Perplexible

Today’s puzzle is the second in an apparent series; that is, a series of not-quite-symmetrically clued Masyu variants. Here’s the first one, and it’s probably the harder of the two, at least if you’re trying to prove uniqueness. I quite like these both, which is why I’m publishing them in their faulty-symmetric glory. There’s also 6×6 starter, which showcases why I didn’t bother with colour antisymmetry.

Rules:

• Draw a single non-self-intersecting loop that runs through the centers of the cells and visits all pearls.
• On black pearls the loop must make a right turn, and the loop must go straight through the cells before and after the pearl.
• On white pearls the loop goes straight through, and the loop must make a right turn on at least one of the cells before and after the pearl.
• Additionally, every other pearl the loop passes through is a liar: that is, a white liar pearl acts as a black pearl, and vice versa.

Posted in Puzzle by ArDeeJ, 08/18/14 3:53 PM
2 Comments »

Here’s a Clouds puzzle.

Rules:

• Shade some cells to form rectangular clouds. The clouds don’t touch each other, even by corners.
• A cloud must be at least two cells tall and wide: 1×n or n×1 clouds aren’t allowed.
• The clues tell the amount of shaded cells in that row/column.

Posted in Puzzle by ArDeeJ, 08/14/14 12:26 PM
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Here’s an antisymmetric Tapa. I tried to keep the puzzle easy and the solving path flowing but not boring, please do tell if I succeeded.

(click for full size)

Rules:

• Shade some cells to form a continuous wall that contains no 2×2 squares of shaded cells.
• The clue numbers tell the size of continuous groups of shaded cells in the eight cells around the clues. Two groups must have at least one unshaded cell between them.
• The clue cells themselves remain unshaded.

EDIT: The first version was ever so slightly ambiguous, so I had to remake the puzzle. The old version is here, if you’re curious.

Posted in Puzzle by ArDeeJ, 08/8/14 2:32 PM
5 Comments »

I actually made yesterday’s snake puzzle a couple of months ago, and yesterday when posting it I realised that I have to make a sum variant. Maybe I’ll try a Haido snake next.

I really liked making this puzzle. Because I might have stuck to the theme too much, there’s a tricky step later on in the puzzle but otherwise it shouldn’t be too hard.

Rules:

• Shade some cells to form a snake, an orthogonally connected non-branching path of cells.
• The snake doesn’t touch itself orthogonally. That is, if you numbered the cells of the snake from head to tail, the only shaded cells directly adjacent to a shaded cell would be the next and previous cells in sequence. However, touching by corners is okay.
• The numbers outside the grid act as Sum Skyscrapers clues:
  • On a row/column, a segment of n shaded cells is taken to be a skyscraper of height n.
  • A skyscraper blocks visibility of any other skyscraper behind it that’s not taller.
  • Looking from the clue’s direction, a clue tells the sum of the visible skyscrapers’s heights.

Posted in Puzzle by ArDeeJ, 08/6/14 5:34 AM
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The hardest part about this puzzle is probably the break-in.

Rules:

• Shade some cells to form a snake, an orthogonally connected non-branching path of cells.
• The snake doesn’t touch itself orthogonally. That is, if you numbered the cells of the snake from head to tail, the only shaded cells directly adjacent to a shaded cell would be the next and previous cells in sequence. However, touching by corners is okay.
•  The numbers outside the grid act as Skyscrapers clues:
  • On a row/column, a segment of n shaded cells is taken to be a skyscraper of height n.
  • A skyscraper blocks visibility of any other skyscraper behind it that’s not taller.
  • Looking from the clue’s direction, a clue tells the amount of visible skyscrapers on its row/column.

Notice that unlike in Finnish Snake, the head, tail and length of the snake aren’t given, and the snake can touch itself diagonally.

Posted in Puzzle by ArDeeJ, 08/5/14 6:45 AM
3 Comments »