Puzzle 66 ("Tatooine Sunset", Yajilin)

Have a Yajilin. 

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Puzzle 65 ("Rorschach", Tapa-Like Loop)

Or "Empty Middle", if you prefer.

Rules (cf. Eric Fox): Draw a non-intersecting loop through the centers of some empty cells. Clues represent the numbers of consecutive cells occupied by the loop each time it enters the (up to) eight cells surrounding the clue. 

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Puzzle 64 ("4x4 Square", Tapa-Like Loop)

Haven't posted on this blog in a bit!   Now that I'm done writing puzzles for this ~~mysterious~~ GMPuzzles project, I'm hoping to get back to a posting puzzles here.  I still need to figure out the right balance between posting puzzles here and submitting them to GMP.

In the meantime, here's a square-numbered Tapa-Like Loop with a square theme.  (Maybe I use this theme a bit too much. xD)

Rules (cf. Eric Fox): Draw a non-intersecting loop through the centers of some empty cells. Clues represent the numbers of consecutive cells occupied by the loop each time it enters the (up to) eight cells surrounding the clue.

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Puzzle 63 ("Four Boxes", Yajilin)

A few months back, I posted about my intentions to make Yajilin puzzles that were purposely easy.  I originally thought the second puzzle of the two given constructions was fit for the desired challenge level, but it turns out I overshot the difficulty, as expected.  (My third such "easy" Yajilin, which I sent to GMPuzzles, was also a bit harder than I wanted, though it was well within range of normal Tuesday difficulty.)

Part of the reason I overestimated the difficulty of those puzzles was because I resorted to deductions that were easy to spot, which is quite a bit different from deductions that are actually easy.  (For example, a pair of 2 clues looking down a 2x6 rectangle may be easy to spot, but it is, itself, not a beginner's deduction.)  Hopefully, the puzzle below gets closer to achieving the intended goal.  Though, given my last few attempts, it's hard to say :)

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Puzzle 62 ("Borderless Stripes", Slitherlink)

Another Slitherlink puzzle!  I think I'm getting better at constructing these, but I still have a ways to go.

In particular, my style for writing puzzles often boils down to "fill in individual clues to produce interactions you think would be interesting".  This works for genres like Yajilin, but constructing good Slitherlink puzzles seems to require thinking about the loop structurally, which I am not particularly great at yet.

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Puzzle 61 ("Clover", Slitherlink)

First Slitherlink puzzle on this blog!  I need to write one for GMP within the next week, so I decided to try my hand at one here.

I originally decided to try to write a puzzle with cool logic, but at some point during the construction process I just let myself go and plopped clues down as I felt like it (trying to emulate a certain style of solve I see frequently in GMP and bachelor seal puzzles).  I'm very happy with how this turned out.

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Puzzle 60 ("Interlocking Rectangles", Yajilin)

Have a Yajilin puzzle.

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Puzzle 59 ("Minimalist", Yajilin)

Originally submitted to GMPuzzles, but was rejected since I've already got a few strictly better Yaji in the pipeline 🙂.  That being said, I am quite happy I managed to find this construction at all.

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