hit about 1:10 with this which was close enough, but ended up at 1:50, and multiple people mentioning they got stuck after a couple opening steps. Unfortunate.

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Since I thought that might be a bit long, I originally tried to aim smaller and stick to that logical theme idea with a 9x9 Tapa-Like Loop. 9x9 quickly didn't work for the theme I was going for, but loop puzzles can be speedy, so I was fine with going 11x11 if I thought the solve was straightforward. This one ended up being the closest to a minute timing-wise, but was still an overshoot.

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My last puzzle and again an attempt to go easier was a 62 themed Rail Pool. This was the puzzle I was the most off-estimate for, since it's a less common type and thus the median solver has to take longer to find more common steps. I don't think it's a coincidence some of the closest puzzles were extremely common types, but again I don't regret trying something a bit more out there. Perhaps I should have gone even further in the obscure direction and made a 7x7 or something? Somehow, this is the first time I actually made a Rail Pool, too.

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Puzzle #456 - Plus One (Tapa-Like Loop)

GPQ5 recently came out on GMPuzzles, and I contributed a few puzzles to it. One of the puzzles I contributed was a Tapa-Like Loop, of which I offered a few options. One was used in the book, another was saved for the website, and this was rejected for being too similar to some other accepted puzzles.

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Puzzles #332 - #335 - Small Packages (Variety)

With the results for Logic Showcase 22 out (I did not do well and I have literally no idea why), I can finally share my entries for it. First up is a chimera I've wanted to make for a long time, Tapa and Tapa-Like Loop! For a while I wasn't sure if it was going to be possible to make one of these on a 6x6 grid that wasn't trivial, but I managed to find this arrangement using a couple question marks to bridge the gaps. I'm honestly shocked that this didn't do better, I think it was one of the best puzzles entered in the showcase since an interesting chimera on both sides is tough enough without the size restriction.

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I also made a standard Minarism with a nice flow and visual theme. It's nothing too special, but there's nothing wrong with simple, elegant designs.

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Lastly, I made a last minute Pentominous with some tricky bits to pin down, themed on the word UNITY. The Tapa chimera was definitely my favorite of the entries yet all three of these received the same amount of votes.

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