Round 6 had puzzles that were all combinations of different types of puzzles. There were some interesting ideas, but I doubt many of these will be seen more often again in future puzzle sets.
There's a few puzzles in here that I'm pretty happy with. The Starwacky puzzle is a nice solve. Snail on Snake worked out pretty well because it didn't need any extra given numbers, except for the head and tail. Galaxies and Tetrominoes is my favourite in the set, because it really forces the two types to work together.
The other puzzles should also be nice to solve.
Showing posts with label Tapa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tapa. Show all posts
Saturday, 24 November 2018
Wednesday, 27 July 2016
Puzzle #190: Tapa
Two weeks ago was the Dutch round of the WPF Grand Prix 2016. I wrote all the puzzles for this set, both the casual and competitive section. The sets can be found on the following links: Casual and Competitive. Not all puzzles I had written were used as the set, either because they were not needed or were too difficult. This post contains the puzzles of one type that weren't used.
This post will contain three Tapa puzzles. These puzzles were written in case a simpler genre needed to be added. Neither of them is particularly difficult, but they still are pretty nice. I thought the first puzzle had an interesting kind of symmetry. The solve is not too hard. The second puzzle worked out okay. I added more clues than I normally would. There's a few places to start and they al come together in the end. The last puzzle is a nice 10 clue puzzle. It's a low clue count for a 10 by 10 puzzle, especially with a symmetric clue distribution. The solve worked out pretty well.
Rules for Tapa
This post will contain three Tapa puzzles. These puzzles were written in case a simpler genre needed to be added. Neither of them is particularly difficult, but they still are pretty nice. I thought the first puzzle had an interesting kind of symmetry. The solve is not too hard. The second puzzle worked out okay. I added more clues than I normally would. There's a few places to start and they al come together in the end. The last puzzle is a nice 10 clue puzzle. It's a low clue count for a 10 by 10 puzzle, especially with a symmetric clue distribution. The solve worked out pretty well.
Rules for Tapa
Puzzle #1
Puzzle #2
Puzzle #3
Friday, 29 April 2016
16th 24-Hour Puzzle Championship
The 16th 24-Hour Puzzle Championship was held in Budapest this weekend. As always the championship featured 14 puzzle sets to be solved over 24 hours, with each round lasting 100 minutes, with only 10 or 20 minute breaks in between. Neil Zussman was this year's winner with a slim 10 point lead over Robert Vollmert in second place and a 23 point lead over Michael Mosshammer in third place. Full results can be found here.
All puzzles of this championship (except round 11) can be found here. If you need an example of any of the puzzles, you can find the instruction booklets here.
I provided a set again this year. It was the 8th set to be solved between 11pm and 12:40am. The set contained 24 puzzles. It featured 12 genres, with one puzzle being a standard and one puzzle being a variant. I was originally going to include only 6 genres and two standard puzzles and two variants. I found it hard to decide on the genres to provide enough variation. I tried to keep all variations different per genre, to add to the variation in the round. I think it ended up being a good mix.
Robert Vollmert was the top scorer of the round with 810 points.
Puzzles can be found below
All puzzles of this championship (except round 11) can be found here. If you need an example of any of the puzzles, you can find the instruction booklets here.
I provided a set again this year. It was the 8th set to be solved between 11pm and 12:40am. The set contained 24 puzzles. It featured 12 genres, with one puzzle being a standard and one puzzle being a variant. I was originally going to include only 6 genres and two standard puzzles and two variants. I found it hard to decide on the genres to provide enough variation. I tried to keep all variations different per genre, to add to the variation in the round. I think it ended up being a good mix.
Robert Vollmert was the top scorer of the round with 810 points.
Puzzles can be found below
Wednesday, 9 March 2016
UKPA Open 2016 Team Round: Stacked
The UKPA Open 2016 was held in Croydon on February 27th-28th. As an intermission between the competition and the ceremonies there are team rounds to keep the competitors busy so they don't cause any trouble. I provided one of the team rounds.
The concept of this team round is a bit easier than last year's. All puzzles in this set are unique by themselves. The interaction between the puzzles doesn't come till you have solved them. I tried to rank the puzzles so people could divide the puzzles between their solvers appropriately. Once you've solved all puzzles the second step of the solve comes into play. You have to divide all puzzles in three sets of 4 puzzles, one from each genre, so that all solutions, when placed on top of each other, use every cell at least once. I thought it would be an interesting idea and I think it worked out well.
I uploaded two versions of the team round onto the drive. The files contain a detailed example of the round structure. File #1 has all puzzles of the genre on a single page, easier when solving alone. File #2 has each puzzle on a single page, easier when solving together with others.
Puzzles can be found below. Enjoy.
The concept of this team round is a bit easier than last year's. All puzzles in this set are unique by themselves. The interaction between the puzzles doesn't come till you have solved them. I tried to rank the puzzles so people could divide the puzzles between their solvers appropriately. Once you've solved all puzzles the second step of the solve comes into play. You have to divide all puzzles in three sets of 4 puzzles, one from each genre, so that all solutions, when placed on top of each other, use every cell at least once. I thought it would be an interesting idea and I think it worked out well.
