A Cleverly-Titled Logic Puzzle Blog

Puzzle 535: Fencing Match 47

2012-01-19T20:24:00.000-06:00

No comment.

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Puzzle 534: Fencing Match 46

2012-01-10T14:01:00.000-06:00

It has recently come to my attention that two numbers which commonly appear in these puzzles have been the intellectual property of Microsoft for over a decade. I have created this puzzle without those numbers as a result. Remember, kids, infringing on patents is bad for you!

Rules of Fencing Match

This is not a puzzle.

2012-01-10T02:04:00.000-06:00

I don't normally consider myself an activist for things (I associate activism with annoying the crap out of people who disagree with you and making them hate you forever), but this is a rare and notable exception.

The United States Congress is discussing two bills called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PROTECT IP). From my understanding of this bill, as presented by some guy in the United Kingdom(!), if either bill passes, Google could very well be forced to take down Blogger because of the mere potential for people to use it to infringe copyrights, thanks to some very vague definitions of what constitutes a rogue site. This will mark the death of Web 2.0, and more particularly, this will mark the death of my blog. (It will also mark the death of Thomas Snyder's blog and Palmer Mebane's blog, but nobody cares about those, right?) I really hope to learn more about these bills so I can be rational and not irrational, because if these bills are indeed as bad as I hear, then rational people will be better at getting the message out than irrational ones, but if you care about my blog's existence, please learn as much as you can about SOPA and PROTECT IP, act on the information, and encourage others to do the same.

I only discovered Nikoli and became the skilled logicsmith that I am today as a result of reading Zotmeister's blog, which wouldn't have existed without the innovations of Web 2.0. I cannot allow these bills to be passed if they would threaten this freedom of expression.

Puzzle 533: Solomon's Keep 3

2012-01-07T21:41:00.000-06:00

No comment.

Rules of Solomon's Keep

Puzzle 532: Solomon's Keep 2

2012-01-04T21:58:00.000-06:00

No comment.

Rules of Solomon's Keep

Puzzle 531: Solomon's Keep 1

2012-01-04T21:57:00.000-06:00

No comment.

Rules of Solomon's Keep

Rules -- Solomon's Keep

2012-01-04T21:12:00.000-06:00

Solomon's Keep was invented by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli (under the name Five Cells – that's a transliteration, not a translation, believe it or not).

1. Divide the grid along the grid lines into pentominoes (regions containing exactly five cells each).
2. A number in a cell represents how many edges of that cell are borders of pentominoes (including the perimeter of the grid).

Puzzle 530: Ellbound 2

2012-01-04T00:11:00.000-06:00

No comment.

Rules of Ellbound

Puzzle 529: Ellbound 1

2012-01-03T22:56:00.000-06:00

This puzzle appears in "Penpa 2012 by Nikoli"; when a puzzle appears outside of Puzzle Communication Nikoli's experimental section, you know it's legit. Curiously, though, none of the 20 puzzles therein exhibit symmetry.

Rules of Ellbound

Rules -- Ellbound

2012-01-03T22:21:00.001-06:00

Ellbound was invented by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli (under the name Sashigane, which refers to a carpenter's square).

1. Divide the grid into L-shaped blocks, each consisting of an elbow, a horizontal arm extending from the elbow to another cell in the same row as the elbow, and a vertical arm extending from the elbow to another cell in the same column as the elbow.
2. A cell with a circle in it is the elbow of its corresponding block. If the circle has a number in it, that number represents how many cells are in that block.
3. A cell with an arrow in it is the tip of one of the arms of its corresponding block, and the arrow points to the elbow of that block.

Puzzle 528: Quad-Wrangle 24

2011-12-19T05:28:00.000-06:00

Remember when I said "Hopefully I'll have more to say about my next 31x45 puzzle"? Well, I do!

This puzzle is devoted to groza528, a longtime fan and online brother in Christ who has encouraged me in so, so many ways – not the least of which was his decision to support me financially in the LiveJournal era of my logicsmithing "career", back when I decided to experimentally charge for access to me next 100 puzzles. groza528 actually sent me a check for four times what I was asking for, requesting access to the next 200 puzzles for himself and for a friend! I remain touched by this simple gesture of paying me money. Thank you so much, groza528.

Rules of Quad-Wrangle

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Puzzle 527: Circumnavi-Gates 19

2011-12-17T18:22:00.003-06:00

No comment.

Rules of Circumnavi-Gates

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Puzzle 526: Numeral Crossing 10

2011-12-15T05:26:00.002-06:00

No comment.

Rules of Numeral Crossing

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Puzzle 525: Artist's Block 10

2011-12-12T05:25:00.010-06:00

As much as I enjoy posting 31x45 puzzles to celebrate milestones (because multiples of 25 are clearly milestones), I'm running out of things to say about them. Hopefully I'll have more to say about my next 31x45 puzzle. :)

Well, I guess I'll say this, since some people seem not to notice when I try to say it unobtrusively in a prefix to the comment form: do not leave a comment claiming a puzzle has multiple solutions unless you can either explain why in a manner that doesn't entirely spoil the puzzle for future readers, or accompany said comment with an e-mail explaining the ambiguity even more uncertainly. While I have made mistakes before when I am overly confident in my own logic, this particular puzzle was test-solved by two individuals who would have undoubtedly noticed such an error. Additionally, please don't spoil what results from shading in the areas with black dots; I would prefer to discuss that via e-mail.

On a completely unrelated note, Sudoku fans may be interested in this Advent calendar David Millar's been working on.

Rules of Artist's Block
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Puzzle 524: Proof of Quilt 5

2011-12-10T20:23:00.000-06:00

No comment.

Rules of Proof of Quilt
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Puzzle 523: The Inner Limits 6

2011-12-07T16:09:00.000-06:00

No comment.

Rules of The Inner Limits

Puzzle 522: Numeral Crossing 9

2011-12-06T17:21:00.000-06:00

Now that I've finished writing the puzzles I've been paid to write, I can get back to puzzles I'm not being paid to write!

Rules of Numeral Crossing

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Grant's Review Corner: Volume 7

2011-11-21T19:43:00.000-06:00

Today's volume of Grant's Review Corner is brought to you by Kakuro Conquest.

Wait a minute. . . "brought to you by"? What kind of BS is this? In past editions of Grant's Review Corner, the author (who would be me) has made a big stink about refusing to sell advertising space on his blog (which would be this one), and now all of a sudden we're in for some kind of advertorial? Well. . . yes and no. Let me explain what is happening here.

Last month, I was the recipient of this e-mail:

Hi Grant,

I've been following along on your puzzle blog and was wondering if you have ever considered writing about Kakuro and/or if I can be of any help to you.

My client is a website called: http://kakuroconquest.com and I am helping them do some linking.

Now I know it says that I shouldn't ask you for a link, and I promise that I am not dumb or illiterate. I am just wishing and hoping that maybe you'll change your mind.

If this didn't work, I am sorry for being a dick and wasting your time. If it did, thank you a ton.

I responded with my usual spiel:

I have gotten so many e-mails from marketing people who think they can get a free link to their stuff that it's refreshing to get an email from someone who realizes that my blog says I don't do that. Clearly you have read more of my blog than previous people who have sent similar queries, and as a reader, you have my utmost respect. I hope that my blog's content will continue provide you with brain-bending entertainment and never create any hard unpleasant feelings. :)

That being said, unless your client is willing to commission puzzles from me so I can self-promote ("Look at me, everybody, these guys paid me money to make puzzles! Go check out the puzzles I made for them, because you won't see them anywhere else!"), I'm afraid there's not much I can do to aid their quest for more hits. :)

A month later, much to my surprise, I've been paid US$126 in exchange for writing ten Kakuro puzzles for this client. Naturally, like anybody with a modicum of professionalism, I have made constructing these puzzles which I'm being paid to write a higher priority than frivolities such as constructing Monday Mutants. However, because a modicum of professionalism is all that I possess, I shall now proceed to express my feelings regarding this commission with the word "squee". Ahem.

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

I would be nothing without a dose of shameless self-promotion, so part of the purpose of this edition of Grant's Review Corner is to shamelessly inform my readers that they will soon be able to find my puzzles in a place besides Sudoku Xtra and Akil Oyunlari. However, this post is just as much about Kakuro Conquest as it is about me, and as such, I will compare Kakuro Conquest's online interface with the online interfaces of two other well-known sites which offer interactive Kakuro puzzles, in an attempt to dissect what elements of the interface work and why, and whether I believe any changes are in order.

Let's start with Kakuro Conquest:

Yes, I had to look up the definition of "professionalism" in a dictionary. Don't judge me.

Props to the site's programmer for using JavaScript only and not Flash; I'm sure that readers who are allergic to Flash (maybe they're on an iPhone?) will greatly appreciate this. In fact, most of the functionality, such as being able to type numbers into the cells or check your solution, doesn't even require JavaScript; the three main uses of JavaScript are to automatically shrink the text in a cell when you enter more than one digit (see below), to show you all of the ways of reaching a particular sum when you click on it, and to let you move between the grid cells with the arrow keys in addition to with the Tab key. Thus, the site is accessible to a wide audience. Furthermore, the site sports a clean, non-distracting look. This may sound like such a small thing to praise, but I guarantee you that if the visuals were too distracting, I would demand that the client change that for the sake of everybody. Nobody is going to want to play my puzzles, or any puzzles, on an ugly website.

The ability to enter more than one candidate in a single cell is a trait which all three sites I am reviewing have in common, and it is sufficiently essential for hardcore Kakuro solvers that its presence, while a small detail, is still one I feel I must point out. On Kakuro Conquest, you simply type several numbers (like "12") into a single cell to do so. Easy! This is probably the best possible way to implement this feature in JavaScript.

Probably the only con I can think of is that there is no way to play puzzles on Kakuro Conquest without using the keyboard. This is a very minor issue, because the keyboard is usually faster anyway, and I can't think of a way to "fix" this issue without mucking up the elegance of the site using nothing more than JavaScript, but there might be situations when a solver would like to have the option of not using the keyboard, and the other two sites I'm reviewing offer a mouse-only interface in addition to keyboard functionality. *shrugs* Readers, what say you? Is this really an issue?

Now let's look at Conceptis:

The entire Conceptis website uses Flash, so if you're allergic to Flash, you're screwed. The interface is again very clean to look at, though. Conceptis Kakuro cannot be solved entirely through the keyboard; you must move the on-screen cursor with your mouse. However, you can enter numbers either by hovering your mouse over the cell and typing the number or by clicking on the cell and then clicking on the number from the numeric keypad that appears. To enter a candidate value, move your over the upper-left corner of a cell so a small box is highlighted instead of the entire cell, and then type or click as usual. When multiple candidate values are entered into a cell, they are automatically put in numerical order (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9); this might be a convenience or a curse depending on whether the solver is trying to keep track of candidates for individual cells or track possibilities for the whole puzzle.

