IPC 2024 Puzzles

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.

 

The first puzzle I wrote is a Slitherlink "optimizer".  This puzzle has multiple solutions as a normal puzzle; your job is to find the solution which minimizes the number of unclued 3s.  I had an idea I wanted to execute, and I think I pulled it off well here.  ROT13: Guvf vqrn vf fbzrjung fvyyl, va gur frafr gung vg erdhverf n "yrnc bs snvgu" ba gur fbyire'f cneg.  Ohg V guvax, va n ebhaq shyy bs bcgvzvmref, guvf fgrc fubhyq or cneg bs ng yrnfg bar chmmyr.  Fb urer vg vf.

The second puzzle I wrote was a Tapa with a palindrome constraint; that is, the pattern of shaded cells along each line must be the same when read in either direction.  Back in 2021, I wrote the following:

"Yesterday, another speedsetting event took place in the CTC Discord.  The idea this time was to construct a Tapa (Palindrome) puzzle, which is a variant seen in TVC, among other places.  While I did not participate in the event itself, my goal is to construct such a puzzle eventually."

Well, three years later, I finally got around to constructing it!  Happy with how this one turned out.  There is one somewhat subtle step in here, but most of the puzzle should be approachable.  (I think.)

   

Last, but certainly not least, is a Fillomino (X-Sums) puzzle!  This puzzle combines the Fillomino genre with the X-Sums constraint most often seen in Sudoku (numbers outside the grid indicate the sum of the first N digits in the row or column, where N is the first digit in said row or column).  The X-Sums constraint is inherently difficult to work with, so I tried to ensure the deductions on display weren't too advanced.  That doesn't mean it's easy, though.

 

That's all for now.  I have not posted on this blog much recently, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy with puzzles -- exciting things are happening behind the scenes, and I can't wait to show them to you all when they're ready!