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)

IPC 2024 Puzzles

It's been a few years since I last wrote for the Indian Puzzle Championship.  Thanks to Prasanna for allowing me to write again this year!  I didn't write as much this year as I did last time, but that's partially due to the number of constructors and partially due to the format.  Out of respect to the organizers of the event, I will only be providing pictures to the puzzles here (no solving links); if you're interested in buying the full set, worth €5.00/$5.56, email logicmasteradmin@gmail.com.

Puzzle 215 (Island Pool)

Hey, hi!  It's been a while (so I say every time I post nowadays).  I have still been writing puzzles, but most of my efforts have gone to specific projects.  For example, I wrote for the USPC this year!  Thanks to Nick Baxter for allowing me to construct puzzles for the contest.  Not all my puzzles are perfect, but I am happy with several of them. 

On a different note, here is a puzzle from three months ago that I'm finally posting here.  This was originally conceived as a Tapa variant, but it feels too far removed from Tapa for my liking.  I'm honestly not sure if it's really a variant of any genre -- Nurikabe, perhaps?  For now, I'm putting this ruleset under a new genre titled Island Pool, but I can be persuaded otherwise.

Rules. Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area and no 2x2 region is entirely shaded.  Clues cannot be shaded and represent the areas of all unshaded regions which contain at least one of the (up to eight) surrounding cells.  Gray clue cells are considered neither shaded nor unshaded.

Online interface (Penpa)

Puzzle 214 (Kakuro)

Have a Kakuro.  I originally wrote this puzzle for the Logic Puzzle Open held back in April, but we decided to use two of Michael Tang's creations instead.  

Online interface (puzz.link) 

Online interface (Penpa)

 

Puzzle 213 (Choco Banana)

I haven't posted here in a few months!  During this time I've been mainly focusing on my PhD research and summer teaching jobs.  I have posted some puzzles to puzsq, but have otherwise not been active on this front.

Here is a Choco Banana I constructed one night as a late-night doodle.  It exemplifies my style pretty well, I think.

Online interface (puzz.link)

Puzzle 212 (Tapa (Rope))

This puzzle type is a Tapa variant invented by Mitchell "DireKrow" Clarke two years ago.  It allows for some interesting logic not seen in normal Tapa puzzles.

Rules: Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. Clues cannot be shaded, and represent the lengths of the blocks of consecutive shaded cells along the length of rope attached to the clue, not necessarily in order. No 2×2 region may be entirely shaded.

Online interface (Penpa+)

Puzzle 211 (Multiplication Link)

Last night, several users on PuzzleSquareJP posted puzzles in a genre called Multiplication Link.  I decided to try writing one myself.  It's an interesting idea!  While it's somewhat similar to Balance Loop, the use of product clues rather than sum clues gives it a different feel while solving.  Constructing this reminded me of Cave (Product): clues are harder to tweak but can yield interesting results when done correctly.

Rules: Draw a single orthogonal closed loop through some of  the grid vertices. The loop must turn at cells with circles, and numbers give the product of lengths extending from the clue.

Online Interface (Penpa) 

Puzzle 210 (Numberlink)

Have a Numberlink.  Not much else to say.

Online interface