Another very minor quibble I have is with zooming. All of the puzzles on Conceptis let you zoom in or out to make the grid cells bigger or smaller, which isn't a bad thing in itself, but I don't always like having to zoom out to make the puzzle fit the window instead of only having 90% of it fit the window. This quibble is extremely minor because there are giant Link-a-Pix puzzles which would be unreadable if they started out filling the entire window, and I'd rather zoom out of Kakuro once or twice than into Link-a-Pix many times.

Finally, a look at nikoli.com:

nikoli.com probably has the most versatile interface of these three sites, as you can play entirely with the keyboard or entirely with the mouse. To enter candidates with the keyboard, hold spacebar while typing the number; with the mouse, click one of the four corners of the cell. All puzzles start out filling the window, but you can zoom in if you'd like to make them bigger for whatever reason (maybe playing on a low screen resolution or something). The largest puzzles on nikoli.com are much smaller than the largest puzzles on Conceptis, so they're always readable on the screen; I have no issues at all with nikoli.com's zooming.

I thought I could make this post awesome today, but too many extenuating real-life circumstances have given me an incredible headache to where I can't accomplish anything intellectual such as writing words. I am truly sorry, readers. I promise next week will be better. In the meanwhile, if you have any suggestions for Kakuro Conquest that would make the site better, whether they're based on the things I've said in this post or not, please, please, please post them here. The more constructive feedback their site gets from my readers as a result of having commissioned me to write puzzles, the more likely I am to get hired again. Oh, and they'll have a better website, too. :)

Puzzle 521: Totally Awesum 22

2011-11-17T23:48:00.002-06:00

No comment.

Rules of Totally Awesum

Monday Mutant 104: Polyominous (cipher)

2011-11-14T03:16:00.010-06:00

In this Polyominous puzzle, most of the given numbers have been replaced by letters; all instances of a particular letter represent the same number, but two different letters must represent different numbers. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

Erratum: "Lord, how many times shall I forgive a blogger who posts broken logic puzzles? Up to seven times?"

Puzzle 520: Dominnocuous 2

2011-11-09T02:22:00.000-06:00

No comment.

Rules of Dominnocuous

Puzzle 519: Dominnocuous 1

2011-11-09T02:00:00.002-06:00

No comment.

Rules of Dominnocuous

Monday Mutant 103: Streaming Content / Block Band / Dominnocuous / Room and Reason (mastermind)

2011-11-07T08:00:00.002-06:00

Solve the Streaming Content, Block Band, Dominnocuous, and Room and Reason puzzle simultaneously by the normal rules. A number between two rows or two columns in two different grids represents how many pairs of black cells would coincide if those two rows or columns were overlaid, without rotating them.

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The longest filename this blog has ever seen!

Puzzle 518: Streaming Content 37

2011-11-06T16:31:00.000-06:00

No comment.

Rules of Streaming Content

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Rules -- Dominnocuous

2011-11-06T15:26:00.000-06:00

Dominnocuous was invented by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli (under the name Norinori).

1. Shade in some cells such that every region contains exactly two shaded cells, and every shaded cell shares an edge with exactly one other shaded cell.

Puzzle 517: Reunion Tour 7

2011-10-25T15:14:00.003-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Reunion Tour

Monday Mutant 102: Pearls of Wisdom (optional whites)

2011-10-24T16:02:00.005-05:00

In this Pearls of Wisdom puzzle, the loop does not have to pass through the white circles; however, when it does pass through a white circle, it must obey the standard rules for white circles.

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Lest the African-American community deem me racist for posting a puzzle that suggests that black circles, and black people by inference, are optional. . .

Monday Mutant 101: Pearls of Wisdom (optional blacks)

2011-10-24T04:02:00.000-05:00

In this Pearls of Wisdom puzzle, the loop does not have to pass through the black circles; however, when it does pass through a black circle, it must obey the standard rules for black circles.

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With apologies to Palmer Mebane.

Puzzle 516: Reunion Tour 6

2011-10-23T13:38:00.000-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Reunion Tour

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Puzzle 515: Tetra Firma 32

2011-10-22T12:24:00.003-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Tetra Firma

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Puzzle 514: Polyominous 50

2011-10-21T12:23:00.000-05:00

This recent BoardGameGeek contribution is brought to you by the letter B. This video, however, is not brought to you by the letter B.

Rules of Polyominous

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Monday Mutant 100: Numeral Crossing (jumping crossword)

2011-10-17T08:00:00.013-05:00

In this Numeral Crossing puzzle, you are to place letters of the English alphabet, rather than digits, in the white cells such that each of the words listed below the grid (excluding spaces, punctuation, and any other symbols besides letters of the English alphabet) appears as an entry within the grid. Additionally, some white cells must be left blank; no two empty white cells may share an edge. The words are sorted by their actual length in the grid (including empty spaces).

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I bet you were expecting something much more interesting, involving numbers. Nope. Interesting puzzles with numbers in them are motris's schtick, not mine.

Happy Monday, everybody.

Monday Mutant 99: Spirits of Serpentine (seconds)

2011-10-10T12:57:00.000-05:00

In this Spirits of Serpentine puzzle, the clues represent the second number encountered in the direction of the arrow, rather than the first; if only one number or no numbers are encountered before the edge of the grid or the nearest black cell (whichever is closer), then the clue is 0. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

I forgot to mention this when it was more current, but my third Square Root of Minus Garfield strip is now online. Check it out.

Monday Mutant 98: Seek and Spell (POP/PA)

2011-10-03T13:48:00.000-05:00

In this Seek and Spell puzzle, the trigram POP or the bigram PA can be treated as a single letter, and entered as such in a single space. (For example, PAHOEHOE can be entered in eight spaces as P-A-H-O-E-H-O-E, or in seven spaces as PA-H-O-E-H-O-E.) The rules are otherwise unchanged.

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My father's birthday is tomorrow, on October 4. I mention this for no reason at all.

Logicsmith Exhibition 5: Polyominous (RESULTS!)

2011-09-30T20:33:00.002-05:00

The deadline for voting in Logicsmith Exhibition 5 is past, and I have received 24 votes. Using my amazing ability to count, I have determined the winner of the contest! In this post, I will not only reveal that winner, but I will do something I have only really done once before in a Logicsmith Exhibition: I will be unafraid to give my honest opinion!

Disclaimer: In the past, I have divulged that I like Justin Bieber's "Baby" unironically. I have also watched an episode overtly Christian-themed "BibleMan", and somehow find myself liking its cheesiness both ironically and unironically. Clearly, my opinions on logic puzzles should be taken with more than a grain of salt – particularly seeing as the contest is more about reader opinion than my own.

WARNING: There are 40 images in this post!

Puzzle 01: mellowmelonmathgrant's comments: Appealing aesthetic. Solve was cute, but not overly so. The implied 4-omino in the upper left was nice, and the rest of the puzzle solved smoothly.

Puzzle 02: Bram de Laatmathgrant's comments: Difficult, but not on the terribly tedious side of difficult, despite the fact that I kept messing up during verification. Author said the arrangement of the givens was inspired by my puzzle 10. Good use of implied polyominoes.

Puzzle 03: sc979mathgrant's comments: This was the last entry received. Props for a 13(!)-omino, but the difficulty was far too extreme for my pedestrian tastes.

Puzzle 04: Valeziusmathgrant's comments: Holy crap, this one was rough. In fact, solving it reminded me of the Fillomino puzzles on PuzzlePicnic in terms of difficulty. I was therefore not surprised to learn that Valezius is an "experienced puzzler" on the site, a title that comes with having solved a sufficient number of puzzles. (In approximately 8 months of membership, Valezius has solved 1418 puzzles; in approximately 35 months of membership, I've solved a mere 429.)

Puzzle 05: motrismathgrant's comments: The first entry received (motris would also be the first to vote). Had some difficult and clever parts, showing much of motris's trademark style. Counting is helpful in the end, but not dreadfully necessary. A mite too symmetrical with the 5's and 6's, and no implied polyominoes of which to speak, but nonetheless elegant enough that I'd expect this puzzle to appear if motris wrote a Polyominous book.

Puzzle 06: mathgrantmathgrant's comments: It would not be fit for me to print my comments on this puzzle here.

Puzzle 07: Shvegaitmathgrant's comments: The author gets mad, mad technical props for working an implied 10-omino(!) into a design while fulfilling all of the contest restrictions, and kudos for the four-way rotational symmetry, but as usual for Fillomino puzzles constructed by PuzzlePicnic users, the difficulty was too far on the tedious end for my tastes.

Puzzle 08: detunedmathgrant's comments: Yikes, what a saga. He posted his first construction on his blog in an effort to inspire other constructors to enter, but that puzzle had multiple solutions. The puzzle he actually sent me also had this error, as did his tweaked version, forcing him to begin anew. I found myself asking, "Will he manage to finish a construction eventually?" And he did! Puzzle's a little harder than I'm used to, but not overly so; compared to PuzzlePicnic, I found it smooth, elegant, and fun.

Puzzle 09: Stumbler's Ridermathgrant's comments: TOO. MUCH. COUNTING. TOO. MUCH. TRIAL AND ERROR. TOO. MUCH. TEDIUM. TOO. MUCH. PUZZLEPICNIC. You know a puzzle has left a bad impression when I type in all caps.

Puzzle 10: Anderson Wangmathgrant's comments: The upper-right 7 and the 8's were moderately tricky, but for the most part, a smooth solve that left me with a smile.

Puzzle 11: Paul Redmanmathgrant's comments: The puzzle came off as mostly droll to me, with the implied 6-omino being the greatest saving grace. Aside from that, the lack of use of the "no same-sized polyominoes can touch" rule was disappointing.

Puzzle 12: groza528mathgrant's comments: The lack of implied polyominoes disappointed me, but the author gets mad technical credit for making opposite givens sum to 10.

Puzzle 13: chaotik_iakmathgrant's comments: Approximately the first 40% was easy, but then the difficulty increased somewhat jarringly. Upper-left corner took some thought to get done correctly, and the upper-right even more so, especially the 2-, 6-, and 8-omino.

Puzzle 14: anurag.sahaymathgrant's comments: Yuck, counting. Without it, it's near impossible to make real progress on this puzzle. With it, it's still difficult. Can you guess what puzzle website anurag.sahay frequents?

