Posts

#95 - UKPA Open 2024 puzzle collection

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I was invited to write puzzles for the UKPA Open this year! The structure of this tournament was such that each author wrote an entire puzzle round by themselves, something I'd never done before. Lots of opportunities to go for fun theming, which shows throughout all the rounds (see the IBs here ).  I went for a round with 10 puzzles, divided into sets of two. A classic and a variant of the same genre, in each of the categories Loop, Shading, Region Division, Number Placement and Object Placement. I named the round "Something's Off!" in my head, a nod to each variant putting a twist on the given information somehow (with the slight exception of the Maxi Loop variant).  My round was the first of the day, and mostly leaned towards the easier side, with a couple of harder puzzles thrown in the mix. Rules are included in the penpa links for all puzzles. Puzzle 1 - Tapa - 16/383 points http://tinyurl.com/ysfobg6d A simple puzzle themed around only 2 and 4 clues, intended t

#94 - Slitherlink, Choco Banana

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Here are two puzzles that I don't really like for the other outlets where I post most of my puzzles nowadays ( WCPN  and LMI Expo ). Good way to get some activity on this blog, I guess! Difficulty: 3/5  (rules from Puzzle Rules ) Connect some pairs of orthogonally adjacent dots to form a single non-intersecting loop. Clues represent the number of edges drawn surrounding the clue (up to four). Solve on puzz.link https://puzz.link/p?slither/11/11/hada77666267666cadar338833draca77886287886caca Difficulty: 2.5/5  (rules from  Puzzle Rules ) Shade some cells so that all areas of orthogonally connected shaded cells are rectangular and all areas of orthogonally connected unshaded cells are not rectangular. A clue represents the size of its group of shaded/unshaded cells. Solve on puzz.link https://puzz.link/p?cbanana/11/11/r5m4v7g6m8i4n9n7iam6g4v7m6r

#93 - WSPC 2023 recap and practice puzzle set

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Last week WSPC 2023 took place in Toronto, Canada! I took part in both events, on the A team for the Netherlands - my second time participating after my debut last year. I finished in 34th official / 38th unofficial in WSC (2nd NL and up from 56th unofficial last year) and 38th official / 47th unofficial in WPC (3rd NL and down from 42nd unofficial last year). Overall I'm happy to have improved my sudoku ranking and am content to hover around the top 40 mark in puzzles, but I do feel there's still a lot of potential for me to do better. Hopefully I can keep improving at future events. A short breakdown follows of my performance per round for each event, along with what I liked and/or didn't like about the events as a whole and a recap of other fun stuff that happened. If you're just here for the practice puzzles, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. ----- WSC - Day 1 Round 1 - Opening Ceremony: 400/450 points (tied for 18th unofficial) A great start for me, muc

#92 - 2x Simple Loop

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Here are two simple loops! These are heavily inspired by scor 's excellent Daily Sloop Returns series, a puzzle series currently ongoing in the CTC Community discord where a new simple loop puzzle is posted every day for a month showcasing novel and fascinating logical ideas. Definitely check the series out if you get the chance! Off-topic: Last post I wrote about posting a giant mash-up puzzle soon to celebrate having authored 1.000 puzzles. I have since reached that milestone! Unfortunately, I haven't found the time/energy yet to set something big, but I will (hopefully) get to it sooner rather than later. Difficulty: 2.5/5 for both (rules from Puzzle Rules ) Draw a non-intersecting loop through the centers of all empty cells. Solve on puzz.link (#1 - 11x11): https://puzz.link/p?simpleloop/11/11/40000201igc00344p04000040 Solve on puzz.link (#2 - 14x14):  https://puzz.link/p?simpleloop/14/14/0f0g000088ohpg03g800k00e51000i004001440g

#91 - Pipelink

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A classic pipelink, my first (serious) attempt at writing one. Aesthetically it could have been a bit better, though I mostly focused on trying to force the logic I wanted and not having it be an autopilot solve. Off topic, I'm very close to reaching 1000 puzzles authored (following my completely arbitrary counting system)! I'll be setting a giant mash-up some time soon and posting it here, so keep an eye out on my blog for that :) Difficulty: 2.5/5 (rules from Puzzle Rules ) Draw a loop through the centers of all cells. Two perpendicular line segments may intersect each other, but not turn at their intersection or otherwise overlap. A clue shows how the loop crosses through the cell it’s in. Solve on puzz.link https://puzz.link/p?pipelink/10/10/sbiehbjbreiblghfjdidjehflciercjdheics