I uploaded two versions of the team round onto the drive. The files contain a detailed example of the round structure. File #1 has all puzzles of the genre on a single page, easier when solving alone. File #2 has each puzzle on a single page, easier when solving together with others.
Puzzles can be found below. Enjoy.
Monday, 7 March 2016
UKPA Open 2016: Individual Round
The UKPA Open 2016 was held in Croydon on February 27th-28th. Tom Collyer was the winner of the Sudoku competition, with Mark Goodliffe finishing in second and Heather Golding in third. Neil Zussman won the Puzzle competition, with Tom Collyer finishing in second and Steve Barge in third.
I contributed an individual round for the puzzle event and a team round. This post will contain all puzzles from the individual round. The team round will be posted in a separate post.
Puzzles can be found below.
Tuesday, 9 February 2016
Puzzle #178: Tapa; Triomino
This is the sixth practise puzzle for this year's UKPA Open.
In my TVC practise series, I have become pretty proficient in writing Tapa variants. Usually my puzzles are on the harder side. Thus is won't be overly surprising that this is also a bit of a harder puzzle. This puzzle has a single opening and it's important to find it as I don't think there is any other way through it.
Rules for Tapa
In this Tapa, you must be able to divide the wall into the given triominos.
In my TVC practise series, I have become pretty proficient in writing Tapa variants. Usually my puzzles are on the harder side. Thus is won't be overly surprising that this is also a bit of a harder puzzle. This puzzle has a single opening and it's important to find it as I don't think there is any other way through it.
Rules for Tapa
In this Tapa, you must be able to divide the wall into the given triominos.
Example
Puzzle
Friday, 15 January 2016
TVC XVIII Practise: Part 2
This is the second part of the TVC XVIII practise set. This took a bit longer to prepare. Certain puzzles didn't want to become unique. Especially the Different Tapa took a while to construct. I think the average difficulty of this bunch is a bit higher that the previous part. This is partly because it contains more new genres, so it will take a bit of discovering the new knowledge in the variants.
The first puzzle is a Different Tapa. I took a bit of time to find a nice workable layout that didn't use the same shapes as the WPC puzzle and Robert Volmert's puzzle. I think layout looks nice and gave me enough room to place clues, while the shapes do interact. It took me a while to write this puzzle as I couldn't find a way to make it both unique and having a solution. In the end I managed to move 2 clues around, which finally made it unique. It's a tricky puzzle and you'll need to use the shape from early on in the solve to make progress.
The second puzzle is a Dissected Tapa. These are never too hard. Yin Yang is a good genre to practise for these puzzles.
The third puzzle is a Not Alone Tapa. I'm not sure about this genre. It seems very limiting as this 5 clue puzzle will show. For example, you can't have any T-shapes in the wall unless it's next to a clue cell.
The fourth puzzle is a Black Hole Tapa. I like the change that was made from the original instructions in the booklet. Having the count for the black hole and the amount of black holes both be variables can lead to completely different puzzle. I went for three black holes of value 2, which I think worked out well.
The last puzzle is a 4x4 Tapa. This puzzle somehow worked out this way with only 2 clues per 10x10 grid. There's a lot of things you need to take into account with this genre and I think this puzzle will help teach most of those things. It's important to think of the global picture to understand which deductions to make.
I hope all of this is helpful. Enjoy.
[Edit: wrong clue in Black Hole Tapa fixed]
Puzzles can be found below.
The first puzzle is a Different Tapa. I took a bit of time to find a nice workable layout that didn't use the same shapes as the WPC puzzle and Robert Volmert's puzzle. I think layout looks nice and gave me enough room to place clues, while the shapes do interact. It took me a while to write this puzzle as I couldn't find a way to make it both unique and having a solution. In the end I managed to move 2 clues around, which finally made it unique. It's a tricky puzzle and you'll need to use the shape from early on in the solve to make progress.
The second puzzle is a Dissected Tapa. These are never too hard. Yin Yang is a good genre to practise for these puzzles.
The third puzzle is a Not Alone Tapa. I'm not sure about this genre. It seems very limiting as this 5 clue puzzle will show. For example, you can't have any T-shapes in the wall unless it's next to a clue cell.
The fourth puzzle is a Black Hole Tapa. I like the change that was made from the original instructions in the booklet. Having the count for the black hole and the amount of black holes both be variables can lead to completely different puzzle. I went for three black holes of value 2, which I think worked out well.
The last puzzle is a 4x4 Tapa. This puzzle somehow worked out this way with only 2 clues per 10x10 grid. There's a lot of things you need to take into account with this genre and I think this puzzle will help teach most of those things. It's important to think of the global picture to understand which deductions to make.
I hope all of this is helpful. Enjoy.