Puzzle 15: /dev/joemathgrant's comments: Obviously designed as a response to my clarification that symmetrically opposite givens need not be the same. Difficulty level forces me to classify it as an Evil Zinger. Probably the cutest possible puzzle that could be designed with the restrictions, and far less tedious but ultimately it feels like I'm solving only half a puzzle twice as opposed to one whole puzzle. I nonetheless enjoyed this puzzle more than some of the PuzzlePicnic creations. >.>

Puzzle 16: Rezykmathgrant's comments: I was dreading this puzzle; aside from R2C1-2 and R9C9-10, the givens are completely symmetrical. To my delightful surprise, though, the puzzle didn't solve symmetrically at all. Counting, as much as I try to avoid it when more than maybe 20 or so cells are involved, makes the puzzle doable more doable than some of the others that required mass counting. Fairly elegant.

Puzzle 17: Robert Vollmertmathgrant's comments: Proving that great minds do indeed think alike, Robert Vollmert submitted this puzzle with the givens arranged in the same pattern as in motris's puzzle! The break-in (R6-7C3-5) was a little bit tricky to see, but otherwise fairly plain (in a good way, mostly).

Puzzle 18: ours-brunmathgrant's comments: The sudden shift in difficulty between the first half and the second half of the solve was a little jarring; somehow, though, I can't bring myself to loathe it. I do admit that I'm a bit impressed by the use of the empty space in the middle; maybe that's why.

Puzzle 19: Paul Kruegermathgrant's comments: The left half was mostly simple, but the right half required counting. To be fair, though, it wasn't as nightmarish as some of the PuzzlePicnic crap, nor was it as nightmarish as a certain other being surnamed Krueger.

Puzzle 20: Tristan Millermathgrant's comments: Very pretty, but the ending required too much trial and error for my tastes.

Before I reveal the winner, how about a selection of comments from the voters?

MellowMelon: I'm guessing there a lot of PuzzlePicnic people submitting for this one? Most of the solves felt rather unclean in a way that reminded me of that site. Also, I swear I will never again make a puzzle where an early step is to count up all the clues, unless the presentation makes it pretty motivated and easy to add up (e.g. the Zoo's NC Fillomino Adult, or my recent 36 puzzle). I am sick of it after doing all of these.

Guess that was awfully negative; seems all the gushing in the comments raised my expectations. Most all were much better than average for sure. Personally I hope people notice the symmetry in 16 and that it wins, although I wouldn't be bothered if I miraculously overtake it. It appears some people spent more time making these than my ~15 minutes...

Really? Very articulate, MellowMelon. I like how articulate you are. I like knowing I'm not alone in my weird opinions, especially when the other person who shares my opinion is articulate. I'm honored to have you as a colleague in the puzzle community.

If I had to guess 10 is yours. Whoops, never mind. Thanks for being confident enough in your ability to win that you sent me your mailing address with the puzzle; it'll make ~~hiring a hitman~~ sending you a completely harmless cake of friendship easier.

Paul Krueger: Just in case it provides you a gigantic ego boost, I'll mention that my clear favorite was 06 - after that, I had a 6-way tie for second (which I broke based on aesthetics). Knowing that my puzzles was somebody's favorite makes me want to cry. . . and then, when I'm done crying, sell my mucus-stained tissues in an online auction where people will pay a thousand dollars for it because I'm so famous and likable that anyone would do anything to have something that I've touched. Thank you, Paul Krueger! :)

sc979: a little something interesting about my solving experience. I mainly did them in random order and it just so happened that the last puzzle I finished was the only other puzzle that had a double-digit polyomino. Until that point, I was thinking to myself “Am I really the only one to do this? If my puzzle is unique in that aspect, I’ll surely attract lots of votes!” Well, you both got more votes than I did, if that means anything! :)

David Scherzinger: I loved all but 2 of them, but my starting lineup of choice ended up being:

Charmeleon
Wartortle
Pidgeotto
Raticate

This comment makes me wish I'd gotten at least 38 entries; it would have been beautiful to get a vote for "Ninetales". . . .

And the results?

Anderson Wang    : -- 02 03 -- 05 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 16 -- -- -- 20
anurag.sahay     : -- -- 03 04 -- -- -- -- 09 -- -- 12 -- 14 -- -- -- -- -- --
Bram de Laat     : -- 02 -- -- -- -- 07 -- -- -- -- 12 -- -- -- -- 17 -- -- 20
David Scherzinger: -- -- -- -- 05 -- -- 08 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 17 -- -- 20
detuned          : 01 -- 03 -- -- 06 -- 08 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 17 -- -- --
/dev/joe         : -- 02 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 12 -- -- 15 16 -- -- -- 20
groza528         : -- -- -- 04 05 -- -- 08 -- -- -- 12 -- -- -- 16 -- -- -- --
Jack Bross       : -- -- 03 -- -- -- 07 08 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 17 -- -- --
Matt Lahut       : -- 02 -- -- -- -- -- -- 09 -- -- -- -- 14 -- -- -- -- -- 20
Matthew Zinno    : -- -- 03 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
MellowMelon      : 01 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 10 -- -- -- -- -- 16 17 -- -- 20
motris           : 01 02 -- -- 05 -- 07 -- 09 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
ours-brun        : -- -- -- -- -- -- 07 -- 09 -- -- 12 -- 14 -- -- 17 -- -- --
Paul Krueger     : 01 -- -- -- 05 06 -- -- -- -- -- -- 13 -- -- -- -- 18 -- --
Paul Redman      : -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 10 11 -- 13 -- -- -- 17 18 -- --
Rezyk            : -- 02 -- -- -- -- 07 -- 09 -- -- -- -- -- -- 16 -- -- -- 20
Robert Vollmert  : 01 02 03 04 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 17 -- -- --
Sam Ettinger     : 01 -- -- -- 05 -- -- 08 -- -- 11 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
sc979            : -- 02 03 04 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 16 -- -- -- 20
Shvegait         : 01 02 03 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 17 -- -- 20
Stumbler's Rider : -- -- 03 -- -- -- -- -- 09 10 -- -- -- -- -- 16 17 -- -- --
Troy Schnabel    : -- -- 03 -- -- -- -- -- -- 10 -- 12 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Tristan Miller   : -- -- -- -- 05 -- -- -- 09 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 17 18 -- 20
Valezius         : -- 02 -- 04 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 17 18 -- 20
TOTAL            :  7 10 10  5  7  2  5  5  7  4  2  6  2  3  1  7 12  4  0 11

The clear winner is Robert Vollmert! Congratulations and stuff!

Monday Mutant 97: Streampunk (no dead ends)

2011-09-26T09:41:00.000-05:00

Shade in some cells black such that the black cells are all connected to each other through their edges, and no 2x2 cell area within the grid contains all black cells. Numbers in a cell indicate the sizes of the orthogonally contiguous groups formed by black cells sharing a corner or an edge with that cell. For example, "3" means that the cell shares a corner or an edge with three black cells, and they form a single group, whereas "1 2" means the cell shares a corner with three black cells which form a group of two cells and a single separate cell. Cells with numbers cannot be black. Additionally, every black cell must share an edge with at least two other black cells.

(click to enlarge)

Puzzle 513: Straight and Arrow 36

2011-09-25T13:55:00.000-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Straight and Arrow

Puzzle 512: Blackbarrier Jam 16

2011-09-25T13:52:00.000-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Blackbarrier Jam

Puzzle 511: Tatami For Now 5

2011-09-21T00:01:00.000-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Tatami For Now

Puzzle 510: Pearls of Wisdom 48

2011-09-20T16:00:00.003-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Pearls of Wisdom

(click to enlarge)

Puzzle 509: Process of Illumination 37

2011-09-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Process of Illumination

Monday Mutant 96: Cross the Streams (all 3's)

2011-09-19T08:00:00.001-05:00

Shade in some cells black such that the black cells are all connected to each other through their edges, and no 2x2 cell area within the grid contains all black cells. Numbers to the left of a row or above a column represent the groups of consecutive black cells which are in that row or column. For example, a clue of "3" means the row or column has three consecutive black cells, and a clue of "3 1" means that the row or column has a group of three consecutive black cells followed by a single black cell, separated by at least one white cell. A question mark (?) represents a group of consecutive black cells whose size is not 3; an asterisk (*) represents any number of unknown groups of black cells, including none at all, none of which are of size 3.

Puzzle 508: Spirits of Serpentine 6

2011-09-18T17:27:00.000-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Spirits of Serpentine

(click to enlarge)

Puzzle 507: Polyominous 49

2011-09-17T16:40:00.001-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Polyominous
(click to enlarge)

Monday Mutant 95: Polyominous (no rectangles)

2011-09-12T10:47:00.001-05:00

In this Polyominous puzzle, no region may be shaped like a rectangle. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

The latest issue (74) of Akil Oyunlari contains four Akari puzzles and two Cross the Streams puzzles constructed by me! These puzzles were constructed for the magazine, and won't appear on this blog, so buy the magazine to see 'em!

Puzzle 506: Streaming Content 36

2011-09-08T19:42:00.001-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Streaming Content

Monday Mutant 94: Cross the Streams (partially inverted)

2011-09-05T07:14:00.005-05:00

Shade in some cells black such that the black cells are all connected to each other through their edges, and no 2x2 cell area within the grid contains all black cells. Numbers to the left of a row represent the groups of consecutive black cells which are in that row. For example, a clue of "3" means the row has three consecutive black cells, and a clue of "3 1" means that the row has a group of three consecutive black cells followed by a single black cell, separated by at least one white cell. In the same fashion, numbers above a column represent the groups of consecutive white cells which are in that column. A question mark (?) represents a group of consecutive black or white cells whose size is unknown; an asterisk (*) represents any number of unknown groups of black or white cells, including none at all.

I have 15 votes so far in Logicsmith Exhibition 5. The deadline is later this month, so be sure to vote if you haven't already!
In even more exciting news, I recently got 100% completion in the Super Mario Advance 2 remake of Super Mario World! This means not only getting all 96 exits and saving the Princess, but getting all of the Dragon Coins, as well!

Monday Mutant 93: Battleships (water groups)

2011-08-29T07:11:00.002-05:00

Ten ships (as indicated below the grid: one four-cell ship, two three-cell ships, three two-cell ships, and four one-cell ships) are hidden in the grid. The ships may be rotated from the orientations shown, but may not overlap or occupy cells which share a corner or an edge. A number to the right of a row or below a column indicates the length of the longest group of consecutive water cells in that row or column. Additionally, some segments of the ships are shown within the grid, and cells with wavy lines are "water" cells which cannot contain ships. Find the ships.

