Puzzle 216 (Nurikabe)

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.

Online interface (puzz.link)

Puzzle 180 ("Consecutive Pairs", Nurikabe)

What's this, a puzzle without clue symmetry on this blog?  Has the real dj gone missing?  We may never know.

 Online interface (puzz.link)

Puzzle 132 ("Medium Nikoli" Series, Nurikabe)

Next up is Nurikabe.  I actually don't have Pencil Puzzle 2022 with me right now (I'm temporarily in New Jersey), so I'm not sure if this is actually the next genre to appear in there, but it should be close enough.

I originally thought this was somewhere between Medium and Hard, but now I think this is somewhere between Hard and Extra.  I'm honestly not sure.  If anyone happens to be more familiar with the Nikoli rating system, I'd be curious to read your thoughts :)

Online interface

Puzzle 129 ("Clones", Nurikabe)

Have an easy Nurikabe puzzle.  Getting this theme to work was tricky, and I think the quality of the puzzle went down as a result.  (Note to self in the future.)  However, I'm happy with how smoothly it solves, so here it goes.

Online interface

Puzzle 114 ("Sixes", Nurikabe)

Hi!  Have a Nurikabe puzzle.  Not much to say here -- the grid should speak for itself.

 Online interface (puzz.link)

Puzzle 83 (Nurikabe)

Here's a Nurikabe puzzle in the style of Bachelor Seal.  This was designed to "fill in" a gap in Bachelor's blog, where yesterday it seemed as if there were only two puzzles instead of three.  (The third one showed up later that day; there must have been a tech error, or something.)  Thus, while this doesn't have an aesthetic theme, it does emphasize the smoothness of the solve.

 Online interface (puzz.link)

Puzzle 77: Discount GMP Week #1.2 (Tapa (Islands))

Next up on the docket is a 2-star Tapa (Islands) puzzle.  I was surprised to see a Tapa variant appear so early in the week.  The only Tapa variant I've constructed before is a Tapa (Line), so this was a struggle to get working/unique.  Also, Tapa puzzles are pretty tricky to rate on GMP, since Serkan is a Tapa specialist, so Tapa ratings might be a bit lower than they should be.

The end result is a puzzle that I like, but may be a bit off the mark when it comes to difficulty or quality.  Ah well, such is the risk that comes with trying a challenge like this 🙂.

Rules: Standard Tapa rules. Also, similar to Nurikabe, each Tapa clue cell is part of an island of horizontally and vertically connected white cells and the area of the island must be one of the numbers in the clue (as an example, if a clue is 1 5, then the island containing that clue must be either 1 cell or 5 cells large). Islands are allowed to touch diagonally, and there may be islands without any number clues in the grid.

Online interface (puzz.link) 

Online interface (Penpa) 

Puzzle 75 ("Spiral", Nurikabe)

Have a Nurikabe puzzle!  First one in a while, and there will probably be at least a few more in the near future.

Online interface (puzz.link) 

 

Puzzle 47 ("AwesomeMath", Word Nurikabe)

Again, I was inspired by a Puzzle Ramayan genre and decided to construct my own :)  The genre in question this time was "Word Nurikabe", an interesting take on the standard Nurikabe puzzle that has a lot of potential.  This puzzle was constructed specifically to post in the AwesomeMath discord server; this is the name of the camp I'll be (virtually) teaching for this summer.

Place the given words in the grid as 'islands', so that the words are readable in orthogonally (horizontally and vertically) connected cells.  Different words can't touch each other orthogonally (horizontally and vertically).  The remaining cells must form a single connected shape and can't have any 2x2 areas anywhere.  Each word has exactly one letter given in the grid.

Online interface

Puzzle 30 ("East Vs. West", Nurikabe)

Just making a post to announce that (as of a few days ago, whoops) I got my first puzzle on GMPuzzles!  I wrote and submitted this back in January, and it's also the only Nurikabe I've written, then or since :O

A picture of the puzzle is below for consistency reasons, but an online version is available on the GMPuzzles blog.