Genre Spotlight 64: Corner Disorder (Puzzles 346 and 347)

Today's genre is a bit different than usual, because it's a type I just made today (Sunday)!  More specifically, the idea for this ruleset came while playing with a different genre called Quarry.  This type, from michael3.14 in the CTC server, has the same rules for black and white squares, but also permitted unclued regions which satisfied certain properties.  These unclued regions felt tough to force because of the way the white circles work.  What if we removed the unclued regions, then, and loosened the remaining rules a bit?  

This is what I came up with.  It may not be in the spirit of the Spotlight series, but I spent enough time constructing these (and fixing some uniqueness issues in my first attempt) that I felt it was worth posting.

Rules: Divide the puzzle surface into rectangles, each containing exactly two circles.  Black circles must be located in a corner of their region.  White circles must not be located in a corner of their region.  Gray circles may be of either color.

           

Genre Spotlight 63: Bunnyhop (Puzzles 344 and 345)

This post was originally about a different genre, but constructing puzzles in that type proved difficult, so I pivoted to a different type.  As it turns out, this one is also difficult to construct.  You know it, you love it or hate it, it's Bunnyhop!  Invented by Hempuli, known for his hit game The Plumber Thing and literally nothing else.

Rules: Draw lines along the edges of cells to form a loop. Every line segment goes through a cell, connecting two corners located along the same edge. Every cell must be visited exactly once. The loop cannot branch off or cross itself.  Black cells cannot be visited.

                

Genre Spotlight 62: Kazunori Room (Puzzles 342 and 343)

This week, we have a Nikoli genre called Kazunori Room.  This type has actually been implemented in puzz.link for a while!  It's an interesting type.  I'm not quite sure if this genre needs an extra rule or clue type somewhere, but for now, here you go.

Rules: Place a number from 1 to N into each cell so that each region contains each number from 1 to N exactly twice each, where N is half the number of cells in the region. Two numbers of the same value within a region must be orthogonally adjacent. No 2x2 area may consist of cells which all contain the same number. Clues represent the sum of the numbers in the cells they touch.

               

Genre Spotlight 61: Martini (Puzzles 340 and 341)

Today's genre is a shading type called Martini.  It appears on puzz.link but I'm otherwise not sure where the type originates.  Perhaps it's a Nikoli Omopa?  Regardless, it's an interesting type that allows for some interesting interactions.

Rules: Shade some cells such that all shaded cells within a region form a single orthogonally connected group. Shaded groups may not be orthogonally adjacent, but must all form a single diagonally connected network. Cells with black circles must be shaded. Cells with white circles must not. A number in a white circle indicates the total number of circles that are in its orthogonally connected area of unshaded cells. 

          

Genre Spotlight 60: Mukkonn Enn (Puzzles 338 and 339)

Today's genre is Mukkonn Enn, first appearing in WPC 2017 as an instructionless puzzle. Prasanna Seshadri refined the genre (e.g. made it a full loop) and changed the name to Mukkonn Enn for its 2022 GrandmasterPuzzles debut.  I've seen this type for a while but never got around to making one.  Acting on those hunches is what this spotlight series is about, right?

Rules: Draw a single, non-intersecting loop that passes through the center of all cells, including clue cells. Each clue cell is divided into four sections. If a number is present in a section and the loop travels in that direction, then the number represents the length of the straight loop segment in that direction, measured from the clue cell to the cell where the loop turns. If the loop does not travel in that direction, then the number means nothing.

                 

Genre Spotlight 59: Circles and Squares (Puzzles 336 and 337)

Today's genre is Circles and Squares, a recent-ish shading genre developed by Discord user Anonymus25.  It's a good example of a numberless genre that manages to do some really interesting things.

Rules: Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area and each orthogonally connected area of unshaded cells is in the shape of a square. Cells with black circles must be shaded, and cells with white circles must not be shaded. No 2x2 region may be entirely shaded.

          

Genre Spotlight 58: Grandstands (Puzzles 334 and 335)

Today's puzzle is Grandstands, a genre originally invented by Martin Ender a few years ago.  For some reason, I thought Hempuli constructed this type, but it seems I got Grandstands confused with Sentinel View.  This genre is pretty neat.  It wears its Canal View inspirations on its sleeve but does enough differently to count as its own thing.

Rules: Draw a non-intersecting loop that travels orthogonally through the centers of cells. Number clues indicate the total length of straight line segments which start in a cell orthogonally adjacent to the clue and extend away from the clue.

          

(Example by Martin Ender.)

Genre Spotlight 57: La Paz (Puzzles 332 and 333)

Today's genre is La Paz, a genre invented in 2022 by shye.  This is the third genre in this series that has combined dynasty shading with a region constraint.  I wonder how much more potential this combination has, given how uncommon it seems to be in general.

Rules: Shade some cells so that no two shaded cells are orthogonally adjacent and divide the remaining unshaded cells into two-cell regions. Clued cells cannot be shaded. A clue indicates the number of shaded cells which lie entirely within the same row or column as the region containing the clue.