Monday Mutant 92: Pearls of Wisdom (total / Hanjie)

2011-08-22T14:42:00.002-05:00

In this Pearls of Wisdom puzzle, there are no clues inside the grid. Instead, you are to both draw a loop and place black pearls and white pearls in every cell that could legally contain one. Numbers to the left of a row or above a column represent the groups of consecutive cells containing pearls which are in that row or column. For example, a clue of "3" means the row or column has three consecutive pearls, and a clue of "3 1" means that the row or column has a group of three consecutive pearls followed by a single pearl, separated by at least one cell without a pearl. A question mark (?) represents a group of consecutive pearls whose size is unknown; an asterisk (*) represents any number of unknown groups of pearls, including none at all.

I have thus far received 13 votes in Logicsmith Exhibition 5. Keep those votes coming!

I have also submitted my no-longer-prototypical abstract strategy game Battle of LITS to a contest being held by Spain-based game publisher nestorgames on BoardGameGeek. If you have a BoardGameGeek account and would like to see my two-player adaptation of a Japanese logic puzzle published with quality components, please consider thumbing my post to make this prospect possible! :)

Monday Mutant 91: Streaming Content (torus)

2011-08-15T08:00:00.016-05:00

In this Streaming Content puzzle, the grid is a torus; the left and right edges "wrap around" as shown, as do the top and bottom edges. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

Remember to cast your votes in Logicsmith Exhibition 5!

Also, board game fans and logic puzzle fans alike may be interested in checking out my prototypical abstract strategy game Battle of LITS! The game is in need of playtesting, so if you could play it and tell me what you think, you'd be doing me an excellent service. :)

Monday Mutant 90: Spirits of Serpentine (torus)

2011-08-07T22:01:00.002-05:00

In this Spirits of Serpentine puzzle, the grid is a torus; the left and right edges "wrap around" as shown, as do the top and bottom edges. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

Oops. . . I forgot to schedule this post for Monday, so you get it early! :)

Be sure to vote!

Logicsmith Exhibition 5: Polyominous (VOTING TIME!)

2011-08-04T01:49:00.000-05:00

Four weeks ago, I challenged my readers to construct a 10x10 Polyominous puzzle under very specific restrictions, offering a prize to the constructor whose puzzle is voted the best by my readers afterwards. A whopping 19 other readers managed to do so, giving you 20 candidates to choose from!

Warning: there are 20 images contained in this blog post!

The 20 puzzles are presented in random order below. To encourage readers to vote honestly for the puzzles they like the most, and not merely for the author they like the most, I have withheld all of the authors' names. Please take a look at them, solve them, and email me (glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com) up to four puzzles for which you'd like to cast your vote. In order to encourage the constructors to participate in the voting, constructors are allowed to cast up to five votes, and may vote for their own puzzle if (and only if) they choose to use all five votes.

Because of this unprecedented level of response, I imagine that it would take a diligent reader much longer to solve and evaluate them all. . . so I have extended the voting period from the planned four weeks to eight weeks! You will have until September 29, 2011 to send in your votes; the day after that, the winner will be announced. If there is a tie, I shall cast the deciding vote. Note that one of the puzzles above is mine; if my puzzle ends up being the most popular, then I will receive a gigantic ego boost, but I am ineligible to win any other prize from this contest.

Puzzle 505: Process of Illumination 36

2011-08-02T22:13:00.001-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Process of Illumination

(click to enlarge)

Monday Mutant 89: Pearls of Wisdom (torus)

2011-08-01T08:01:00.001-05:00

In this Pearls of Wisdom puzzle, the grid is a torus; the left and right edges "wrap around" as shown, as do the top and bottom edges. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

Puzzle Communication Nikoli 133 has four pages of toroidal puzzles, including a toroidal Kakuro, a toroidal Slitherlink, a toroidal Yajilin, and two toroidal Akari. I thought it was pretty impressive how they were able to present the grid in such a way that the gimmick was apparent even to me who can't read Japanese; the presentation of this puzzle is inspired by theirs.

Commission me!

2011-07-29T13:07:00.001-05:00

(last updated 7-29-2011)

All of the puzzles on this blog (at least, the ones I made, which make up 98% of them) are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License, so you may use these puzzles for any noncommercial purpose so long as you attribute me. However, what if you want to use my puzzles in a commercial publication, such as a puzzle magazine? I can do that, too! There are two options:

a) You can pay for a non-exclusive license to use the puzzles on this blog. The advantage is that this is faster; the disadvantage is that readers of my blog who've seen the same puzzles for free will have slightly less incentive to buy your publication, and to be honest, it's less fun for me. :)
b) You can commission me to write original puzzles! These will be puzzles that have never appeared on this blog or in another publication before. You will be licensed to use these puzzles for whatever purposes you want them for. You will not, however, be granted copyright; I reserve the right to publish the puzzles in a book of my own in the future. I will also mention your publication on this blog, which will not only promote your publication to the dozen or so readers on this blog, who will have never seen the puzzle before (because it's original), but also bolster my ego.

I am capable of writing a wide variety of logic puzzles of a wide variety of difficulty levels, so no matter what your publication's needs are, I can deliver!

Prices are negotiable. I reserve the right to refuse a license to any publication. As a rule of thumb, I will happily supply puzzles for a publication called This Magazine is Centered Around Puzzles Monthly, but not one called Adherents of This Belief System to Which Grant Subscribes Are Unholy Morons Quarterly.

This is a personal blog, and it will never have paid advertising. I will not add a link to your site just because you offer to pay me. End of subject. However, if you're interested in publishing my puzzles and giving me monetary compensation, I will gladly consider promoting your publication in return. Think about it; my readers will have more reason to buy your publication if my puzzles are in it than if I just arbitrarily mention it. :)

If you're not a commercial publication, you can still commission an original puzzles from me! These puzzles will be released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License, like the ones on this blog. so you can use them for any personal noncommercial purpose, but you can't use them for any commercial purposes; you'll need to pay me more for that privilege. Prices may vary depending on the complexity of the puzzle type, but generally, I will charge 5 US cents per cell (so a 10x10 puzzle would be 5 US dollars). Remember, this is the personal use rate, not the commercial use rate!

I reserve the right to change these terms without notice.

Puzzle 504: Room and Reason 38

2011-07-27T22:29:00.000-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Room and Reason

(click to enlarge)

Monday Mutant 88: Quad-Wrangle / Battleships

2011-07-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

Ten ships (as indicated below the grid: one four-cell ship, two three-cell ships, three two-cell ships, and four one-cell ships) are hidden in the grid. The ships may be rotated from the orientations shown, but may not overlap or occupy cells which share a corner or an edge. The cells which do not contain ships must be divided into rectangles according to the rules of Quad-Wrangle.

Puzzle 503: Quad-Wrangle 23

2011-07-23T00:15:00.001-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Quad-Wrangle
(click to enlarge)

Puzzle 502: Proof of Quilt 4

2011-07-19T08:00:00.001-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Proof of Quilt
(click to enlarge)

Monday Mutant 87: Polyominous / Quad-Wrangle

2011-07-18T14:08:00.000-05:00

In this Polyominous puzzle, every region must be shaped like a rectangle. (Thus, the puzzle is similar to a Quad-Wrangle puzzle, but without the restriction that every region must contain exactly one number, and with the restriction that regions with the same area may not share an edge.) The rules are otherwise unchanged.

(click to enlarge)

Better late than never.

Monday Mutant 86: Straight and Arrow (incorrect)

2011-07-11T08:00:00.003-05:00

In this Straight and Arrow puzzle, none of the clues are correct. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

Heard of Indirect Yajilin? This is Incorrect Yajilin. Har har.

Puzzle 501: Straight and Arrow 35

2011-07-09T13:46:00.006-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Straight and Arrow

Logicsmith Exhibition 5: Polyominous

2011-07-06T00:40:00.004-05:00

Would you like to try your hand at logicsmithing, and possibly be featured on my blog? Read on!

Your challenge is to compose a uniquely solvable 10x10 Polyominous puzzle. Your puzzle must have precisely 36 givens, arranged in a pattern with 180-degree rotational symmetry, and every integer from 1 through 9 must appear as a given exactly four times. You are only allowed to submit one puzzle, but you may change it at any time before the deadline. Send your puzzle to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com.

This time around, Logicsmith Exhibition is also a contest! Once the deadline has passed, I will publish all of the puzzles I received without revealing the authors, and ask everyone reading this blog to cast their votes for their favorite puzzles (again via email). If your puzzle is the readers' favorite, you could win a prize!

By entering the contest, you agree to the following terms:
a) You agree not to discuss your entry with any other entrants or any voters until the contest is over.
b) You agree not to cheat the voting system.
c) You agree to provide me with a mailing address in the event that you win and wish to receive a prize, and to await said prize patiently, particularly if you live outside the continental United States. (In return, I agree not to use your mailing address for any malicious purposes, such as sending junk mail or other undesired things.) If you don't want to give out your mailing address, I reserve the right to happily give the prize to someone else who will.

After four weeks (meaning the deadline is August 3), I will post the puzzles that my readers and I have constructed, and give the readers another four weeks to cast their votes for the best puzzles. Good luck, and have fun!

Monday Mutant 85: Straight and Arrow (domino)

2011-07-04T13:44:00.002-05:00

In this Straight and Arrow puzzle, instead of no two black cells being allowed to share an edge, every black cell must share an edge with EXACTLY ONE other black cell. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

As as few of my readers have noticed, I've finally gotten around to adding sharing buttons to this blog, including Google's new +1 button. They are located very unobtrusively just below the title of each post, in the "Posted on July 4, 2011" line. If you're a long-time reader and there are older puzzles you found particularly memorable, feel free to search the archives for them and +1 them!

Puzzle 500: Polyominous 48

2011-06-27T08:00:00.083-05:00

In lieu of a Monday Mutant, I present to you. . . puzzle 500! You thought Fillomino-Fillia was my magnum opus? Think again! At 64x50, this is my largest puzzle to date! Needless to say, it took an incredible amount of time to construct this beauty. (Speaking of time, Back to the Future is an awesome trilogy, as I have discovered in recent weeks.) I have truly come a long way since puzzle 1.

