Genre Spotlight small update + Puzzle 279 (Numberlink)

Hi everyone!  I hope you've been having fun with the puzzles in the Genre Spotlight series so far.

I wanted to let you all know that the series will be taking a small 2-week break as I prepare for my trip to Boston next weekend, in addition to some job interviews I have lined up within the next few days.  I've been running the series with no backlog as of late, and I'd like to spend some time queuing a few posts to make my life a little easier.  (In particular, I tried writing some puzzles today and I just ... wasn't feeling it, whoops.)

The next few posts will probably be focused on genres found during LPO preparation.  I'd rather wait until after the contest concludes, just so people who read this blog don't get a potentially-unfair advantage.  But rest assured, there are some cool types in here, and I'm excited to share them when the time comes :)

Regardless, I didn't want to leave this post entirely devoid of puzzles, so here's a silly Numberlink I doodled.  Note that, unlike my usual puzzles, the symmetry for this one is mirror, not rotational.  The reason for this should be pretty apparent.

Puzzle 279 (portrait)

Puzzle 279 (landscape)

 

 

Genre Spotlight 30: Multiplication Link (Puzzles 277 and 278)

Logic Puzzle Open preparation (and a certain recently-released puzzle game) has taken up most of my puzzle energy for the time being, so this post will be short.  You may ask "hey dj, didn't the dissertation take up more of your time?"  I plead the fifth.

Regardless, it's been a while since this genre has appeared on the blog before, and I've made quite a few since.  I've grown really fond of it!  Its rules are simple but give way to many interesting ideas.

Rules: Draw a loop through the grid that turns on every circle. A number tells the product of the segment lengths coming out of the circle.

(You may find the "turns on every circle" rule a bit weird.  This is one of the rules that was carried over from the Omopa type.  Personally, I don't mind it, mainly because it makes smaller clues -- in particular, 1 and 2 -- less prone to uniqueness issues.  But this genre could totally function in an alternate universe where the loop doesn't have to turn on every circle.)

           

Genre Spotlight 29: Desk Place (Puzzles 275 and 276)

Normally this would go up on Monday; however, I'm writing this post Sunday afternoon so there's no reason to wait.  Yes, I know it's called Wittgenstein Briquet in English nowadays, but that name is pretty silly.  Regardless, this is a pretty cool type that is somewhat (but not completely!) rare.

Rules: Locate some 1x3 blocks in the grid which may not overlap each other or the clues. A clue represents how many of the (up to) four surrounding cells are used by blocks. All cells which aren’t used by blocks must form one orthogonally connected area.

         

Genre Spotlight 28: Sashikabe (Puzzles 273 and 274)

Next up on the list is Sashikabe, a fusion of the Sashigane and Nurikabe puzzle styles.  This type has some interesting interactions, but after trying to write some, I've found it can be annoyingly restrictive.

Rules: Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. Clues cannot be shaded, and no 2x2 region may be entirely shaded. Each unshaded area must be an L shape with a width of one cell. Arrows must lie at one end of an L and point toward the bend. Circles must lie at the bend of an L, and if one contains a number, the L it’s inside must contain the indicated amount of cells. 

      

Genre Spotlight 27: Tetraview (Puzzles 271 and 272)

Today's genre is a lesser-known type from Eric Fox, a college student in the US who also invented Aqre, Voxas, and Disorderly Loop.

Rules: Shade some tetrominoes of cells so that no two tetrominoes touch each other orthogonally. Clued cells cannot be shaded, and a clue means that the first tetromino seen in a straight line in the indicated direction is of the shape associated with that letter.