[Edit: wrong clue in Black Hole Tapa fixed]
Puzzles can be found below.
Thursday, 14 January 2016
TVC XVIII Practise: Part 1
Here is part one of the TVC XVIII practise. It features five different variants. The second part will come out later tonight or tomorrow, depending on how much time I can find the rest of the day.
This post will contain the first five types in the instruction booklet. I managed to get through them in a nice way in order for once. Usually one type gives me some trouble.
First there is a Tapa With Borders. I decided to go for a 7x7 grid this time. I tried to avoid any wrong clues in the centre 4x4 square, so you couldn't directly work from there to find the grid.
The second puzzle is a Tapa-Like Loop. It's not really a Tapa, but it's a fun genre. The puzzle shouldn't be too hard.
The third puzzle is a Tapa LITS. This puzzle caused me the most trouble to make. I liked the layout, but it took some time to get a valid solution. Often I had areas that just wouldn't split up into tetrominos or it just wouldn't be unique. Eventually this came out.
Tapa Scrabble. I'm not much a fan of this type. Word puzzles are generally not my type anyway. I hope this puzzle is somewhat representative for the competition puzzles. I have the most doubt about this type.
Tapa Connection. This is probably the hardest puzzle in this set. This type is really restrictive. I wanted to see how far I could push it. Four clues with three pairs of letters gets you pretty close to the minimum I think for this size.
I hope the puzzles are useful. Enjoy.
Puzzles can be found below.
This post will contain the first five types in the instruction booklet. I managed to get through them in a nice way in order for once. Usually one type gives me some trouble.
First there is a Tapa With Borders. I decided to go for a 7x7 grid this time. I tried to avoid any wrong clues in the centre 4x4 square, so you couldn't directly work from there to find the grid.
The second puzzle is a Tapa-Like Loop. It's not really a Tapa, but it's a fun genre. The puzzle shouldn't be too hard.
The third puzzle is a Tapa LITS. This puzzle caused me the most trouble to make. I liked the layout, but it took some time to get a valid solution. Often I had areas that just wouldn't split up into tetrominos or it just wouldn't be unique. Eventually this came out.
Tapa Scrabble. I'm not much a fan of this type. Word puzzles are generally not my type anyway. I hope this puzzle is somewhat representative for the competition puzzles. I have the most doubt about this type.
Tapa Connection. This is probably the hardest puzzle in this set. This type is really restrictive. I wanted to see how far I could push it. Four clues with three pairs of letters gets you pretty close to the minimum I think for this size.
I hope the puzzles are useful. Enjoy.
Puzzles can be found below.
TVC XVIII Practise: Introduction
TVC XVIII is on this weekend. It will feature ten Tapa variants, five of which have not appeared in the TVC previously. These variants are Tapa LITS, Different Tapa, Not Alone Tapa, Black Hole Tapa and 4x4 Tapa.
Some examples of these new variants can be found online.
Tapa LITS:
Grandmaster Puzzles
A Cleverly Titled Logic Puzzle Blog (Streampunk/Tetra Firma)
Different Tapa:
Maybe Puzzles
This post will also contain some examples of the known variants that have featured on this blog below.
Some examples of these new variants can be found online.
Tapa LITS:
Grandmaster Puzzles
A Cleverly Titled Logic Puzzle Blog (Streampunk/Tetra Firma)
Different Tapa:
Maybe Puzzles
This post will also contain some examples of the known variants that have featured on this blog below.
Sunday, 10 January 2016
Puzzle #172: Tapa; Circled
This is the last of three posts with new Tapa variants for the TVC.
The last variant is Circled Tapa. It is based on Black and White Snake. As there is already a Black and White Tapa, I couldn't go with that name. My second thought was Dotted Tapa, but then I remembered Prasanna's Dotted Tapas. So lastly I settled on Circled Tapa, by just changing the wording of the rules. The variant here is that the Tapa wall is built up of alternating black and white circles. The clues indicate how many circles of a particular colour there are around it, instead of the number of coloured cells.
In this Tapa the wall is made up of alternating black and white circles. There are black and white clue cells. White clue cells indicate the amount of white circles in the orthogonally connected sections of the wall around that cell. Black clue cells indicate the amount of black circles in the orthogonally connected sections of the wall around that cell. Each digit indicates a section of at least length 1.
The last variant is Circled Tapa. It is based on Black and White Snake. As there is already a Black and White Tapa, I couldn't go with that name. My second thought was Dotted Tapa, but then I remembered Prasanna's Dotted Tapas. So lastly I settled on Circled Tapa, by just changing the wording of the rules. The variant here is that the Tapa wall is built up of alternating black and white circles. The clues indicate how many circles of a particular colour there are around it, instead of the number of coloured cells.
In this Tapa the wall is made up of alternating black and white circles. There are black and white clue cells. White clue cells indicate the amount of white circles in the orthogonally connected sections of the wall around that cell. Black clue cells indicate the amount of black circles in the orthogonally connected sections of the wall around that cell. Each digit indicates a section of at least length 1.
