Maybe Nurisquare is less an "obscure" type and more a "new" one -- it was only invented two years ago by internet user machka. But it's a neat idea! Natural combination of Nurikabe and Tasquare rules. Not much else to say.
Rules: Shade some cells so that each orthogonally connected group of shaded cells is in the shape of a square. Each connected group of unshaded cells must contain exactly one number, the value of which represents the size of the area.
The third genre we'll cover is San-Anko! This type is pretty obscure. It was originally developed by Nikoli reader Subaru Saito for issue 175 of the magazine, but was rejected for unknown reasons. (See #12 here.) Regardless, this type is neat! It's a bit tricky to make break-ins that aren't <insert break-in to Puzzle 223 here>, but there are some interesting interactions that can occur between different number groups. (That said, I wonder how much mileage one could get by allowing some of the parameters to be adjustable.)
Rules: Place a number between 1 and 3 in some empty cells. Numbers must appear in groups of 3 orthogonally connected cells with the same number; different groups cannot touch at an edge. Clues on shaded cells indicate the sum of numbers in the (up to four) orthogonally adjacent cells.
Our second genre is Territory! This one is slightly more well known than Timber!, but only to a small group of people. Regardless, there hasn't been a new one posted in a few months, so I'd still consider this obscure enough🙂.
Territory is an old type originally invented by Naoki Inaba. Inaba is known for inventing hundreds of genres (over 400 in Puzzle Laboratory!). Some of his types have gone on to become classics -- most notably LITS, Aquarium, Dominion, and Maxi Loop -- but every now and then a forgotten genre pops out of the woodwork and experiences a resurgence. (Guide Arrow is one such type; while the genre lost a bit of its stride due to overexposure, it's still a great type that has lots of cool interactions.)
Territory is the most recent example of this, mainly due to the puzz.link implementation released in late April last year. The clue description seems too unorthodox to work at first glance, but it ends up being very good, especially as a dynasty genre. I'm not sure if Territory will ever become an evergreen, but I'd like to see it gain wider exposure.
Rules: Shade some cells so that no two shaded cells are orthogonally adjacent and the remaining unshaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. Cells containing circles must be unshaded. If a circle contains a number, that number represents the area of the largest unshaded rectangle containing the clue.
Happy New Year everyone! For 2025, I aim to revive this space and post puzzles on a more regular schedule.
I've wanted to explore more niche types for a while, but felt like I never had the opportunity to do so. The 2024 PuzzleSquare Advent Calendar last month allowed me to construct puzzles in genres I wasn't familiar with, and I found this to be more fun than expected (although there were definitely types that didn't vibe with me, which isn't surprising given my stubbornness sometimes). I've also felt, as of late, that much of my solving lately has been heavily skewed toward the types that are popular within my immediate circles, so even genres with medium popularity get ignored. (When was the last time I solved an Araf?)
Thus, my goal is to break out of this habit and explore types that seem interesting and are relatively obscure. Every Monday and Thursday at 9AM Central Time, I'll post two puzzles in a new genre that I find interesting. The first puzzle is intended to be relatively approachable, while the second will be ... maybe hard, maybe easy, maybe not. It'll be a surprise! In any case, I hope to highlight some cool rulesets to play around with. Some of these I think have true potential to be evergreens, while others may be one-offs that I still find cute. Come join me!
Before we start, one disclaimer: the exact definition of "obscure" won't be consistent from day to day. Some types will be somewhat familiar with my Discord folks (hi!) but maybe less known elsewhere. Others may have a few puzzles on Kudamono already, such as today's. There will also be several genres previously covered by GAPP, a project in the Cracking the Cryptic server that's been chugging along for three years at this point. There may also be types that were common ten or twenty years ago but may not be so popular nowadays! (Remember, I'm a pandemic-era puzzler!) All this is to say that solvers sufficiently familiar with the logic puzzle iceberg may already know many types. But I hope that at least one type will be new over the course of the year.
With that out of the way, let's start 2025 with a quirky type: Timber!. (Yes, the title has an exclamation point.)
Have a 5 Cells. This puzzle has actually been on Logic Masters India for about two years at this point! But I think it's worth putting on here because it's one of the better puzzles I've written.
Cocktail Lamp is a relatively new yet good genre. Rook (among other people, of course!) introduced me to this type, and while I don't fully understand how to construct it yet, I'm quite happy with how this turned out. There is a similar looking puzzle from me on PuzzleSquareJP; I found this slight modification later and am more satisfied with the way the solve plays out.
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. Regions with numbers must contain the indicated amount of shaded cells. No 2x2 region may be entirely shaded.
I really should cross-post more of my puzzles here. Have a Nurikabe. This puzzle isn't too hard, but people over on puzsq seemed to enjoy it.
It's been a few years since I last wrote for the Indian Puzzle Championship. Thanks to Prasanna for allowing me to write again this year! I didn't write as much this year as I did last time, but that's partially due to the number of constructors and partially due to the format. Out of respect to the organizers of the event, I will only be providing pictures to the puzzles here (no solving links); if you're interested in buying the full set, worth €5.00/$5.56, email logicmasteradmin@gmail.com.