#90 - Heyawake

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A little heyawake with a 01234 theme I doodled in pzprrt earlier today. I'm aware pzprrt can be synonymous with 'no logic exists' but this one has a fun and fair path through. Mostly posting this here though because a few posts back I wrote that I'd be posting my new puzzles on this blog now that puzz.link doesn't scrape twitter anymore, but since then LMI has launched its new Puzzle Expo  platform. I've been posting my puzzles there since, so if you want to keep up with my recent work and you haven't looked around Expo yet, definitely do so!  Difficulty: 2/5 (rules from Puzzle Rules ) Shade some cells so that no two shaded cells are orthogonally adjacent and the remaining unshaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. Numbered regions must contain the indicated amount of shaded cells. A line of consecutive unshaded cells may not cross more than one bold border. Play on puzz.link https://puzz.link/p?heyawake/10/10/akl9ail5aakl9ail5a00006c00vv006c000041

#89 - UKPC 2023 puzzle collection

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I was invited to write some puzzles for the 2023 UK Puzzle Championship! I always greatly enjoy this contest so I was happy to contribute some puzzles for it. I wrote 6 of 30 puzzles, 3 of which fairly common genres, the other 3 fairly new/obscure genres.   The contest booklets are available publicly and can be accessed via  https://ukpuzzles.org/contests.php?contestid=67  (round 1) and  https://ukpuzzles.org/contests.php?contestid=68  (round 2). The puzzles by the other authors are all great and I definitely recommend checking them out as well. Rules are included in the penpa links for all puzzles. Round 1: Cross the Streams - 22/540 points https://tinyurl.com/25dtcuxh A low pointer written at the end of the writing phase to balance out the contest a bit more, as we had quite a few puzzles leaning towards the harder end. I considered writing it around 2 and 3 clues but I had already seen quite a few puzzles of this genre using similar theming this year so I opted not to go with that,

#88 - Compass, Hebi-Ichigo

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Two small puzzles with some bite to them I wrote before bed last night. This is my first Hebi! Difficulty: 3/5 for both Compass (rules from Puzzle Rules ) Divide the grid into regions of orthogonally connected cells, each containing exactly one compass. A number in a compass indicates how many cells belong to its region that are further in the indicated direction than the compass itself. Play on puzzlink https://puzz.link/p?compass/8/8/i.1.2j1..3h4...h....g2...k.3..x....k1...g...1h3...h.2..j2...i Hebi-Ichigo (rules from  Puzzle Rules ) Place numbers into some empty cells such that each orthogonally connected group forms a sequence of consecutive numbers from 1 to 5. Each number in the sequence must be orthogonally adjacent to the next. These groups may not share an edge with one another. The 1 in a sequence must not be able to see any numbers in a straight line in the direction it’s pointing (away from its adjacent 2) unless a clued cell blocks its view. A clue represents the first num

#87 - Kurotto

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It's been well over a year since Kurotto Kingdom took place. S ome of the puzzles in that contest are some of my proudest work, but I've also been suffering from writer's block when it comes to the genre  ever since . I've managed to write maybe 3 or 4 kurotto puzzles since the contest, but have at least twice as many failed attempts.  This puzzle is the result of trying to turn a deduction that recently came to mind into a working puzzle. It still took 3 days and 5 iterations to get from starting idea to a finished puzzle that I was happy with. Hopefully the effort I put into it shows! Difficulty: 3/5 (rules from Puzzle Rules ) Shade some cells so that clues represent the total size of the orthogonally connected areas of shaded cells that share an edge with the clue. Clued cells cannot be shaded. Play on puzz.link https://puzz.link/p?kurotto/11/11/h7k7s4j9j9i3i5j7h2g7h3s2h5g2h2j3i4i3j1j8s6kbh