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Saturday, 9 January 2016
Puzzle #171: Tapa; Castle
This is the second post of three new Tapa variants for the currently ongoing TVC.
This time the variant is Castle Tapa. This variant is based on the Castle Wall genre, hence the name. It also has some similarities to No Islands Tapa. There haven't been many variants that use different coloured clues. The rule is that all black clue squares are contained within the Tapa wall and white clue squares remain outside the Tapa wall. I now realise this is the exact opposite from Castle Wall, but I don't think it matters. The puzzle turned out well, in my opinion.
Rules for Tapa
This Tapa has black and white clue cells. White clue cells must always be outside the Tapa wall. You must always be able to reach the edge of the grid from them by travelling horizontally and vertically through uncoloured cells and/or clue cells. Black clue cells must always be inside the Tapa wall. You must not be able to reach the edge of the grid from them by travelling horizontally and vertically through uncoloured cells and/or clue cells.
This time the variant is Castle Tapa. This variant is based on the Castle Wall genre, hence the name. It also has some similarities to No Islands Tapa. There haven't been many variants that use different coloured clues. The rule is that all black clue squares are contained within the Tapa wall and white clue squares remain outside the Tapa wall. I now realise this is the exact opposite from Castle Wall, but I don't think it matters. The puzzle turned out well, in my opinion.
Rules for Tapa
This Tapa has black and white clue cells. White clue cells must always be outside the Tapa wall. You must always be able to reach the edge of the grid from them by travelling horizontally and vertically through uncoloured cells and/or clue cells. Black clue cells must always be inside the Tapa wall. You must not be able to reach the edge of the grid from them by travelling horizontally and vertically through uncoloured cells and/or clue cells.
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Friday, 8 January 2016
Puzzle #170: Tapa; Lonely
With the TVC having started again, I gave designing a few new variants a go. I find it more fun if a TVC has a few new variants in it. For the next 3 days I will post 3 new variants.
The first one is Lonely Tapa. This rule has already been in effect in one genre, namely Tapa Islands. This rule is that an orthogonally connected uncoloured area can only contain at most one clue cell. I was actually kind of surprised it wasn't already in this list as it seemed like such a simple rule. I think the puzzle worked out well.
Rules for Tapa
In this Tapa, any orthogonally connected uncoloured area can contain at most one clue cell.
The first one is Lonely Tapa. This rule has already been in effect in one genre, namely Tapa Islands. This rule is that an orthogonally connected uncoloured area can only contain at most one clue cell. I was actually kind of surprised it wasn't already in this list as it seemed like such a simple rule. I think the puzzle worked out well.
Rules for Tapa
In this Tapa, any orthogonally connected uncoloured area can contain at most one clue cell.
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Wednesday, 6 January 2016
TVC XVII Recap
The first TVC of the season is over. I finished in 8th place, finishing all puzzles with 9 seconds to spare. It wasn't my best solve, but I'm still happy with it.
I had a bit of a slow start on the Alternative Tapa. I was a bit slow utilising the letters. I could have used uniqueness to finish it quicker, but I wasn't 100% sure if it held up. It just looked that uniqueness couldn't be guaranteed otherwise.
The next puzzle that caused problems was the second Skyscrapers Tapa. That was mostly because I forgot a 6 Tapa clue always needs one of two opposite edges coloured. I was treating it as a 5 clue and didn't see the opening. I got through I okay with a guess.
Then the Star Tapa held me up a bit, but luckily my own puzzle had given me some practise with the stars I needed here.
The last puzzle that caused problems was the second Magic Tapa. It actually caused the most problems and I had to restart it. Even on the restart I couldn't solve it, by which it was time to enter the codes. I was afraid I wouldn't solve it in time. But after entering the codes, I realised I had been treating a 2 as a 3 the whole time. So I could quickly solve the end and answer the key within a minute and claim my bonus of 0.2 points.
I think I got the most use out of designing my Tapa Star and Tapa Magic puzzles. I don't know which of my example puzzles were most useful for others. The feedback on my practise puzzles is getting less over the years. I don't know if it is because people don't need or want them anymore or if it's just because they have come to expect them. Some feedback would be appreciated as it takes a bit of work to push out all ten Tapas in the few days between the instruction booklet coming out and the start of the contest.
Lastly, the secret Tapa I mentioned in Part 2. The Tapa With Borders grid is also solvable as a 10x10 classic Tapa. I realised from the design that all outside clues were completely irrelevant to the Tapa with Borders logic. So I decided to clue them so that they would make a unique Tapa with the rest of the clues. I thought it was a fun touch.
Rules for Tapa
I had a bit of a slow start on the Alternative Tapa. I was a bit slow utilising the letters. I could have used uniqueness to finish it quicker, but I wasn't 100% sure if it held up. It just looked that uniqueness couldn't be guaranteed otherwise.
