It was an honor working with MellowMelon on this, as it was last year. If you'd like to see the solutions to the puzzles on the test, MellowMelon has released Puzzle Pack Vol. IV on his blog; it contains the 18 test puzzles, the preview puzzles, some reject puzzles, some puzzles we made afterwards for the heck of it, hints, and solutions. Altogether, there are 56 puzzles, of which 30 are mine and 26 are his. I made a lot of 7x7's at MellowMelon's request to give new solvers bite-sized puzzles to chew on, so it's not like my quality outshines his quality. Or does it?
I especially hope my readers enjoy puzzle IV.9 from the pack; while I won't be allowed to post big puzzles on my blog for quite some time, IV.9 is a 20x36 classic puzzle that I believe a sufficiently-skilled solver will find very rewarding.
Showing posts with label Logic Masters India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Logic Masters India. Show all posts
Fillomino-Fillia 2 Preview Series: Skyscraper Fillomino
This is a skyscraper Fillomino (AKA Polyominous). The numbers in the grid should be treated as building heights. Numbers on the outside of the grid tell how many buildings are visible when looking from that direction. A building obscures all buildings behind it whose height is equal to or smaller than itself.
Answer Entry: Enter the units digits (last digit) of the number in each circled cell starting with the leftmost column and going right.
Highlight to see the answer: 64816117
Highlight to see the answer: 64816117
Fillomino-Fillia 2 Preview Series: Walls Fillomino
This is a walls Fillomino (AKA Polyominous). A pair of cells with a thick border between them must contain different numbers.
Answer Entry: Enter the units digits (last digit) of the number in each circled cell starting with the leftmost column and going right.
Highlight to see the answer: 15321848
Highlight to see the answer: 15321848
Fillomino-Fillia 2 Preview Series: Sum Fillomino
This is a sum Fillomino (AKA Polyominous). The grid contains some cages. The number at the top left of each cage gives the sum of all numbers that appear inside of it. Numbers may be repeated in cages.
Answer Entry: Enter the units digits (last digit) of the number in each circled cell starting with the leftmost column and going right.
Highlight to see the answer: 33751242
This variant will be featured on a "Best of Fillomino-Fillia 1" page, alongside a Cipher Fillomino.
Highlight to see the answer: 33751242
This variant will be featured on a "Best of Fillomino-Fillia 1" page, alongside a Cipher Fillomino.
Fillomino-Fillia 2 Preview Series: Classic Fillomino
This is a classic Fillomino (AKA Polyominous), operating by the classic rules.
Answer Entry: Enter the units digits (last digit) of the number in each circled cell starting with the leftmost column and going right.
Highlight to see the answer: 43446462
Highlight to see the answer: 43446462
Fillomino-Fillia 2!
Remember Fillomino-Fillia? Palmer Mebane and I are proud to present Fillomino-Fillia 2! I was hoping that Norzman, the guy who designed the shirt I'm giving away for ChipIn for Children's Charities, might have time to create some new artwork for this sequel to keep things feeling fresh, but it was not meant to be. Don't let the old artwork fool you, though; the puzzles will be entirely fresh! The answer entry mechanism will be different, too: now you have to enter merely 8 digits instead of 20. Other fresh things will be present, too.
Just like last year, we'll be posting preview puzzles on our blogs to help you be prepared for the excitement to come. Keep an eye on this blog and on Palmer Mebane's blog this week!
Just like last year, we'll be posting preview puzzles on our blogs to help you be prepared for the excitement to come. Keep an eye on this blog and on Palmer Mebane's blog this week!
Monday Mutant 83: Polyominous (cipher)
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)
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!
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
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.
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
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.
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.
Fillomino-Fillia has begun!
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
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
Highlight to see the answer: 1545342144 2212444444
Fillomino-Fillia Preview Series: Cipher Fillomino
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. :)
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
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).
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
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. :) )
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!
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!
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!
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