Perplexible

It’s my 18th birthday! \o/

Today’s puzzle took some wrangling. I started with the regions spelling out ’18’ and spent a day trying to develop various puzzles around them (I tried to make another Tents & Trees, for example), but I didn’t really get anything done. The next day,  frustrated,  I was looking for puzzles to solve and stumbled upon Erich Friedmann’s Gap puzzles. They only added to my frustration, really, but I realized to try and make a puzzle using gap clues, and this came out in a few hours. I think I’ve seen Gap puzzles elsewhere, but can’t remember what they were called. Something something satellite something, or something.

Rules: A hybrid of Star Battle and Gap. Two stars in each row and column such that no two stars touch even by corners, two stars in each shaded region (the 1, the 8 and the two boxes inside the 8). Additionally, the clues outside the grid tell the gap between the two stars on that row/column. The crossed out cell is blank.

I’m not happy at all having to cross out a cell, but the rest of the puzzle turned out so nice that I let it pass. That, and desperation to get at least a puzzle done in time. It’s pretty easy, but I really like it.

In other news, I’ll be ordering this book as a gift to myself. Hopefully it’ll help improve the quality of my puzzles.

Posted in Puzzle by ArDeeJ, 06/18/13 9:00 AM
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Here’s two Skyscrapers. Every letter stands for a different number. Ranges are 1-5 and 1-6 respectively.

If I hypothetically had to say something about their difficulty, I suppose they aren’t hard. Both have a spot where you have to pause and think, but other than that things flow smoothly. That seems to be common in my puzzles.

Posted in Puzzle by ArDeeJ, 06/18/13 9:00 AM
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Here’s some Linesweeper puzzles (the puzzle style was invented by Jak Marshall).

The 7×7 one is an easy starter.

I (hopefully) fixed the ambiguity issue with the 8×8 one. It might be easier but it’s also nicer now, I think. The loop can’t cross the bold line and it has to visit the dotted square.

The 9×9 one is tricky. It has clues from 1 to 8, with 5 and 6 doubled. O means the clue is odd, E means the clue is even.

Posted in Puzzle by ArDeeJ, 06/18/13 9:00 AM
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This logical addition puzzle was designed to teach children strategy and to think “out-side the box”. In this case the box is round. The goal is to discover the center number by adding the four numbers that surround the center circle, but to determine those four numbers it is easier to start near the outermost rings and fill in empty slots where you know two or three of the numbers already. There is no guessing to these puzzles. All of them can be sorted through logically and methodically. I estimate each of these puzzles can be completed in 10 minutes or less. Have fun.

PNG Version

PDF Version

Posted in Puzzle by ash, 06/18/13 9:00 AM
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It’s a mashup of Easy as ABC and regionless LITS.

Standard regionless LITS rules:

• The shaded area must be continuous
• There can’t be any 2×2 blocks of shaded cells
• The shaded area must be tileable with LITS tetrominoes such that no two tetrominoes of same shape touch

Additionally:

• No row or column may have two tetrominoes of the same shape in it
• The clues along the edges tell the shape of the tetromino that is first seen in that column or row
• (L and J tetrominoes and S and Z tetrominoes aren’t distinguished)
• A bolded line between clue cells means the two cells can’t see the same tetromino
• No line between clue cells means the two cells see the same tetromino
• A dashed line between clue cells means the two cells may see the same tetromino, but not necessarily

Hopefully I was clear with the rules.

Posted in Puzzle by ArDeeJ, 06/18/13 9:00 AM
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This one took a bit of wrangling to make it work, because I insisted on having the diagonal read 1-2-3-4-5 whle keeping it litsable. Anyways,  I like how it turned out.

Rules: It’s a Nurikabe. It’s also a borderless LITS; or equivalently, the filled area must be tileable with tetrominoes such that no two of the same shape share an edge. Lastly, the numbers outside the grid tell how many tetrominoes are in that row/column.

Posted in Puzzle by ArDeeJ, 06/18/13 9:00 AM
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5th (!) post in a row…

This is a straightforward hybrid of Star Battle and Galaxies.

The centers of every galaxy are marked on the grid. The galaxies all have two-fold (180°) rotational symmetry.

Each galaxy has either two stars or  no stars. The stars need not be symmetrically placed. A black dot indicates that the galaxy has two stars in it, a crossed out white dot indicates that the galaxy has no stars. Normal white dots can be either.

Additionally, every row and column has two stars in it, and the stars don’t touch even diagonally.

Posted in Puzzle by ArDeeJ, 06/18/13 9:00 AM
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Slither Tapa plays like a mix of Slitherlink and Tapa. The continuous area inside the slither is shaded. Unshaded numbers are Tapa clues, shaded numbers are Slitherlink clues.

EDIT: Apparently also known as Tapa Rundweg or Loop Tapa (but not to be confused with Tapa Loop… :p).

They may not be that hard but I had fun making them.

Posted in Puzzle by ArDeeJ, 06/18/13 9:00 AM
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One more! 😀

This time, Tapa puzzles! I quite like them, I’d describe Tapas as a mix of nonograms and minesweepers. See the link for instructions.

Here’s a slight variant. Plays like Tapa, but with added restrictions:

– Every column must have a different amount of filled tiles

– Every row must have a different amount of filled tiles

That doesn’t mean a row and a column can’t have the same amount of filled tiles.

(This variant is called Tap Differently in the puzzle app mentioned in my previous post.)

Now for the main course. I don’t know if this variation is unique but I haven’t seen any before. I’ve named them Yin Yang Tapas. (Feel free to suggest a better name in the comments.)

It’s a stronger variation on Tapa. Now even the numbered tiles may be filled!

– If a numbered tile is not filled, it tells you the amount of filled tiles around it, like Tapa.

– However, if a numbered tile is filled, it tells you the amount of empty tiles around it.

Otherwise it follows the rules of Tapa: that is, there are no 2×2 squares of filled tiles and the filled area is continuous.

Here’s a 7×7 one.

Neither are particularly hard. In any case, here’s the solution to the 5×5 Yin Yang Tapa, if you want to check that you understood the rules. Viewer discretion advised.

Posted in Puzzle by ArDeeJ, 06/18/13 9:00 AM
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Double-posting because why not?

Here’s a puzzle I devised roughly half a year ago. It’s nice to be able to post it somewhere!

It’s a hybrid of Parks and Tents (both as seen in this excellent free puzzle app for iPhone (I sadly get no money for mentioning it as far as I know)). I haven’t seen any Parks puzzles outside that app, if anyone can link some I’d like that.

The goal is to fill the grid with tents and trees. The grid has six tents already placed, marked with A.

Like in Parks puzzles, the colored sections are parks. On each row, column and park are two trees. Trees may not touch each other, even diagonally.

Like in Tents puzzles, the numbers on the edges tell the amount of tents on that row. Tents may not touch each other, even diagonally, like trees. (The numbers include the pre-placed tents.)

Every tent attaches to one and only one tree. Every tree has one and only one tent attached to it. A tent and a tree can be attached to each other if they’re directly adjacent; touching diagonally won’t do. So, in practice, you’re placing pairs of tents and trees.

A tent and its tree need not be in the same park.

This is quite a tricky puzzle, I’m rather fond of it.

Posted in Puzzle by ArDeeJ, 06/18/13 9:00 AM
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