The next puzzle that caused problems was the second Skyscrapers Tapa. That was mostly because I forgot a 6 Tapa clue always needs one of two opposite edges coloured. I was treating it as a 5 clue and didn't see the opening. I got through I okay with a guess.
Then the Star Tapa held me up a bit, but luckily my own puzzle had given me some practise with the stars I needed here.
The last puzzle that caused problems was the second Magic Tapa. It actually caused the most problems and I had to restart it. Even on the restart I couldn't solve it, by which it was time to enter the codes. I was afraid I wouldn't solve it in time. But after entering the codes, I realised I had been treating a 2 as a 3 the whole time. So I could quickly solve the end and answer the key within a minute and claim my bonus of 0.2 points.
I think I got the most use out of designing my Tapa Star and Tapa Magic puzzles. I don't know which of my example puzzles were most useful for others. The feedback on my practise puzzles is getting less over the years. I don't know if it is because people don't need or want them anymore or if it's just because they have come to expect them. Some feedback would be appreciated as it takes a bit of work to push out all ten Tapas in the few days between the instruction booklet coming out and the start of the contest.
Lastly, the secret Tapa I mentioned in Part 2. The Tapa With Borders grid is also solvable as a 10x10 classic Tapa. I realised from the design that all outside clues were completely irrelevant to the Tapa with Borders logic. So I decided to clue them so that they would make a unique Tapa with the rest of the clues. I thought it was a fun touch.
Rules for Tapa
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Friday, 1 January 2016
TVC XVII Practise: Part 2
Here's the second part of the practise puzzles for TVC XVII. I didn't have as much time to make puzzles during New Years. We also went to see the new Star Wars move today. That took up some more time. A few variants I had some trouble making, so that they would be a bit interesting. I think they should help getting used to the variants.
The first puzzle is an Alternative Tapa. It's not too hard a puzzle. I haven't found a good way to make this variant to be influential, instead of just using it to make the puzzle unique. At least it looks nice and still fun to solve.
The second puzzle is a Tapa with Borders. I thought making the size a bit smaller would make it a bit more interesting. Although a 6x6 Tapa is not very interesting. But finding the grid will take a bit longer.
The third puzzle is a TAPA LOGIC. I think this is a nice puzzle. It was at least fun to think of the logic involved here. It should be fun to solve too.
The fourth puzzle is a Make Room For Tapa. This one took a bit of effort to make. I first tried to make the rooms fit some randomly chosen clues, but I couldn't make that work. So instead I designed the rooms first and then figured out which clues would create a unique puzzle.
The fifth puzzle is a Tapa Star. This is definitely the hardest puzzle in the set. I kept coming up with puzzles without a valid Star distribution. It is easy to create a Tapa wall without a star pattern apparently. You really need to work the stars to get to the solution in this puzzle. Approach it carefully.
I hope this set is again helpful and enjoyable. Don't forget about the secret Tapa.
Puzzles can be found below.
The first puzzle is an Alternative Tapa. It's not too hard a puzzle. I haven't found a good way to make this variant to be influential, instead of just using it to make the puzzle unique. At least it looks nice and still fun to solve.
The second puzzle is a Tapa with Borders. I thought making the size a bit smaller would make it a bit more interesting. Although a 6x6 Tapa is not very interesting. But finding the grid will take a bit longer.
The third puzzle is a TAPA LOGIC. I think this is a nice puzzle. It was at least fun to think of the logic involved here. It should be fun to solve too.
The fourth puzzle is a Make Room For Tapa. This one took a bit of effort to make. I first tried to make the rooms fit some randomly chosen clues, but I couldn't make that work. So instead I designed the rooms first and then figured out which clues would create a unique puzzle.
The fifth puzzle is a Tapa Star. This is definitely the hardest puzzle in the set. I kept coming up with puzzles without a valid Star distribution. It is easy to create a Tapa wall without a star pattern apparently. You really need to work the stars to get to the solution in this puzzle. Approach it carefully.
I hope this set is again helpful and enjoyable. Don't forget about the secret Tapa.
Puzzles can be found below.
Wednesday, 30 December 2015
TVC XVII Practise: Part 1
This is the first selection of practise puzzles for the upcoming TVC XVII. I only came aware this was starting again today, so I'm trying to get all puzzles out by Friday. This post will feature the first five puzzles.
The first puzzle is a Peers Tapa. I like the idea of this variant. I always enjoy Tapas that have the same sum in symmetrical clues. This variant forces that. The puzzle turned out reasonably well. It's one of the easier practise puzzles.
The second puzzle is a Tapa Skyscrapers. The variant can drive a lot of the puzzle, so I tend to just place some random, but nice looking, Tapa clues and make the variant drive the rest of the puzzle. I think it worked out well in this puzzle. It's not an overly hard puzzle, but you have to understand how to use the variant.
