Genre Spotlight 61: Martini (Puzzles 380 and 381)

Today's genre is a shading type called Martini.  It appears on puzz.link but I'm otherwise not sure where the type originates.  Perhaps it's a Nikoli Omopa?  Regardless, it's an interesting type that allows for some interesting interactions.

Rules: Shade some cells such that all shaded cells within a region form a single orthogonally connected group. Shaded groups may not be orthogonally adjacent, but must all form a single diagonally connected network. Cells with black circles must be shaded. Cells with white circles must not. A number in a white circle indicates the total number of circles that are in its orthogonally connected area of unshaded cells. 

          

Genre Spotlight 60: Mukkonn Enn (Puzzles 378 and 379)

Today's genre is Mukkonn Enn, first appearing in WPC 2017 as an instructionless puzzle. Prasanna Seshadri refined the genre (e.g. made it a full loop) and changed the name to Mukkonn Enn for its 2022 GrandmasterPuzzles debut.  I've seen this type for a while but never got around to making one.  Acting on those hunches is what this spotlight series is about, right?

Rules: Draw a single, non-intersecting loop that passes through the center of all cells, including clue cells. Each clue cell is divided into four sections. If a number is present in a section and the loop travels in that direction, then the number represents the length of the straight loop segment in that direction, measured from the clue cell to the cell where the loop turns. If the loop does not travel in that direction, then the number means nothing.

                 

Genre Spotlight 59: Circles and Squares (Puzzles 376 and 377)

Today's genre is Circles and Squares, a recent-ish shading genre developed by Discord user Anonymus25.  It's a good example of a numberless genre that manages to do some really interesting things.

Rules: Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area and each orthogonally connected area of unshaded cells is in the shape of a square. Cells with black circles must be shaded, and cells with white circles must not be shaded. No 2x2 region may be entirely shaded.

          

Genre Spotlight 58: Grandstands (Puzzles 374 and 375)

Today's puzzle is Grandstands, a genre originally invented by Martin Ender a few years ago.  For some reason, I thought Hempuli constructed this type, but it seems I got Grandstands confused with Sentinel View.  This genre is pretty neat.  It wears its Canal View inspirations on its sleeve but does enough differently to count as its own thing.

Rules: Draw a non-intersecting loop that travels orthogonally through the centers of cells. Number clues indicate the total length of straight line segments which start in a cell orthogonally adjacent to the clue and extend away from the clue.

          

(Example by Martin Ender.)

Genre Spotlight 57: La Paz (Puzzles 372 and 373)

Today's genre is La Paz, a genre invented in 2022 by shye.  This is the third genre in this series that has combined dynasty shading with a region constraint.  I wonder how much more potential this combination has, given how uncommon it seems to be in general.

Rules: Shade some cells so that no two shaded cells are orthogonally adjacent and divide the remaining unshaded cells into two-cell regions. Clued cells cannot be shaded. A clue indicates the number of shaded cells which lie entirely within the same row or column as the region containing the clue. 

           

Genre Spotlight 56: Point Plate (Puzzles 370 and 371)

We haven't had many region division genres in the Spotlight!  Today's type is Point Plate, an Omopa genre from issue 185 of Puzzle Communication Nikoli. (Actually, this is a slight lie; the original puzzle type was numberless, but multiple readers added number clues for puzzles in issue 186.) It has several rules that are sometimes hard to remember (and maybe a bit awkward in places), but the resulting puzzles have some interesting dynamics.

Rules: Draw lines over the dotted lines to divide the grid into regions. Regions cannot be square or rectangular in shape.  There can't be a 2x2 square of cells that are all part of the same region.

A number indicates the size of the region that contains it. A region can contain no more than one number.  A dot indicates a vertex where exactly 3 lines meet (there may be four-way intersections or three-way intersections without a dot). All lines must divide two different regions.

          

(Example by Rook)

Genre Spotlight 55: Black Belt (Puzzles 368 and 369)

Today's genre is Black Belt, an old Omopa from the early 2000s that didn't receive too much attention at the time.  I (re?)-discovered this type during a discussion on Discord, when Nick Baxter linked to an old webpage containing pictures of Nikoli magazines.  (I dismissed the genre in the Omopa collection, because the given example misses two important rules!)

Rules: Draw a single closed loop of shaded cells, connecting squares horizontally or vertically.  The loop may cross itself but otherwise may not touch itself orthogonally (that is, the black cells cannot form a 2x2 block or a T-shape).  Clue cells may not be shaded and depict the number of cells vertically or horizontally (up to 4) which are shaded.

           

Genre Spotlight 54: Ice Walk (Puzzles 366 and 367)

Today's genre has started to gain some popularity in the wider puzzle sphere, but is still niche enough that it probably works for the Spotlight.  Ice Walk is a Nikoli genre that didn't really take off until it was ported it to puzz.link several years later.  This type is very good, and I'm glad it is getting the recognition it deserves.  (Please, Nikoli, make a sequel to the Omopa collection!)

Rules: Draw a loop through the centers of some cells which passes through each numbered cell. Two perpendicular line segments may intersect each other only on icy cells, but they may not turn at their intersection or otherwise overlap. The loop may not turn on icy cells. A number indicates how many cells make up the continuous non-icy section of the loop that the number is on.