Monday, January 20, 2025

Genre Spotlight 5: Tetrochain (Puzzles 227 and 228)

Tetrochain is a fairly new type in the grand scheme of things -- it debuted in Puzzle Communication Nikoli (appreciated PCN) issue 181, which released in late 2022.  While the Yajilin-style clues aren't perfect, the idea of a diagonally connected chain of tetrominos is neat, and I wonder if more can be done with this seed.

Rules: Shade some cells in the grid to form tetrominos which do not share an edge.  Clue cells cannot be shaded and indicate the number of shaded cells in the direction of the arrow up to the border of the grid.  Identical tetrominos cannot touch at a corner, and all tetrominos must be connected diagonally (i.e. by corners).

     

You may have noticed that this isn't the first Tetrochain post on this blog -- I wrote one back when I first saw the type.  However, as noted at the time, that puzzle is "not the most gentle introduction to the type".  Here are two significantly easier examples.  Like the Nurisquares from last week, my aim with these was to instill a sense of flow while still allowing for interesting interactions between the tetrominos.  I think I succeeded.  In particular, thanks to Rook for testing multiple versions of the first puzzle; the first few versions were unique but not quite what I was looking for.

Puzzle 227 (puzz.link)

Puzzle 228 (puzz.link)

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