The third puzzle is a Knapp Daneben Tapa. I always have trouble with 1s turning into 0s when designing Knapp Daneben puzzles. I tried to avoid the issue as much as possible. My personal goal when designing Knapp Daneben puzzles is always to try to only use valid Tapa clues and not use combinations of digits in a cell that would not be allowed in a normal Tapa.
The fourth puzzle is an Outside Tapa. The first Outside Tapa I wrote I used a lot more Tapa clues, but I went for a lower number of clues this time and have the variant drive the solve a bit more. It turns out that using more equal symbols reduces the need for clues. I think it turned out well. This is probably the hardest puzzle in this set.
The fifth puzzle is a Tapa Magic. I'm not that much a fan of this variant. I always feel I have to use too many clues, because the restrictions won't allow it to be unique otherwise. It's still a nice puzzle and shows some of the tricks in this variant.
I hope these are helpful. Enjoy.
[Edit: Tapa Skyscrapers fixed.]
Puzzles can be found below.
The first puzzle is a Peers Tapa. I like the idea of this variant. I always enjoy Tapas that have the same sum in symmetrical clues. This variant forces that. The puzzle turned out reasonably well. It's one of the easier practise puzzles.
The second puzzle is a Tapa Skyscrapers. The variant can drive a lot of the puzzle, so I tend to just place some random, but nice looking, Tapa clues and make the variant drive the rest of the puzzle. I think it worked out well in this puzzle. It's not an overly hard puzzle, but you have to understand how to use the variant.
The third puzzle is a Knapp Daneben Tapa. I always have trouble with 1s turning into 0s when designing Knapp Daneben puzzles. I tried to avoid the issue as much as possible. My personal goal when designing Knapp Daneben puzzles is always to try to only use valid Tapa clues and not use combinations of digits in a cell that would not be allowed in a normal Tapa.
The fourth puzzle is an Outside Tapa. The first Outside Tapa I wrote I used a lot more Tapa clues, but I went for a lower number of clues this time and have the variant drive the solve a bit more. It turns out that using more equal symbols reduces the need for clues. I think it turned out well. This is probably the hardest puzzle in this set.
The fifth puzzle is a Tapa Magic. I'm not that much a fan of this variant. I always feel I have to use too many clues, because the restrictions won't allow it to be unique otherwise. It's still a nice puzzle and shows some of the tricks in this variant.
I hope these are helpful. Enjoy.
[Edit: Tapa Skyscrapers fixed.]
Puzzles can be found below.
TVC XVII Practise: Introduction
It seems 2016 is again a Tapa Variations Contest and Classic Tapa Contest year. That means that I'll actually have to defend my Tapa Master title I won in 2013 instead of the coasting on the honour without little effort. The CTC will run daily over 50 days from the 2nd of January 2016 till the 22nd of February 2016. The TVC will run in four contests over weekends between the 2nd of January 2016 and the 22nd of February 2016 The first of these contests, TVC XVII, will run from the 2nd of January 2016 till the 4th of January 2016.
TVC XVII will contain 10 variations. These variations are Alternative Tapa, Tapa with Borders, TAPA LOGIC, Peers Tapa, Tapa Skyscrapers, Make Room For Tapa, Tapa Star, Knapp Daneben Tapa, Outside Tapa and Tapa Magic. These are all variations that have previously appeared in other TVCs. So for practise you can check out older TVC's. In this post I will post the puzzles I shared before as practise for older TVCs. I will also be posting new examples for all these type in other posts. I hope they will all be useful in preparation. But not too much as I'd like to be the first to successfully defend a Tapa Master title.
Puzzles can be found below.
TVC XVII will contain 10 variations. These variations are Alternative Tapa, Tapa with Borders, TAPA LOGIC, Peers Tapa, Tapa Skyscrapers, Make Room For Tapa, Tapa Star, Knapp Daneben Tapa, Outside Tapa and Tapa Magic. These are all variations that have previously appeared in other TVCs. So for practise you can check out older TVC's. In this post I will post the puzzles I shared before as practise for older TVCs. I will also be posting new examples for all these type in other posts. I hope they will all be useful in preparation. But not too much as I'd like to be the first to successfully defend a Tapa Master title.
Puzzles can be found below.
Tuesday, 15 April 2014
Polish Puzzle Championships 2014: Individual Round
Last weekend were the Polish Sudoku and Puzzle Championships. The Championship was also open to International solvers this year. The playoffs would feature the best 4 solvers, while having at least two Polish solvers.
The Sudoku playoffs featured Tiit Vunk, Jakub Ondrousek, Jan Mrozowski and Krystian Swiderski. Jakub Ondrousek finish first in the playoffs, followed by Krystian Swiderski, Tiit Vunk and Jan Mrozowski, making Krystian Swiderski the new Polish Sudoku champion. Full results can be found here.
The Puzzle playoffs featured Przemysław Dębiak, Matus Demiger, Zoltan Horvath and Tomasz Stróżak. The final results remained almost the same with Przemyslaw Dębiak finishing first, followed by Zoltan Horvath, Matus Demiger and Tomasz Stróżak. Full results can be found here.