Now, wait a minute. Some of you may be wondering why I never posted a 31x45 Polyominous as one of my previous giants. Well, the answer is simple: in Nikoli's publications, a Polyominous the Giant is 23x37, and my arbitrary adherence to Nikoli's standards for puzzles in the numbered "puzzles" series (as opposed to Monday Mutants et al.) means I only post puzzle genres Nikoli's made, in sizes Nikoli's made. 23x37 is hardly an adequate size for a celebration on this blog, don't you think? However, Nikoli has published 64x50 Fillomino puzzles on at least three occasions, including in volumes 123 and 134 of Puzzle Communication Nikoli, and in a now out-of-print Puzzle the Giants volume, making that size completely fair game.

Special thanks to Thomas Snyder, who set aside 1 hour, 31 minutes, and 45 seconds of his time to make sure this puzzle had a unique solution before it was posted here. I am incredibly honored to have the respect of such an amazing constructor and solver. Not everyone has the privilege of being able to send Thomas Snyder a puzzle and getting the time of day from him, much less his opinion on it. (In fact, I believe some of the people who ended up being ripped to shreds on Grant's Review Corner contacted him first. . .)

Edit: Okay, apparently, Blogger and Picasa handle images taller or wider than 1600 pixels in ways I don't like for the purposes of this post. I was able to find a way to link to the full 1797x1405 version of the picture, but you might be asked to download it instead of being able to view it in your browser. A small sacrifice, but it works.

Rules of Polyominous

(click to enlarge)

Puzzle 499: Tetra Firma 31

2011-06-23T21:07:00.000-05:00

This is puzzle 499, which can only mean one thing: the next puzzle is going to be 500! What could I possibly have in store for this milestone? Only MellowMelon and motris know, and I highly doubt that they're going to spoil the surprise for you! You'll just have to wait.

Rules of Tetra Firma

(click to enlarge)

My 24th birthday cake!

2011-06-23T20:59:00.000-05:00

Time for another long overdue picture!

Can't wait to turn 25!

A Cleverly-Titled Birthday Contest: long overdue minor update!

2011-06-23T20:50:00.000-05:00

So what exactly did the winners of A Cleverly-Titled Birthday Contest win?

Magic: the Gathering cards! Oh, and a plug for Fillomino-Fillia, which was upcoming at the time I wrote the attached note, but finished by the time I got around to mailing the prizes. Bah. Oh, and previews of two puzzles that I'd submitted for Akil Oyunlari. (No, you don't get to see those puzzles.)

Robert Vollmert tells me, "Since I was just having breakfast, the 'do not eat' note was very helpful."

Congratulations again to the winners!

Puzzle 498: Pearls of Wisdom 47

2011-06-22T08:00:00.002-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Pearls of Wisdom

Monday Mutant 84: Cross the Streams / Tetra Firma

2011-06-20T08:00:00.009-05:00

Shade in tetrominoes such that the black cells are all connected to each other through their edges, and no 2x2 cell area within the grid contains all black cells. No two congruent tetrominoes may share an edge, even if they are rotated or reflected versions of each other. Numbers to the left of a row or above a column represent the groups of consecutive black cells which are in that row or column. For example, a clue of "3" means the row or column has three consecutive black cells, and a clue of "3 1" means that the row or column has a group of three consecutive black cells followed by a single black cell, separated by at least one white cell. A question mark (?) represents a group of consecutive black cells whose size is unknown; an asterisk (*) represents any number of unknown groups of black cells, including none at all.

(click to enlarge)

Puzzle 497: Quad-Wrangle 22

2011-06-15T00:01:00.000-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Quad-Wrangle

(click to enlarge)

Puzzle 496: Quad-Wrangle 21

2011-06-14T12:00:00.001-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Quad-Wrangle

Puzzle 495: Circumnavi-Gates 18

2011-06-13T23:45:00.000-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Circumnavi-Gates

Monday Mutant 83: Polyominous (cipher)

2011-06-13T17:20:00.045-05:00

In this Polyominous puzzle, the given numbers have been replaced by letters; all instances of a particular letter represent the same number, but two different letters must represent different numbers. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

MellowMelon recently held a contest to see who could correctly attribute the authorship of the most puzzles out of the 18 puzzles in Fillomino-Fillia, and Projectyl (Mike Sylvia), to whom I previously dedicated a Totally Awesum, won with 16 points. Given that he thought MellowMelon wrote the hard Cipher Fillomino (I actually wrote both of the Ciphers on the test), I am very eager to see how he reacts to finding out that I created this puzzle, as well. (By the way, Projectyl, I authored both this puzzle and the hard Cipher Fillomino from the test. When MellowMelon sent you a preview of the puzzle, he said nothing about actually being its author. Haha! I'm such a delightful prankster! I wonder what ridiculous antics I'll be up to next. Will I temporarily use an ugly color scheme on my blog and claim that I'm no longer posting puzzles?)

Monday Mutant 82: Polyominous (non-consecutive)

2011-06-13T16:00:00.001-05:00

In this Polyominous puzzle, no two horizontally or vertically adjacent cells may contain two consecutive numbers. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

Nonconsecutive Fillomino was a variation we had to cut from the test because we felt that all of the other variations we had covered a wider variety of skill sets.

And that concludes this series of my reject puzzles from Fillomino-Fillia! Be sure to check out MellowMelon's reject series, too!

Monday Mutant 81: Polyominous / Quad-Wrangle

2011-06-13T08:00:00.014-05:00

I constructed three Shikaku Fillomino puzzles for Fillomino-Fillia, of which this puzzle was considered by me to be the median in difficulty level. I didn't think it was possible to make a Shikaku Fillomino much harder than this one; MellowMelon proved me to be dreadfully wrong, and my hardest puzzle was relegated to being a preview as a result.

Puzzle 494: Polyominous 47

2011-06-13T00:01:00.025-05:00

Now that Fillomino-Fillia is over, it's time for a long overdue look at the puzzles I made that didn't get used in the test!

I constructed four classic puzzles for the test, and MellowMelon had constructed five; when choosing which four to actually use on the test, we decided that we'd covered enough of a range of difficulty levels that it came down to which ones were the most artistic. My puzzle themed around the mathematical constant e (by the way, kudos if you saw this theme before I mentioned it on my blog just now!) was thus deemed more suited for the test than the puzzle I used as a preview and the puzzle below.

Rules of Polyominous

Monday Mutant 80: Streampunk / Tetra Firma

2011-06-06T08:00:00.005-05:00

Shade in tetrominoes such that the black cells are all connected to each other through their edges, and no 2x2 cell area within the grid contains all black cells. No two congruent tetrominoes may share an edge, even if they are rotated or reflected versions of each other. Numbers in a cell indicate the sizes of the orthogonally contiguous groups formed by black cells sharing a corner or an edge with that cell. For example, "3" means that the cell shares a corner or an edge with three black cells, and they form a single group, whereas "1 3" means the cell shares a corner with four black cells which form a group of three cells and a single separate cell. Cells with numbers cannot be black.

(click to enlarge)

Fillomino-Fillia is over, and MellowMelon is hosting a contest where you can try guess the authorship of each of the 18 puzzles. Check it out!

Fillomino-Fillia has begun!

2011-06-03T19:22:00.003-05:00

I've mentioned it before, and Palmer Mebane and I have previewed it – now Fillomino-Fillia has actually begun! You have approximately 47 hours and 37 minutes from the time of this post (I didn't plan ahead like Palmer and have this post prepared beforehand :[ ) to visit Logic Masters India, download the password-protected puzzle booklet, log in, and start the test. Then you will have 120 minutes to solve as many of the puzzles as possible. See how you compare against puzzle solvers all over the world! Also, good luck and stuff!

Fillomino-Fillia Preview Series: Shikaku Fillomino

2011-06-02T11:00:00.000-05:00

This is a Shikaku Fillomino (AKA Polyominous). In addition to the usual rules, every polyomino must be shaped like a rectangle.

Answer entry: Enter the units digits of each square in the marked rows and columns, from left to right for rows and from top to bottom for columns.

Highlight to see the answer: 1545342144 2212444444

Fillomino-Fillia Preview Series: Cipher Fillomino

2011-06-01T11:00:00.001-05:00

This is a cipher Fillomino (AKA Polyominous). The given numbers have been replaced by letters; all instances of a particular letter represent the same number, but two different letters must represent different numbers.

Answer entry: Enter the units digits of each square in the marked rows and columns, from left to right for rows and from top to bottom for columns. In Cipher Fillomino, answers providing either the letters or substituted units digits will be accepted.

Highlight to see the answer: 4444666266 5512525555 or AAAALLLRLL GGURGRGGGG

Don't forget to check out MellowMelon's blog for the other half of the preview series! I'd be remiss not to remind you of this, since he's been reminding his readers of this blog's existence constantly during this time. :)

Fillomino-Fillia Preview Series: Odd-Even Fillomino

2011-05-31T11:00:00.000-05:00

This is an odd-even Fillomino (AKA Polyominous). In addition to the usual rules, the odd numbers must form a single polyomino, and the even numbers must similarly form a single polyomino.

Answer entry: Enter the units digits of each square in the marked rows and columns, from left to right for rows and from top to bottom for columns.

Highlight to see the answer: 9142436235 1999913315

Long-time readers may recall the first odd-even Polyominous on this blog, where the odd-even parity of each cell was given from the outset. This incarnation allows the odd numbers and the even numbers to interact more (by which I mean at all).

Fillomino-Fillia Preview Series: Classic Fillomino

2011-05-30T11:00:00.000-05:00

This is a classic Fillomino (AKA Polyominous), operating by the classic rules.

Answer entry: Enter the units digits of each square in the marked rows and columns, from left to right for rows and from top to bottom for columns.

Highlight to see the answer: 8887771445 7772272554

You may notice that this image looks different from my usual images. That's because it was created by MellowMelon using a program (although the puzzle represented by the image was, of course, lovingly crafted by yours truly). This is how all of the images will look on the test, meaning you won't be able to tell which puzzles I made and which ones MellowMelon made, drastically increasing the difficulty of the test! (Or. . . not. :) )

Fillomino-Fillia!

2011-05-29T23:01:00.003-05:00

In October of 2010, I had my first taste of solving puzzles in a competitive environment, thanks to the 20/10 Puzzle Decathlon, a well-written test by grandmaster Thomas Snyder which was hosted on Logic Masters India. As exciting as the whole experience was, I am even more excited to announce that this coming weekend, as I have hinted at previously, fellow logicsmith Palmer Mebane and I will present Fillomino-Fillia, a test on Logic Masters India consisting entirely of Fillomino puzzles (including a bevy of variations). I hope you will choose to participate in this test.

