It's been a long time since I actually posted something. I haven't really gotten around to writing puzzles for my blog in ages. I took a break for a while. I have been getting back to writing puzzles a bit, but those have mostly been going out to other places. Some of them might appear again on this blog and others might be seen in other places online.
This post will contain puzzles I wrote as a team round for the UKPA Open. It wasn't an official round. It was more t give the puzzlers some practise in team solving while the organisers finished the final checking. I haven't much idea on the results. I wrote the round in two days and sent it in to Liane two days before the Championship was held; just in time for them to get it ready to be solved. I didn't have time to get it tested, but I hope people still enjoyed it.
The structure of the round is pretty simple. There are six 6 by 6 puzzles and six 10 by 10 puzzles. You are not given the rules of each specific puzzle, but are instead provided with six sets of rules under which each puzzle could be solved. You have to match the puzzles to the rules, so that each rule is used once for each size. Additionally, all 10 by 10 puzzles have a marked 6x6 hole, in which the clues of one of the 6 by 6 puzzles have to be placed, without reflection or rotation. Each 6 by 6 grid can only be placed in one of the 10 by 10 grids. The rules for 6 by 6 puzzle won't necessarily match the rules for the 10 by 10 puzzle it is placed in.
Puzzles found below or through the following link.
Showing posts with label Special. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Special. Show all posts
Wednesday, 25 March 2015
Thursday, 14 February 2013
Puzzle #157: Tapa Special
As I've mentioned before, each year I make a special puzzle for my girlfriend for our anniversary. Earlier examples include my Quattro Stagione and LITS Cube puzzles. This year I went for a big Tapa puzzle. It's her favourite puzzle type, so I thought I'd have a go at it. It was an ambitious project that didn't go without its problems. The first draft ended up having about 8 errors in various places. I eventually removed all but one when I had it tested, which brought about one last bad deduction on my part, which I had missed. Eventually I got it fixed and this is the result. My girlfriend is currently still working on it, but she gave permission to share it with you today.
I've made it available as a PDF through Google docs. This is because I'd advice printing it and I scaled it down in the pdf so it prints easily. It also includes all rules and the layout, to make the solving easier. It's a challenging puzzle and I think it helps being able to visualise the whole puzzle.
Below will be the same information as in the PDF, for anyone preferring to solve it on the computer. This includes a full size image. If there are any questions about the rules, please feel free to ask.
I've made it available as a PDF through Google docs. This is because I'd advice printing it and I scaled it down in the pdf so it prints easily. It also includes all rules and the layout, to make the solving easier. It's a challenging puzzle and I think it helps being able to visualise the whole puzzle.
Below will be the same information as in the PDF, for anyone preferring to solve it on the computer. This includes a full size image. If there are any questions about the rules, please feel free to ask.
Thursday, 17 May 2012
Puzzle #105: Quattro Stagioni (Corral, Nurikabe, Tapa LITS)
I have made a bunch of puzzles for friends for various reasons. Mostly for special occasions. I usually try to theme them in a certain way. This is mostly just based on the way the givens are oriented. For this puzzle though I had the fortune to get three handy numbers to work with, namely 2, 3 and 7. The numbers were handy to build into most genres, so I attempted to use them as best as I could. This puzzle is built up of four quadrants that each belong to a different genre. I thought a while about a good fourth genre to add as Nurikabe, Tapa and LITS have a similar general puzzle idea behind it. I couldn't come up with a good fourth genre that used this type of clue. So I cheated a bit by using corral-like clues, within the same puzzle structure. I think the puzzle worked out well, not overly difficult but still interesting.
General Rule:
Colour some cells to form a single contiguous shape. The shape doesn't form any 2x2 squares anywhere.
Left Top: "Corral"
The numbers in this section are all part of the shape. The numbers indicate how many cells that are part of this shape can be seen from this shape in horizontal and vertical direction, not including the cell itself. The numbers can't see past white cells. [Note: This section doesn't work like normal Corral. The clue type doesn't include the cell itself. Also there's no loop constraint.]
Right Top: Nurikabe
The numbers in this section each indicate a seperate island of orthogonally connected white cells. The numbers indicate the size of the island they are part of. All remaining cells in this section not part of an island belong to the shape. The islands can cross the border of this section.
Left Bottom: Tapa
The numbers in this section indicate how many consecutive cells are to be coloured around it. If there is more than one number in a cell, then each section of consecutive cells must be seperated by at least one empty cell.
Right Bottom: LITS
In this section colour 4 orthogonally connected cells in every boldbordered region. Two identical shapes in different regions can't touch eachother by a side. Rotations and reflections are considered the same shape.
Quattro Stagioni
General Rule:
Colour some cells to form a single contiguous shape. The shape doesn't form any 2x2 squares anywhere.
Left Top: "Corral"
The numbers in this section are all part of the shape. The numbers indicate how many cells that are part of this shape can be seen from this shape in horizontal and vertical direction, not including the cell itself. The numbers can't see past white cells. [Note: This section doesn't work like normal Corral. The clue type doesn't include the cell itself. Also there's no loop constraint.]