I contributed a set for the Puzzle Championships for the individual round and wrote a team round together with Zoltan Horvath.
You can find all puzzles of the Championships in the following link: Sudoku Rounds + Team Round, Puzzle Rounds. My puzzle set is round 4. This post will feature all the puzzles from my individual round. Tomorrow I will post the Team round puzzles with a special surprise.
Last year's set was a bit on the difficult side, so I tried to think of a way to rectify that this year. I decided to write 2 puzzles per type, one smaller/easier one and a larger/harder one. I didn't want to make any too difficult. I selected 10 varying types of puzzles. I was hoping to average about 1.5 minutes per puzzle on the smaller ones and about 4.5 minutes per puzzle on the larger ones. I had the set tested by Prasanna Seshadri, James McGowan and Stefan Gaspar. The smaller puzzles made that average pretty well, but the larger puzzles were more inching towards 5-5.5 average and all of them had some outliers. I couldn't really decide well which puzzles to cut so I sent in the whole set and let them know that they could leave out a puzzle type if necessary. During their testing 3 of the larger puzzles seem to have cause some problems as they went up in score. I think the set will have worked well none-the-less for all solvers with the easier puzzles to work with as well, but I'd love to hear some feedback form those who were there.
Puzzles can be found below.
The Sudoku playoffs featured Tiit Vunk, Jakub Ondrousek, Jan Mrozowski and Krystian Swiderski. Jakub Ondrousek finish first in the playoffs, followed by Krystian Swiderski, Tiit Vunk and Jan Mrozowski, making Krystian Swiderski the new Polish Sudoku champion. Full results can be found here.
The Puzzle playoffs featured Przemysław Dębiak, Matus Demiger, Zoltan Horvath and Tomasz Stróżak. The final results remained almost the same with Przemyslaw Dębiak finishing first, followed by Zoltan Horvath, Matus Demiger and Tomasz Stróżak. Full results can be found here.
I contributed a set for the Puzzle Championships for the individual round and wrote a team round together with Zoltan Horvath.
You can find all puzzles of the Championships in the following link: Sudoku Rounds + Team Round, Puzzle Rounds. My puzzle set is round 4. This post will feature all the puzzles from my individual round. Tomorrow I will post the Team round puzzles with a special surprise.
Last year's set was a bit on the difficult side, so I tried to think of a way to rectify that this year. I decided to write 2 puzzles per type, one smaller/easier one and a larger/harder one. I didn't want to make any too difficult. I selected 10 varying types of puzzles. I was hoping to average about 1.5 minutes per puzzle on the smaller ones and about 4.5 minutes per puzzle on the larger ones. I had the set tested by Prasanna Seshadri, James McGowan and Stefan Gaspar. The smaller puzzles made that average pretty well, but the larger puzzles were more inching towards 5-5.5 average and all of them had some outliers. I couldn't really decide well which puzzles to cut so I sent in the whole set and let them know that they could leave out a puzzle type if necessary. During their testing 3 of the larger puzzles seem to have cause some problems as they went up in score. I think the set will have worked well none-the-less for all solvers with the easier puzzles to work with as well, but I'd love to hear some feedback form those who were there.
Puzzles can be found below.
Thursday, 26 September 2013
TVC XVI Practise
Hello from Vancouver. Currently travelling before the WPC in Beijing. Need to be relaxed when I arrive there. Although maybe adding a small jetlag isn't totally the smartest thing. I was better located in Australia for that.
I wasn't sure if I could post any puzzles this week for the upcoming TVC XVI at Logic Master India.. I wrote a few puzzles on the plane, so I figure I'd share those. I hope they are of some use to people. Hopefully I will be able to compete in the last few days of the CTC and the last TVC. We will see. Everyone have fun at least.
There are four Tapas in this post.
The first puzzle is a Symmetric Tapa. This rule is very influential in the solve, so you really don't need many clues if you place your rectangles smartly. This one has four clues, but really shouldn't be that difficult a solve. I made it 11x11 as that way the rectangles would less likely share an edge if I placed all dots on grid points.
The second puzzle is a Toroidal Tapa. I like this variant. It's a bit trickier to design as you need to set a lot more blocks to make sure you can guide the wall where you want it to. I think this is a genre that can always use some practise, especially with looking around the edges of the grid. This puzzle is 12x12 as I liked this pattern of givens.
The third puzzle is a Transparent Tapa. This is the only genre that hasn't previously appeared on a TVC, so I figured I should at least make one of these. Although people can find a few of them on Prasanna Seshadri's blog. Oddly enough this rule change only means there is one clue that is invalid in normal Tapa. This one is also 12x12. I made an opening and then I noticed it would work more effectively in the corner of the grid. But to make a nice pattern of givens it would be better for the grid to be 12x12.
