#84 - GAPP & MTG puzzle collection

Over in the CTC discord server we run a daily pencil puzzle project called Genuinely Approachable Pencil Puzzles. We started this project in 2021 as a follow-up to the extremely popular Genuinely Approachable Sudoku project and haven't missed a day since. It features a daily puzzle that is almost always on the easy side, to introduce novice solvers to all kinds different genres and variants. The puzzles always come with a small example (included here) and time benchmarks to target for (not included here).

While I'm not part of the core author team, I tend to cover for main authors when they are absent for any period of time, whether it's a day, a few months or anything in between. 

This post showcases, from newest to oldest, the puzzles I've written for GAPP. Difficulty for GAPP puzzles is all between 1/5 - 2/5.

Below the GAPP entries are my contributions to Mind The GAPP. This is a compilation PDF we release monthly, featuring all that month's puzzles but also many bonus puzzles. These are generally GAPP rejects and aren't necessarily of the same difficulty level as main GAPP puzzles. Difficulty for these puzzles is noted separately. 

Looking for more puzzles after going through this blog entry? Join the server and gain instant access to hundreds of more puzzles!

GAPP puzzles

#20 - Block Maze - 17/11/2023

Draw a non-intersecting path through the centers of some cells, starting from the S (start) and finishing at the G (goal). In each bolded grey region, exactly N cells are visited by the path. The value of N is given outside the grid.



#19 - Reflect Link - 27/10/2023 (Part of GAPP's 2 year anniversary set)

Draw a non-intersecting loop through the centers of some cells. Two perpendicular line segments must cross each other at given intersections, but nowhere else. Every triangle must be touched by the loop. Triangles reflect the loop at right angles, and a number in a triangle indicates the total number of cells that the lines coming out of it travel to before turning, including the cell the triangle is in.



#18 - Tile City - 31/7/2023

Shade some cells such that each region is either fully shaded or fully unshaded. No 2x2 region may be entirely shaded. Each group of orthogonally connected unshaded regions must contain exactly one region of each size, from a region with only one cell up to the largest region in the group. Regions containing numbers must be unshaded, and the number represents the size of the largest region in its group.



#17 - Shimenawa - 14/6/2023

Draw a non-intersecting loop through the centers of some empty cells. A clue on the bottom of a blocked cell indicates how many cells in a straight line below it are used by the loop until the edge of the grid or another blocked cell. A clue on the right side of a blocked cell indicates how many cells in a straight line to its right are used by the loop until the edge of the grid or another blocked cell.



#16 - Patchwork - 9/6/2023

Divide the grid into square regions of orthogonally connected cells and shade some white cells black. Cells separated by a region border may not both be black or both be white. Grey cells have no such restriction. A number in a region indicates how many black cells the region contains.



#15 - Sandwich* - 4/6/2023

*Since its GAPP appearance this genre has been renamed by the author and can now also be found as Trizone.

Shade some cells so that no two shaded cells are orthogonally adjacent and divide the remaining unshaded cells into three-cell regions. Each region must contain exactly one numbered cell, which indicates how many shaded cells the region is orthogonally adjacent to.



#14 - Nurikabe [Pairs] - 30/5/2023

Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area and no 2x2 region is entirely shaded. Clues cannot be shaded, and every orthogonally connected area of unshaded cells contains exactly two clues and has an area equal to the sum of the clues.



#13 - Sashikazune* - 25/5/2023

 Divide the grid into regions of orthogonally connected cells. Each region must be an L shape with a width of one cell. A number indicates how many cells are between itself and the cell where the region bends, including both the cell with the clue itself and the cell with the bend in the count. Regions cannot contain more than 3 number clues.

*Since its GAPP appearance the rules of this genre have been corrected (the original rules were wrongly translated). Other sashikazune puzzles are likely to use the rule "Regions cannot contain more than 2 number clues". 


#12 - Greater Wall - 14/5/2023

Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area and no 2x2 region is entirely shaded. Where given, clues outside indicate all connected groups of shaded cells in that row or column, in the correct order. Relationship indicators between two clues apply to the lengths of the corresponding groups of shaded cells.
#11 - Raneko - 8/5/2023

Divide the grid into regions of orthogonally connected cells. Each region must contain exactly one circle. A number in a circle represents how many cells are in the region the circle belongs to. Shaded cells are not part of any region, and indicate how many regions share an edge with that cell.



#10 - Tapa [Big Clues] - 27/4/2023

Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. Clues cannot be shaded, and represent the lengths of the blocks of consecutive shaded cells in all of the cells which touch the clue orthogonally or diagonally. No 2x2 region may be entirely shaded.



