PANFOPCWHTTAPA Puzzles

Breaking from the usual numbering system on my blog to dump the puzzles I made for PANFOPCWHTTAPA!  This was a contest I and a few other constructors from the CTC Discord created over the past month or so; these puzzles were intended for beginners, and I think we succeeded for the most part.

One of the earliest puzzles I wrote for this contest (a few months before we started work on this, actually!) was a small 6x6 Kakuro puzzle.  This one was placed as the hardest Kakuro puzzle in the batch (though whether it was easier or harder than Kakuro 2 is debatable) and got good reviews from several contestants.

 

On the Masyu end of things, I wasn't responsible for much -- just the IB puzzle while fiddling around in puzz.link.  I hesitate to say I came up with it; a 6x6 grid is so small that I'm sure this construction has been discovered time and time again.  But I think it's the perfect Masyu IB puzzle -- small enough that it's not intimidating but complex enough that it has all of the basic clue interactions found in Masyu puzzles.  (The antisymmetry, though unintentional, is also a nice touch!)

I was also responsible for all four Tapa puzzles in this contest (three plus IB).  These were written at a time when we were floating around the idea of author consistency -- that is, all three puzzles in a round are constructed by the same person.  This idea didn't quite pan out for all genres, but I spent a day cranking out a few Tapa puzzles for this purpose.

The last puzzle I wrote was the second Tents puzzle because, well, of course I did.  Though, this idea isn't entirely mine: I had actually attempted to create a puzzle with this theme but couldn't get it to work properly.  It was only after Botaku took a crack at this theme that I realized what the right thing to do was.

 

Online solving links to all of these puzzles can be found in the contest landing page linked above.  LogicMastersIndia was kind enough to host our contest for us, so I feel obliged to bring more traffic to their site. 😀 

This is the first contest I've ever been a part of, much less administered, and I have a much greater appreciation for those who take on more complex projects than this one (such as WS+PC, Puzzle Grand Prix, and others).  Part of this was due to our lack of experience -- I spent a lot of time constructing the test booklet way last minute, and there were quite a few lessons learned about how not to organize a puzzle contest.  But part of it was also due to just how much goes into a puzzle contest, even one as small as PANFOPCWHTTAPA.  (Juggling Penpa edit links and picking a name are certainly overwhelming at times, for instance.)  I don't expect to really become an avid speed-solver myself, but I look forward to providing more puzzles for other people to enjoy. 🙂