To participate, you will need to register an account on Logic Masters India. Download the instruction booklet and (when it is made available, which I'm told is usually a day before the test starts) the password-protected puzzle booklet. You may choose to start the test at any time during the weekend of June 4 and June 5 (note that this is GMT, so participants in the US, for example, will have between late June 3 and late June 5 to begin the test). When you do, the password to unlock the puzzle booklet will be given to you, and you will have 120 minutes to print out and solve as many of the 18 puzzles as you can. Each puzzle is worth a varying number of points, roughly corresponding to its difficulty; the harder the puzzle has been judged to be (based on the opinion of the authors and the test-solvers), the more points it's worth. When the 120 minutes have expired, you can see how well you performed, and how you compared to other contenders.

Some words of advice based on my experience:
* Read the freaking instruction booklet. When you're an idiot like me, you have no idea how much having your mind as prepared as possible to the puzzle booklet's contents will help you perform better on the test, until you've made the mistake of starting the test without such preparation.
* Check your answers as you enter them! Improper checking of my answers definitely cost me some points. In particular, I wish that I had notated the grids more than I thought I needed to for the purposes of solving quickly, to make it easier to check my answers.
* Practice! Over the next few days, and in lieu of my usual Monday Mutants post, MellowMelon and I will be posting practice puzzles of the varieties you'll see on the test. (It'll be like having several Monday Mutants instead of just one!) Use them to your advantage to sharpen your mind and to prepare yourself for the test that is to come.

Also check out the LMI forums for more discussion regarding Fillomino-Fillia!

Contest Results: A Cleverly-Titled Birthday Contest

2011-05-26T00:34:00.001-05:00

The clock striking midnight on my 24th birthday signals the end of A Cleverly-Titled Birthday Contest. In this contest, solvers were tasked to make geometric order out of a Polyominous grid; when the puzzle is completed, the units digits of the numbers in seven cells can be placed in the blank spots in a URL leading to the AllMusic webpage on a certain song; solvers had to supply the title of the song, or the URL of the webpage. Naturally, now that the contest has ended, my readers, particularly the ones who found time to submit entries, are probably interested in seeing the results.

Warning: the following results contain spoilers (obviously)! If you wish to solve the contest puzzle yourself, please do so before reading on!

I received 56 entries, 53 of which contained the correct answer, either the URL http://www.allmusic.com/song/t1819634 or the song title Subdivisions (by the band Rush). I accepted answers like "1819634", "Subdivisons", and "Subdivided", as well, because I'm nice; however, the answers "All American Boy" [1819234], "At the Dawn of Humanity" [1810634], and "Echo" [1819654] did not conform, and were cast out.

This was quite easily my most spontaneous contest yet on my blog, as there was probably at most a 7-hour gap between conceiving the contest idea and posting it. The inspiration came when I heard the song on the radio during a car ride to church on Wednesday, April 27. I thought, "Huh, interesting. That voice sounds like the guy from Rush. And there are weird time signatures in it, too." I managed to make out enough lyrics to perform a Google search on my iPhone, and discovered what song it was. "Oh, wow, this song is good. I somehow need to create a contest about it." However, I instantly recognized that making a puzzle where the song's title was revealed as one solved it would make it too tempting and too easy to fill in the blanks before finishing the puzzle. When I realized that I could use an AllMusic URL instead, I set off to figure out how to make a puzzle leading to that URL. The rest is history. :)

The randomly selected winners are ralphmerridew, Robert Vollmert, LordKinbote, and Jangler! Congratulations to you all!

On a completely unrelated note, look who else wished me a happy birthday!

Monday Mutant 79: Streampunk (all 3's)

2011-05-23T08:00:00.001-05:00

Shade in some cells black such that the black cells are all connected to each other through their edges, and no 2x2 cell area within the grid contains all black cells. Numbers in a cell indicate the sizes of the orthogonally contiguous groups formed by black cells sharing a corner or an edge with that cell. For example, "3" means that the cell shares a corner or an edge with three black cells, and they form a single group, whereas "1 3" means the cell shares a corner with four black cells which form a group of three cells and a single separate cell. Cells with numbers cannot be black. A 3 or a clue with a 3 in it has been placed in every white cell that could legally contain one.

Monday Mutant 78: Streampunk

2011-05-16T08:00:00.015-05:00

Before you complain about me featuring a "classic" puzzle type (a modern classic, mind you, but a classic nonetheless), I quote a post of yore: Monday Mutants is a series in which I will attempt to experiment with "mutant" puzzles. These could be existing puzzle types with an unusual change in the rules, hybrids combining elements from multiple puzzle types, or puzzle types neither invented nor popularized by Nikoli. Also remember that in the weeks after that post, I played around with several variants on said "classic" puzzle.
Two of my Cross the Streams puzzles have been published in Akil Oyunlari! I encourage you to get a copy of the magazine so you can see them. Don't let the Turkish language daunt you; the magazine's LiveJournal is devoted to making the puzzles as navigable as possible for English speakers. :)

Monday Mutant 77: Proof of Quilt / Battleships

2011-05-09T15:25:00.000-05:00

Ten ships (as indicated below the grid: one four-cell ship, two three-cell ships, three two-cell ships, and four one-cell ships) are hidden in the grid. The ships may be rotated from the orientations shown (without changing the numbers), but may not overlap or occupy cells which share a corner or an edge. A number to the right of a row or below a column indicates how many cells in that row or column are occupied by ships. These ships also function as black cells in a Proof of Quilt puzzle, and the numbers on some of the ship segments function as they normally would in such a puzzle. None of the black cells already present in the grid are part of the ships. Locate the ships and solve the Proof of Quilt puzzle.

(click to enlarge)

This could be my strangest Monday Mutant in a long time.

Grant's Review Corner: Volume 6

2011-05-05T19:32:00.001-05:00

At approximately 3:00 AM local time on May 2, 2011, I received this e-mail:

Hi,

[Our company] has just launched [another crappy app] - which is an unique Sudoku app for the iPhone. The way it differentiates from all other Sudoku games is the fact that it is three dimensional and brings in an unique combination of fun of spinning dials and sliding pieces with number puzzle.

We noticed that you have been writing about other Sudoku puzzles and thought this app would be of interest to you. We would request you to write a review for this app for your readers. You can download the app for Free at [link to the "Pro" version of the app that costs money, as opposed to the free demo version].

For your convenience we have also attached with this email the official press release and the screen shots of the app along with this email.

In case you need any other information to publish a review for [another crappy app], we will be glad to help you with the same.

I may need to rename "Grant's Review Corner" "Grant's Annoyed Rant Corner".

Research indicates that [another crappy app] is an adaptation of a physical puzzle that markets itself as follows:

[Crappy thing] puzzle starts where a traditional Sudoku puzzle leaves off...

...at the solution. We took a completed Sudoku solution, and wrapped it around a three-dimensional cylinder. Then we divided the cylinder into nine independent layers. The challenge of the puzzle is to take those 9 layers of the cylinder, and orient them correctly, horizontally and vertically, so that you have re-created a Sudoku solution. That means that each row, column, and block contain each of the numbers 1 through 9, only once.

The logic of the [crappy thing] puzzle is very similar to what you would use to solve a traditional Sudoku. Based on the numbers that you know, what are the remaining possibilities. In our case, however, there are no numbers to fill in, you just have to order the pieces correctly, so that it produces a Sudoku solution.

The puzzle has over 300 possible solutions, the challenge is finding one of them!

Over 300 solutions, huh? Well, on A Cleverly-Titled Logic Puzzle Blog, I only deal with puzzles with exactly one solution, so already I can tell that your app, which is essentially 10,000 different [crappy thing] puzzles for the price of one iPhone app and which advertises "1200 different solutions for each puzzle", is beyond the scope of this blog. But let's give your puzzle a try, shall we? I've been pleasantly surprised before by puzzles that seem like they'll be nothing but tedious trial and error (like IcoSoku, a toy which I got for Christmas from my parents and found easier and more enjoyable to solve than I expected).

The following puzzle is not taken from the game, but was generated using a method which I suspect to be similar to that which generated the 10,000 puzzles in the app:

125798436
129358476
132798645
135962847
139564827
167392548
165397824
173924658
195428367

The most promising strategy I see for tackling this puzzle is to focus on the Latin square aspects of the puzzle first (orienting the rings so each number appears once per row and column), and then focus on the 3x3 boxes. I will consider one ring at a time, looking at every possible orientation of that ring and seeing if any of them can be added to the puzzle thus far.

The first ring is fixed:

125798436

The second ring can be added in four ways:

125798436 125798436 125798436 125798436

612935847 476129358 293584761 358476129

The third ring increases the possibilities to six:

125798436 125798436 125798436 125798436 125798436 125798436 

612935847 476129358 293584761 358476129 612935847 476129358 

279864513 798645132 986451327 279864513 864513279 864513279

And so on and so on.

125798436 125798436 125798436 

358476129 612935847 612935847

279864513 864513279 864513279

847135962 471359628 596284713

125798436

612935847

864513279

471359628

956482713

125798436

612935847

864513279

471359628

956482713

548167392

125798436

612935847

864513279

471359628

956482713

548167392

397824165

125798436

612935847

864513279

471359628

956482713

548167392

397824165

739246581

125798436

612935847

864513279

471359628

956482713

548167392

397824165

739246581

283671954

Okay, I'm honestly a little surprised there. The first couple rings caused the possibilities to branch out, but rings four and five killed possibilities, and from that point on, only one possibility ever existed. It could have been much more tedious.

Next step is to arrange the rings into a Sudoku puzzle where the 3x3 boxes all contain each of the numbers exactly once. Keep in mind that not only can the order of the 9 rings be changed, but the vertical dividers between the 3x3 boxes can be positioned in 3 ways (equivalently, the whole puzzle can be rotated 1/9 of a rotation left or right in respect to the vertical dividers). Assuming the vertical dividers split the first ring 125/798/436, are there two rings that, in combination with this ring, create a valid Sudoku box with the 125? It is simple to check every ring in combination with the first ring to see if the numbers don't duplicate, and if another ring will complete the box. It turns out that 864/513/279 and either 397/824/165 or 739/246/581 will do so; of these, only 739/246/581 completes all three boxes. Similar checking shows that 257/984/361 and 579/843/612 do not yield any possibilities. The remaining 6 rings can then be divided up in one way. Excluding trivial transformations such as changing the order of the three groups of rings, changing the order of rings in a group, or rotating the puzzle by 1/3 of a turn, the only solution is as follows:

125|798|436

739|246|581

864|513|279

---+---+---

283|671|954

471|359|628

956|482|713

---+---+---

397|824|165

548|167|392

612|935|847

Note that if you account for trivial transformations, then every solution has 3!*3!*3!*3!*3=3888 variations. Where did "over 300 possible solutions" and "1200 different solutions for each puzzle" come from? My best guess is that 1200 came from the 1296 solutions a puzzle has if you exclude rotations. But "over 300"? Well, technically, 3888 is over 300, but still.