Right Top: Nurikabe
The numbers in this section each indicate a seperate island of orthogonally connected white cells. The numbers indicate the size of the island they are part of. All remaining cells in this section not part of an island belong to the shape. The islands can cross the border of this section.
Left Bottom: Tapa
The numbers in this section indicate how many consecutive cells are to be coloured around it. If there is more than one number in a cell, then each section of consecutive cells must be seperated by at least one empty cell.
Right Bottom: LITS
In this section colour 4 orthogonally connected cells in every boldbordered region. Two identical shapes in different regions can't touch eachother by a side. Rotations and reflections are considered the same shape.
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| Click to enlarge |
Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Puzzle #98: LITS; Cube
I know I'm a day late. Yesterday was Valentine's Day. This puzzle I made for my girlfriend, who luckily thinks me being able to make puzzles is awesome. So every year I make a special puzzle for Valentine's day. This year I made a LITS puzzle on cube. I build the cube out of cardboard as you can see in the picture.
The puzzle for you is an unconstructed cube, which you can fold. The red lines are to fold, but otherwise mean nothing special.
Rules for LITS
This puzzle is on a cube, running over all 6 sides. Normal rules of LITS apply. No corner of the cube can be fully coloured. The pink areas are only for aestetics.
[Edit 19/02/12: Fixed small uniqueness issue in left face]
The puzzle for you is an unconstructed cube, which you can fold. The red lines are to fold, but otherwise mean nothing special.
Rules for LITS
This puzzle is on a cube, running over all 6 sides. Normal rules of LITS apply. No corner of the cube can be fully coloured. The pink areas are only for aestetics.
[Edit 19/02/12: Fixed small uniqueness issue in left face]
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| Click to enlarge |
Monday, 5 December 2011
Puzzle #69: Four Colour Loop
This puzzle is a unique mix of four different genres: Maxi Loop, Liar Loop, Double Back and Country Road. I haven't ever seen genres combined in this way before. I've combined them by using the Four Colour Theorem. This theorem states that when a plane is split up in different regions, you'd only need four different colours to colour all regions without having any regions of the same colour touching by a side.
I'd been thinking of using this for a while, but it was hard to find a good set of puzzle rules that would work in a single puzzle. When I finally had four rules I thought would work, it took a while to even get a solid opening that would get the puzzle going. It took me a long while to get a good puzzle. I had to edit the puzzle a bunch of times as I kept running into mistakes I had made while constructing. I've worked on this puzzle on and off for a few weeks. I hope you all enjoy it. I'm warning you that it isn't easy, but it is completely logically solvable. It will probably take a while to see how the rules interact and what restrictions there are to assign the right rules to the right regions.
Four Colour Loop
General rule:
Draw a single closed loop by connecting the centres of cells horizontally and vertically. The loop doesn't touch or cross itself. The grid is split up into different regions. Each region obeys one of four rules. No two regions with the same rule touch eachother by a side anywhere. They are allowed to touch by a corner.
Region rules:
Country Road:
The loop enters and exits the region once. The number in the region indicates the amount of cells the loop runs through. (Note: This means the loop doesn't run through all cells in the grid)
Double Back:
The loop runs through all cells in the region. The number in the region indicates the amount of the times the loop enters and exits the region.
Liar Loop:
The loop runs through all cells in the region. The number in the region indicates that the loop never runs through this many cells consecutively when traveling through that region. It is always more or less.
Maxi Loop:
The loop runs through all cells in the region. The number in the region indicates the highest amount of cells the loop runs through consecutively when running through this region.
I'd been thinking of using this for a while, but it was hard to find a good set of puzzle rules that would work in a single puzzle. When I finally had four rules I thought would work, it took a while to even get a solid opening that would get the puzzle going. It took me a long while to get a good puzzle. I had to edit the puzzle a bunch of times as I kept running into mistakes I had made while constructing. I've worked on this puzzle on and off for a few weeks. I hope you all enjoy it. I'm warning you that it isn't easy, but it is completely logically solvable. It will probably take a while to see how the rules interact and what restrictions there are to assign the right rules to the right regions.
Four Colour Loop
General rule:
Draw a single closed loop by connecting the centres of cells horizontally and vertically. The loop doesn't touch or cross itself. The grid is split up into different regions. Each region obeys one of four rules. No two regions with the same rule touch eachother by a side anywhere. They are allowed to touch by a corner.
Region rules:
Country Road:
The loop enters and exits the region once. The number in the region indicates the amount of cells the loop runs through. (Note: This means the loop doesn't run through all cells in the grid)
Double Back:
The loop runs through all cells in the region. The number in the region indicates the amount of the times the loop enters and exits the region.
Liar Loop:
The loop runs through all cells in the region. The number in the region indicates that the loop never runs through this many cells consecutively when traveling through that region. It is always more or less.
Maxi Loop:
The loop runs through all cells in the region. The number in the region indicates the highest amount of cells the loop runs through consecutively when running through this region.
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| Click to enlarge |
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