#95 - UKPA Open 2024 puzzle collection

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 to be a mostly straightforward opener to the round (and ultimately the entire tournament, I suppose).

Puzzle 2 - Tapa (Elimination) - 25/383 points 
https://tinyurl.com/yrfjc6e4

I wanted to use Elimination variant for either the loop or the shading category, and in the end decided to go with shading. For this puzzle, I mostly just wanted to make sure the 0/8 could go either way until the very end, while also avoiding any uniqueness shortcuts.

Puzzle 3 - Shakashaka - 50/383 points
http://tinyurl.com/yt5clnmy

Not too sure why this one ended up being such high value points-wise, I guess some of the testers must have struggled with it a bit. I do suppose my shakashaka tend to end up either on the completely trivial and silly or more on the difficult and unconventional side.

Puzzle 4 - Shakashaka (Cipher) - 26/383 points
http://tinyurl.com/yt86phuu

I didn't want this one to be difficult, as I anticipated the minarism and maxi loop variants to already fill those slots. I made the cipher part resolve rather easily and focused mostly on the theme and a smooth, fun solve. It's a shame I didn't name myself bakpau :^)  

Puzzle 5 - Double Choco - 39/383 points
https://tinyurl.com/ynvd6avf

Both UKPA and 24 are recurring theming throughout the round, and for Double Choco I felt UKPA would work nicely. I only noticed after submitting my puzzles that in a previous year, a similarly themed puzzle was authored. Even though the two puzzles are clearly fundamentally very different, I might have gone with a different genre had I noticed it sooner.   

Puzzle 6 - Double Choco (Knapp Daneben) - 30/383 points
https://tinyurl.com/yqjmouqe

I'd been wanting to revisit Double Choco variants since writing that Off by One a while back (not the same variant as this puzzle!) and settled on Knapp Daneben. I think this is the puzzle I'm least happy with, as I feel like I could have gotten a cleaner puzzle if I spent some more time with it, but it still solves fine and fits in well with the rest.

Puzzle 7 - Minarism - 37/383 points
https://tinyurl.com/yk76z9w5

First time writing Minarism, which isn't too hard to set since there's a lot of freedom with the clues. I ended up going for another 2/4 theme.

Puzzle 8 - Minarism (Liar) - 80/383 points
http://tinyurl.com/2x5755bf

There was always going to have to be at least one hard puzzle, and it was pretty clear from the start that it would be the Liar one, regardless of which category/genre I ended up using the variant for. That turned out to be Number Placement, specifically Minarism. I chose this genre as I thought it would be interesting to have liars apply to two (three if you include given digits) different types of clues. When I sat down to actually write a puzzle, I realised it would require some slightly complex rules to make work, given that the clues on the horizontal and vertical gridlines don't intersect with each other. 

Puzzle 9 - Maxi Loop - 40/383 points
https://tinyurl.com/yqq859l2

This was the very first puzzle I wrote for the round. While there's a lot of seemingly good progress on the smaller clues, it requires some creative thinking on the larger clues to really get going.

Puzzle 10 - Maxi Loop (Forgetful) - 40/383 points
http://tinyurl.com/ynm9vzcu

I've talked before about how great a variant Forgetful is, and I wanted to use it in this round too. I only realised later that it is kind of a theme-breaker in the round, as it is the only variant where the given information isn't modified in some way. Still though, I was happy to include it, also because I was struggling to think of other variants fitting the theme, without repeating any. I was expecting this puzzle to be worth more points, even if the version that made it into the competition is an easier iteration of the original puzzle.