Now I divulge how I created this puzzle: I took a completed Sudoku solution, wrapped it around a cylinder, and divided it into nine layers. What a surprise.

I quote the above advertising: "The logic of the [crappy thing] puzzle is very similar to what you would use to solve a traditional Sudoku. Based on the numbers that you know, what are the remaining possibilities." The above solving process was nothing like what I'd use to solve a traditional Sudoku, because in a traditional Sudoku, I don't usually need to branch and bound, and can usually fill in numbers because the numbers I already know force something to be true.

Now, to be fair, [another crappy app] does look pretty:

[another crappy app] has a far more polished presentation than [name redacted].

Maybe the puzzle is actually more fun to play by manipulating pieces than by using text like I did above. I know I'd go insane if I tried to find every possible solution to IcoSoku in a text editor, as opposed to just looking for one by playing around with physical pieces. Perhaps I am just using really good tactics, or perhaps there are in fact tons of solutions to one puzzle, making the search for a single one that much easier, but I actually like IcoSoku, somehow. I decided to give [another crappy app] a try; maybe the tactile sensation of using the touch screen would enhance the experience beyond what I experienced above, I thought. Maybe the 10,000 puzzles in the app will enhance the replay value, just as IcoSoku's millions of puzzles and tactile feel enhance its replay value.

Eight puzzles later (it turns out that the free version of the app has all 10,000 puzzles, and only differs from the paid version, from what I can tell, by having advertisements), I came to the conclusion that [another crappy app] is too much like boring rote work and not enough like a puzzle or a game for my pedestrian tastes.
I used the following strategy each and every time:

1) Align all of the 1's in a single column.
2) Without rearranging the rings, iterate the following steps, starting with the second ring:
      a) Rotate the ring one step to the left.
      b) If the 1 on the current ring aligns with the top ring, apply step 2a on the previous ring.
      c) If the current ring conflicts with the above rings, apply step 2a to the current ring.
      d) If the current ring does not conflict with the above rings, apply step 2a to the next ring. If this is the last ring, record the order of the numbers in the column with 1 on top and go to step 3.
3) Without actually rotating any rings or moving the top ring, check if the top ring can make valid Sudoku boxes with two other rings. If so, check if valid Sudoku boxes can be made using the other six rings. If so, you have solved the puzzle. Otherwise, pretend the vertical boundaries are 1/9 of a turn to the left, and reapply the process, rotating the rings if a solution is found. If no solution is found, pretend the vertical boundaries are 1/9 of a turn to the right, and reapply the process, rotating the rings if a solution is found. If no solution exists, rearrange the rings according to the order you recorded in step 2d, reset the bottom ring to align the 1 with the 1 on the top ring, and apply step 2a to the second from the bottom ring.

Gyah, I feel like I use my brain more when solving Nikoli's easiest Sudoku puzzles than when solving these. If I wanted to do rote work, I'd volunteer as a page at a library and make sure the books are in proper order by their Dewey decimal numbers -- at least I'm helping the community by doing so, not to mention that I find it relaxingly enjoyable for some reason. [another crappy app] does not look to have similar artistic or logical possibilities to Sudoku, and is therefore not something I can recommend highly. It's a one-off puzzle at the most, not something I'd want to do 10,000 times except for the sake of science.

By the way, ever since I posted my two-star review of [another crappy app] on iTunes, 13 five-star and 11 four-star ratings, all accompanied by reviews, have been posted. Looking at the other apps these users have reviewed, I believe them all to be shills. (In particular, virtually all of the five-star reviewers have also reviewed "Pay Anywhere - Accept Credit Cards" and "Phone Swipe - Credit Card Terminal", and other apps that seem to be made by the same people.) Yuck!

Puzzle 493: Streaming Content 35

2011-05-04T08:00:00.001-05:00

No comment.

Rules of Streaming Content

(click to enlarge)

Monday Mutant 76: Battleships (minesweeper)

2011-05-02T08:00:00.005-05:00

(click to enlarge)

Combining Minesweeper and Battleships is probably one of the most ironic things that's ever happened in the realm of puzzles, since in Minesweeper, you want to avoid hitting mines, but in Battleships, you want to hit the ships.

Contest: A Cleverly-Titled Birthday Contest

2011-04-27T23:59:00.003-05:00

On May 26, 2011, I will turn 24 years old. As has been traditional for the past several years, I will celebrate this event by adding new Nikoli puzzle books to my collection, a tradition which always gives me a bit of a rush. One tradition I will not engage in, though, is the singing of a particular song (yeah, you know the one). What song would I prefer to hear instead? Read on, and you could find out. . .

How to enter:
This contest consists of a single puzzle (as opposed to the four puzzles that my contests usually have – a shocking change of pace, I know). To participate in the contest, simply send the final answer in an e-mail to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Only one entry is allowed per person, but you may change your entry at any time before the deadline, 11:59 PM (Central time) on May 25, 2011. The winners will be announced on my birthday, May 26, 2011.

How to win:
After the deadline has passed, four winners will be randomly selected from amongst the people who submitted the correct answer. (If fewer than four people submit the correct answer, then all of them will be winners.)

Prize:
I'm not telling you what the prizes are. Gwa ha ha! I will only say that their monetary worth will surely not be as great as their worth as souvenirs of having celebrated my birthday. :)

Terms:
By entering the contest, you agree to the following terms:
a) You agree not to discuss your entry with any other entrants or potential entrants until the contest is over.
b) You agree to provide me with a mailing address in the event that you win. (In return, I agree not to use your mailing address for any malicious purposes, such as sending junk mail or other undesired things.)
c) You agree to wait patiently for your prize to arrive, without moaning or kvetching, especially if you don't live in the continental United States, since it takes longer for things to ship from Texas to other countries, or to Alaska or Hawaii.

Now that you're done reading all that, here is the one-part contest puzzle. Good luck! :)

Only Part: Polyominous

Solve the Polyominous puzzle below (rules of Polyominous):

(click to enlarge)

Transfer the units digits of the numbers in the lettered cells to the corresponding boxes in the URL beneath the images. (For example, if the cell with the letter a has a 2 or a 12, then box a in the URL will have a 2.) This URL will lead to a page on AllMusic; the song on this page was the inspiration for this contest.

For the final answer, you may submit either the URL obtained from solving the above puzzle, or the title of the song obtained from said URL. Send your answer to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com to enter A Cleverly-Titled Birthday Contest.

Edit: I reserve the right to accept "close enough" answers at my discretion; I will consider the full URL, the URL without http:// and/or www., just the "t#######" part of the URL, or even just the seven-digit number by itself as correct, as well as minor misspellings of the title. However, URL's with two digits transposed or a single wrong digit, as well as completely wrong titles, will not be counted as correct.

If you submit both a URL and a title, and I notice that they don't match up, I will notify you of this. If you don't change your answer before the deadline, I will ignore the title and just check the URL (so if your URL is correct and your song title is preposterously wrong, your answer will be counted as correct).

Monday Mutant 75: Crowd Nine (equations)

2011-04-25T09:49:00.001-05:00

In this Crowd Nine puzzle, all of the outlined equations, when read from left to right or from top to bottom, must be true when the grid is filled in. Perform operations in reading order (for example, 3-1+2 is 4, not 0, and 1+2×3 is 9, not 7). The rules are otherwise unchanged.

(click to enlarge)

As previously announced, MellowMelon and I will be co-authoring a test for Logic Masters India in the coming months. What kind of content can you expect on this test? Take a look.

Grant's Review Corner: Volume 5

2011-04-23T05:13:00.003-05:00

I would like to open this review by confessing a horrible secret. This secret is so horrible that I suspect most of my readers, and an even greater percentage of my real-life friends, will desert me upon learning it. Nonetheless, at the risk of alienation, I believe it is necessary to get this out of the way.

I genuinely like Justin Bieber's song "Baby".

I dislike it when people solicit me to review their things, particularly things which I believe to be crap. Who am I to judge what is crap, after all, when I enjoy listening to the song that, prior to the release of "Friday" by Rebecca Black, had the highest number of "thumbs down" votes of any YouTube video? If there's anything to be gathered from the prevalence of computer-generated Sudoku puzzles, which I believe to be artless crap, in the highest-selling publications, it's that my opinion even on those things which I am most passionate about don't always align with the vox populi. Don't get me wrong; I believe that computer-generated logic puzzles are capable of being legitimately entertaining, which is why I have been on occasion obsessed with getting high scores in Everett Kaser's Sherlock, and why I am a fan of Link-a-Pix by Conceptis, the company with perhaps the most consistently high-quality pictures in their picture-forming logic puzzles. I do, however, find that handmade puzzles are generally more capable of being masterpieces as opposed to entertainment. Additionally, there are times when I think that something is crap (or occasionally the opposite), but am unable to articulate why in any way that resembles a proper critical review.

Thus, I wasn't eager to get e-mail last month:

Grant,

I came across your site a long time ago, but have only recently gotten around to really exploring the world of puzzle websites.

I have invented and patented a new kind of math and logic puzzle called the OCTO. I have attached some sample puzzles and a detailed set of instructions (not necessary to get started, but they may be helpful if you get stumped). More OCTO puzzles and an interactive version are available at www.octo-puzzle.com.

I am interested in your opinion of the OCTO puzzle. Any feedback is welcome...

Thanks.

Sheesh. Ever since Sudoku became the rage, everyone's been trying to create the next puzzle to dethrone Sudoku. In fact, I had first encountered OCTO well over a year ago, and unfortunately, I found it just as bland then as I do now. To the creator's credit, though, the puzzles seem uniquely solvable, which is more than I can say about [name redacted]. As such, I have decided to give the name and URL of the puzzle in case a reader who disagrees with these opinions decides to pay for OCTO puzzles.

I don't feel up for writing a detailed solving analysis for an OCTO puzzle, so I'll cut to the opinions:

1) I feel that OCTO is lacking in elegance. Sudoku was similarly lacking in elegance until Nikoli discovered that you could arrange the givens symmetrically, use fewer of them, and make puzzles of a wider range of difficulties than Dell was offering. This is also, I believe, true of Calcudoku (also known by the trademarked name KEN-KEN); the puzzles generated by computers often lack a certain je ne sais quoi, and I didn't care at all for Calcudoku until I saw that Thomas Snyder was making Calcudoku puzzles with visual themes and solving themes. When I see an OCTO with symmetrical givens in an extremely pleasing pattern, I might take it more seriously as an art form and not just a diversion.