#9 - Island - 3/4/2023

Shade some cells such that the remaining unshaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. A clue indicates how many unnumbered unshaded cells it can reach by moving horizontally and vertically without traveling through any other numbered cells or shaded cells. Clues cannot be shaded.



#8 - Tatebo-Yokobo - 19/3/2023

Place a horizontal or vertical line segment into each white cell, connecting the centers of two opposite edges of the cell. Line segments joined at their ends form longer lines. A clue in a black cell represents how many lines point into it. A clue in a white cell represents the length of the line passing through it. Each line passes through at most one clue.


#7 - Linesweeper - 28/2/2023

Draw a non-intersecting loop through the centers of some empty cells. Clues represent how many of the (up to) eight cells surrounding the clue are used by loop.



#6 - Guide Arrow - 7/2/2023

Shade some empty cells so that no two shaded cells are orthogonally adjacent and the remaining unshaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. Unshaded cells cannot form a loop and cannot entirely cover a 2x2 area. A cell with an arrow indicates the only direction in which the unshaded cells can travel from that cell to the star, without going through a shaded cell or backtracking.



#5 - Sea Serpent - 6/1/2023

Shade some cells to form a non-intersecting path which does not touch itself orthogonally. Circles mark the ends of the path. Clues cannot be shaded, and represent the total number of shaded cells that appear in the indicated directions.

#4 - Four Winds  - 11/12/2022

Draw one or more straight arrows extending from each clue. A clue indicates the sum of the lengths of the arrows extending from it. Arrows may not cross each other or clued cells.

* All cells must be reached by an arrow in this puzzle.



#3  - Line of Sight - 31/10/2022

Connect some pairs of orthogonally adjacent dots to form a single non-intersecting loop. A clue represents the length of the first straight line segment seen in the indicated direction.



#2 - Paoland - 16/8/2022
Example: https://tinyurl.com/2lk6ppfu (neutral rules), https://tinyurl.com/2leyctyw (themed rules)
Main puzzle: https://tinyurl.com/2h8sr4ga (neutral rules), https://tinyurl.com/2l6ntjhr (themed rules)

Draw a single network consisting only of black or white circles from each hexagon to a given circle of the corresponding colour. Only one of each hexagon’s orthogonally adjacent cells contains a circle. Networks cannot touch each other orthogonally, except at the given locations. Black circle networks must contain at least twice as many cells as the white circle networks they are connected to. There is no other restriction on networks (i.e. they can branch, hit dead ends, travel further than needed, etc).

Outside clues indicate the number of black and white circles in that row or column.

There must be at least one empty cell in every 2x2 area in the grid.




#1 - Disconnection - 5/1/2022

Shade some cells to form a single connected area of shaded cells. Each region must contain exactly two separate sections of the single connected area. No 2x2 area can be entirely shaded.



Mind the GAPP

Volume 18: Island
Difficulty 2/5

Shade some cells such that the remaining unshaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. A clue indicates how many unnumbered unshaded cells it can reach by moving horizontally and vertically without traveling through any other numbered cells or shaded cells. Clues cannot be shaded.

Volume 17: Equality
Difficulty 3/5

Draw a non-intersecting loop through the centers of some cells which passes through each region at least twice. Every visit to a particular region must occupy an equal number of cells. A clue in a region indicates the number of cells which are not visited by the loop.

Volume 16: Ice Walk
Difficulty 3.5/5

Draw a loop through the centers of some cells which passes through each numbered cell. Two perpendicular line segments may intersect each other only on icy cells, but they may not turn at their intersection or otherwise overlap. The loop may not turn on icy cells. A number indicates how many cells make up the continuous non-icy section of the loop that the number is on.


Volume 14: Koburin
Difficulty 3/5

Shade some cells so that no two shaded cells are orthogonally adjacent and draw a non-intersecting loop through the centers of all the remaining empty cells. Clues cannot be shaded, and represent the number of shaded cells orthogonally adjacent to it.


Volume 12: Tapa
Difficulty 2.5/5

Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area and no 2x2 region is entirely shaded. Clues cannot be shaded, and represent the lengths of the blocks of consecutive shaded cells in the (up to) eight cells surrounding the clue.


Volume 10: Double Choco
Difficulty 2/5

Divide the grid into regions of orthogonally connected cells, each containing a connected group of white cells and a connected group of grey cells, with the property that the shape of the white cells is identical to the shape of the grey cells, allowing rotations and reflections. Clued cells must belong to a region containing the indicated number of white cells and the indicated number of grey cells.


Volume 3: Chocolate Banana
Difficulty 2/5

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.


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