The fourth puzzle is a Alternative Tapa. This is the hardest of the four puzzles. This is not caused by the variant, as it's not overly influential in the solve. But the normal Tapa bit is pretty challenging and should give you all a bit of a challenge. Although maybe with the CTC you've had enough of those already. This one is 11x11 as it worked nicely with the TVC XVI pattern of letters.
Enjoy and have fun this weekend.
Puzzle can be found below.
I wasn't sure if I could post any puzzles this week for the upcoming TVC XVI at Logic Master India.. I wrote a few puzzles on the plane, so I figure I'd share those. I hope they are of some use to people. Hopefully I will be able to compete in the last few days of the CTC and the last TVC. We will see. Everyone have fun at least.
There are four Tapas in this post.
The first puzzle is a Symmetric Tapa. This rule is very influential in the solve, so you really don't need many clues if you place your rectangles smartly. This one has four clues, but really shouldn't be that difficult a solve. I made it 11x11 as that way the rectangles would less likely share an edge if I placed all dots on grid points.
The second puzzle is a Toroidal Tapa. I like this variant. It's a bit trickier to design as you need to set a lot more blocks to make sure you can guide the wall where you want it to. I think this is a genre that can always use some practise, especially with looking around the edges of the grid. This puzzle is 12x12 as I liked this pattern of givens.
The third puzzle is a Transparent Tapa. This is the only genre that hasn't previously appeared on a TVC, so I figured I should at least make one of these. Although people can find a few of them on Prasanna Seshadri's blog. Oddly enough this rule change only means there is one clue that is invalid in normal Tapa. This one is also 12x12. I made an opening and then I noticed it would work more effectively in the corner of the grid. But to make a nice pattern of givens it would be better for the grid to be 12x12.
The fourth puzzle is a Alternative Tapa. This is the hardest of the four puzzles. This is not caused by the variant, as it's not overly influential in the solve. But the normal Tapa bit is pretty challenging and should give you all a bit of a challenge. Although maybe with the CTC you've had enough of those already. This one is 11x11 as it worked nicely with the TVC XVI pattern of letters.
Enjoy and have fun this weekend.
Puzzle can be found below.
Friday, 13 September 2013
TVC XV Practise: Part 3ish
So, I tried today to make puzzles for the remaining three genres of TVC XV, but really nothing useful came out of it. A lot of tried openings, but in the end just a big mess of nothing useful came out of it. I could post something of the messy remnants of what were once good ideas, but I'm going I'm just going to repost the three old puzzles I have already linked in the Introduction. So for those who didn't bother clicking the many links in that post, you can at least get 3 nice puzzles to solve.
I hope everything still helped prepare people for the upcoming weekend. Enjoy and have fun.
Puzzles can be found below.
I hope everything still helped prepare people for the upcoming weekend. Enjoy and have fun.
Puzzles can be found below.
TVC XV Practise: Part 2
I was debating on whether to finish the other 3 types or posting these already, but figured I might as well post them now. I'm having some trouble designing certain variants. Both Double Back and Twopa are tricky to get right. The Twopa came together when I gave up on making the clue layout symmetric. It was just too much trouble. I will try to post the rest later today. I hope these puzzles are useful though.
The first puzzle is an Outside Tapa. I don't think this one is as nice as Serkan's puzzle from TVC VII but I think it's nice none-the-less. The variant isn't as influential in this puzzle, but has some points that should be important for the solve. But a few of the outside clues are purely to settle uniqueness.
The second puzzle is a Total False Tapa. This variant seems to always require a lot of clues. When I was done with the design I actually went out to edit the puzzle a bit, replacing multiple clues with 8's as the actual value of the clue was unnecessary, meaning that an 8 would work just as well. I think it makes the puzzle a bit nicer a solve. I think the end of the solve it trickiest.
The third Puzzle is a Twopa. It's a really tricky type to design, but I don't think the solve is particularly challenging. The main problem here is that you can't just add clues wherever you want as it might not work for both puzzles or it might not solve differently for both puzzles. But at least neither of the puzzles is solvable completely without solving the other grid.
Puzzles can be found below.
The first puzzle is an Outside Tapa. I don't think this one is as nice as Serkan's puzzle from TVC VII but I think it's nice none-the-less. The variant isn't as influential in this puzzle, but has some points that should be important for the solve. But a few of the outside clues are purely to settle uniqueness.
The second puzzle is a Total False Tapa. This variant seems to always require a lot of clues. When I was done with the design I actually went out to edit the puzzle a bit, replacing multiple clues with 8's as the actual value of the clue was unnecessary, meaning that an 8 would work just as well. I think it makes the puzzle a bit nicer a solve. I think the end of the solve it trickiest.
The third Puzzle is a Twopa. It's a really tricky type to design, but I don't think the solve is particularly challenging. The main problem here is that you can't just add clues wherever you want as it might not work for both puzzles or it might not solve differently for both puzzles. But at least neither of the puzzles is solvable completely without solving the other grid.
Puzzles can be found below.
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