2) One thing about OCTO is that the left number and right number of an octagon cannot be distinguished from each other unless one of them is a given, nor can the top and bottom number of an octagon, the top-left and bottom-right of the top-right or bottom-left octagon, or the top-right and bottom-left of the top-left or bottom-right octagon. This results in 36 pairs of cells in which at least one of them must be a given. I fear that this might restrict the ability to construct elegant puzzles where the givens can be arranged in a wide variety of fashions.

3) The demo at http://hosting.octo-puzzle.com/ could use some serious work. While the solving interface is mostly everything I could ask for in such a puzzle (you can type in candidates), why do no scroll bars appear on the right-hand side, forcing me to view the page in full-screen on a higher resolution to see everything, such as the timer and the "new game" button? Furthermore, why does it take a few seconds to load each puzzle when it's not generating puzzles on the fly? On that note, if the puzzles aren't generated on the fly, why not just let me pick whatever puzzle I want from the certain number of puzzles available? Why not have a "Select puzzle" button instead of a misleading "New Game" button that suggests the puzzles might be made on the fly? Also, even when the option to highlight wrong numbers in red is off, an octagon will only get a green check mark if the numbers are all correct, and not merely a permutation of the correct numbers. I'd prefer the option of a system that highlights conflicts (matching numbers where they shouldn't be, diagonals or diamonds with the wrong sums) rather than correctness.

4) What's up with the intellectual property? Why is there a patent? Perhaps there are valid reasons to have one, but I am a huge proponent of seeing the collective creativity of the puzzle community, not stifling it. Trademarks like OCTO do not stifle creativity; the patent, however, does, because if someone actually manages to do something elegant with the rules that the original creator hadn't thought of, then the patent could lead to lawsuits and stuff. Plus, for some reason, it reminds me of patents on things like the "tap" mechanic in Magic: the Gathering or double-clicking, or the time the Grabarchuks got in a fight with Conceptis over Chain Sudoku / Strimko (which I believe is more visually appealing than OCTO, because it doesn't have so much going on, although as a puzzle it is, as painful as it is to say, less innovative than OCTO). I've seen more patent-worthy innovation in a device that lets you hang bacon on it when microwaving so the fat drains away than in OCTO. The only legitimate reason I see for a patent is to prevent a program that generates millions of these puzzles on the fly from threatening his business. The logo looks bland and generic; I would change the logo to something that uses an OCTO-style octagon as a letter O, because that would make the brand more distinct. Since the author deems it fit to patent OCTO, I deem it fit to demand US$1,000.00 if he incorporates my idea into the logo.

5) Man, I wish I could sell my puzzles in local bookstores.

While I like to believe that my logic puzzle solving and constructing abilities are closer to those of the world champions than the average three-year-old's chess playing abilities are to Kasparov's, I nonetheless feel that no critical review of OCTO (be it positive or negative) would be complete without opinions from said world champions.

Thomas Snyder, a multiple-time World Puzzle Championship champion, apparently got solicited to review OCTO, too, and stated, "I simply ignored the email. It is a bland and uninteresting puzzle, with inelegantly large summation clues and much less of the feel of rushing to a solution as a sudoku. And 100% computer generated. The only thing I can say is this guy went the expensive route to actually patent his idea (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/The-OCTOR-a-New-Math-and-prnews-2757929161.html?x=0&.v=1). Not sure how I feel about that." As stated above, I'm not sure how I feel about it, either. He went on, "I used to try to respond to these sorts of emails, but then after winning more championships and such I get too many (maybe one every week or two) to bother to respond to. Most people just getting into puzzles don't recognize the number of types that are already out there, the depth of construction needed to make a puzzle elegant, etc. They instead think their idea is a beautiful unique thing. Which it never is. So I stopped trying to crap on their parade. I'll let them waste time in an unfriendly marketplace without my advice." As a constructor who has earned Thomas Snyder's respect, I know all too well how unfriendly the marketplace is, and am only motivated to write this Grant's Review Corner by one recent development which I will reveal at the end of the article; aside from that, I plan on following Snyder's lead regarding advice to aspiring authors.

Palmer Mebane, a man who has left a deep impression on me with his seemingly overnight transformation from amateur constructor to holy-crap-this-is-incredible constructor and World Puzzle Championship winner, responded to my thoughts, "Sounds pretty accurate to me. There's basically not much fun to it, for the same reasons that inelegantly made puzzles get boring fast and Sudoku larger than 9 by 9 are a chore. In this case I think even a good human constructor would have trouble packing elegance into this. Your point 2 is a glaring idiocy, and shows the guy behind this type is not a very big puzzle enthusiast." He then suggested potential improvements to OCTO; I refrain from mentioning these ideas here, lest, in his words, I "get a patent claim shoved up [my] ass". (Seeing that Palmer Mebane is more reserved with invective than the Angry Video Game Nerd or The Nostalgia Critic, I think he means business.)

Finally, Thomas Collyer, a Sudoku champion from the UK, wrote, "I’d not come across octocube [sic] before. The first couple of solves seemed nice enough, I liked how there were different elements of the puzzle to consider. And then I started noticing that some of the interactions felt more contrived rather than natural. Perhaps this is a reflection of the guy writing the puzzles rather than octocube itself. Although I’d agree the whole left/right and top/bottom given thing needs fixing. Preferably in a way that also didn’t feel contrived. . . . I could see this in current form being published in a newspaper puzzle page a la kenken, but I’m not sure if you could make any more of it. I think you probably could actually, but I can’t put my finger on what would give it a bit of sparkle." Huh. Apparently people from the United Kingdom are pretty forgiving. (They've certainly forgiven the United States for having declared independence from England, which is now one of our allies in the international community!)

My verdict is that OCTO is a solvable diversion, yet a bland one, in much the same way that computer-generated Calcudoku puzzles are mostly solvable and bland. It tries to bill itself as the next best thing to Sudoku, but fails. Sadly, with any art form where one stands to make lots of money, there will be legitimate artisans, and there will be hacks. For every Hitchcock creating innovative movies, there's a Seltzer and Friedberg appealing to the lowest common denominator, yet earning the ridicule of many others. For every Will Shortz, whose keen eye for what makes a crossword challenging and delightful brings joy to millions of New York Times readers, there is, quite frankly, a Will Shortz, who attaches his name to Sudoku puzzles without symmetry or elegance and, from what I've read (as a snide Nikoli snob, I refuse to try the puzzles on principle), occasional multiple solutions(!).

If OCTO is so bland, though, why have I bothered to "review" it here? Three words: Logic Masters India. LMI is responsible for selecting the people who will represent India in the World Puzzle Championship, and frequently hosts puzzle tests whose main dissimilarity to the ones used to determine the outcome of the WPC is that they don't determine the outcome of the WPC, and you can start the test whenever it is convenient (but after you're given the password to unlock the PDF file, the time limit starts). If you click the link, you will see that LMI is slated to have an OCTO test later this month. In Palmer Mebane's words, "Oh geez." Palmer and I are actually hard at work on creating our own test for LMI; I was already planning to make a kick-ass test, but seeing OCTO on LMI only motivates me further to prove that we two humans are just as capable of our craft as computers are, if not more.

I would also like to issue a challenge to Thomas Snyder: if he enters the OCTO contest and gets one of the three highest scores, I will pay him $18, the retail value of the two OCTO books being offered as a prize for the top three finishers. He can keep the books, or give them to me, or do whatever he wants with them for all I care, but he will get money regardless. Thomas Snyder might easily choose principle over money; I can't say I'd blame him, as I've had to do the same thing when people offer to pay me to sully my pleasantly ad-free blog. However, I would pay money for the privilege of seeing Thomas Snyder kick this test's ass after his comment that OCTO has "much less of the feel of rushing to a solution as a sudoku." (Edit: Thomas Snyder has declined the challenge. Good for him!)

Puzzle 492: Spirits of Serpentine 5

2011-04-22T20:58:00.001-05:00

Hope you're not an ophidiophobe. For even more snake-filled action, check out this short tool-assisted video!

Rules of Spirits of Serpentine

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Monday Mutant 74: Circumnavi-Gates (non-congruent gates)

2011-04-18T08:00:00.010-05:00

In this Circumnavi-Gates puzzle, there are no numbers; instead, you may not pass through two congruent (equally long) gates consecutively. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

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ERRATUM: This puzzle had multiple solutions before. It shouldn't anymore.

Puzzle 491: Straight and Arrow 34

2011-04-14T07:37:00.000-05:00

In precisely 42 days, I will turn 24! Yayyyyyy!

Rules of Straight and Arrow

Monday Mutant 73: Process of Illumination (orthogonal or diagonal)

2011-04-11T08:00:00.009-05:00

In this Process of Illumination puzzle, the given numbers may represent either how many light bulbs are in the orthogonally adjacent cells to that cell (as usual) or how many light bulbs are in the diagonally adjacent cells to that cell. (A given number may also represent both of these quantities if they are the same.) The rules are otherwise unchanged.

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Puzzle 490: Quad-Wrangle 20

2011-04-10T15:13:00.003-05:00

After you're done wrangling these quadrangles (or before, if you wish), check out this quad-run of the first four Super Mario Bros. games (including the game known as Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan and The Lost Levels elsewhere). This quad-run aims to beat all four games using the exact same series of button presses. As a tool-assisted run, this series of button presses was not achieved by a person playing the game in real time as the games were meant to be played, but through the use of emulators with savestates, slowdown, frame advance, and other tools; see this topic for more information before crying "hax!" or "cheater!".

Rules of Quad-Wrangle

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Monday Mutant 72: Cross the Streams (odd/even)

2011-04-04T17:25:00.001-05:00

Shade in some cells black such that the black cells are all connected to each other through their edges, and no 2x2 cell area within the grid contains all black cells. In a normal Cross the Streams, numbers to the left of a row or above a column represent the groups of consecutive black cells which are in that row or column. For example, a clue of "3" means the row or column has three consecutive black cells, and a clue of "3 1" means that the row or column has a group of three consecutive black cells followed by a single black cell, separated by at least one white cell. However, in this puzzle, all odd numbers have been replaced by O's and all even numbers have been replaced by E's. A question mark (?) represents a group of consecutive black cells whose size is unknown; an asterisk (*) represents any number of unknown groups of black cells, including none at all.

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