AkashG23's Puzzle Locker

Catching up with some old puzzles... This puzzle uses a few variants from  The 22 Major Look-Airna (25) , with some of them using old names. Creator's time: 2:41.8 Rules: Standard Look-Air Rules \  Shade some cells so that each orthogonally connected area of shaded cells is in the shape of a square. Clues represent how many of the five cells forming a cross around the clue (including itself) are shaded. Two shaded squares of the same size may not have a vertical or horizontal line of unshaded cells between them, unobstructed. Variant 1: Minesweeper \ Clues inside the grid containing just one number represent how many of the nine cells in the 3x3 area centered at the clue (including itself) are shaded. (Referred to as "3x3" within the puzzle, b/c this was made before T22MLA was finished lol) Variant 2: Easy As \ Clues outside the grid containing just one number represent the side length of the first shaded square seen in the corresponding row or column from the direction o...

    Been over a year since I posted an actual puzzle here lol This puzzle was actually made in October 2024, if I remember correctly. Creator's time: 1:38.2 Rules:  Standard Yajilin Rules \ Shade some cells so that no two shaded cells are orthogonally adjacent and draw a non-intersecting loop through the centers of all the remaining empty cells. Clues cannot be shaded, and represent the number of shaded cells in a straight line in the indicated direction. Difficulty : 4/14 Online interface (Penpa+)

If I had to be honest, the absence of these might've been one of the reasons on why I haven't been posting on here. For a recap, these puzzle nights are hosted on  Deckardv 's puzzle server. I participated and placed...  10th  out of 27 participants, which was in the "blue" zone. (you can see my post on  Puzzle Night 3  to see the zone colors and placements). My goal was the "purple" zone, and I didn't achieve that goal... again, partially because of the lack of puzzle nights. This night had a few more common puzzle genres seen in these puzzle nights. Puzzle 1: Star Battle \ Time: 6:28 \ Placement: 11th The first puzzle was a moderate star battle (slightly harder than GAPP-level). A funny thing... my puzz.link UI was stuck in Japanese, but I still knew where most of the buttons were. I used quite a bit of bifurcation, though. Puzzle 2: Nurikabe \ Time: 1:51 \ Placement: 5th I only got this time because I used uniqueness in my solving process. 💀 That...

   Easy sloop Creator's time:  0:33 Rules:  Standard Simple Loop Rules \ Draw a non-intersecting loop through the centers of all empty cells. Difficulty :  3/14 Online interface (puzz.link)

  As seen by some of my previous puzzles, I really like Look-Air. Here's another genre that involves shading square-shaped areas. Yes I know the tasquare tag already exists but that got renamed to look-air (no divide) Creator's time: 0:31 Rules:  Standard Tasquare Rules \ Shade some cells so that each orthogonally connected area of shaded cells is in the shape of a square and the remaining unshaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. Clued cells cannot be shaded, and represent the total size of the shaded squares that share an edge with the clue. If a clue has no number, it must share an edge with at least one shaded square. Difficulty :  3/14 Online interface (puzz.link)

 I made a few older puzzles while The 22 Major Look-Airna (25) was in development (for reasons that will be explained later), so I'll post them here. There will be about 10-15 of these older puzzles before I post some newer ones. Creator's time:  1:11 Rules:  Standard Uso-one Rules \ Shade some cells so that no two shaded cells are orthogonally adjacent and the remaining unshaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. Clued cells cannot be shaded, and represent the number of shaded cells in the (up to) four cells surrounding the clue. However, exactly one clue in each region is incorrect. Difficulty :  4/14 Online interface (puzz.link)

 PUZZLE NIGHT SIX! PUZZLE NIGHT SIX! This event was hosted on  Deckardv 's puzzle server! Once again, I participated and placed...  8th  out of 16 participants, which was in the blue zone. (you can see my post on  Puzzle Night 3  to see the zone colors and placements). I wanted to get in the purple zone this time. I didn't get in the purple zone, but to be fair, I found this night to be the hardest so far. This night was themed on hybrids. Puzzle 1: Word Snakes + Star Battle \ Time: 15:16 \ Placement: 8th The first puzzle was a word snakes + star battle fusion. I was in the car for the first half of the solve (so I had to do the word snakes part on my phone). Then, I quickly transcribed the regions formed by the word snakes words into Penpa for the star battle portion when I arrived home. Puzzle 2: Masyu + Yajilin \ Time: 18:03 \ Placement: 8th The second puzzle was a Masyu and Yajilin hybrid. I got very stuck at first, but after a hint was given, I ha...

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve posted here! Anyways, last time I posted a puzzle, I mentioned that puzzle #25 here would be big. Well, here it is! It’s definitely my favorite and most ambitious project yet, but also my hardest. This puzzle has 22 Look-Air variants, including classic Look-Air. Rules and examples for each variant are on a Google Doc. Enjoy! The password to the ControlC link is 22variants  (highlight to view). Creator's time: 159:39.0 (2:39:39.0) Rules:   https://tinyurl.com/4s8fe8y5 LMD link:  https://logic-masters.de/Raetselportal/Raetsel/zeigen.php?id=000TQW Difficulty : 12/14 Online interface (Penpa+)

Puzzle Night 5 was hosted on  Deckardv 's puzzle server! Once again, I participated and placed...  5th  out of 28 participants, which was in the purple zone. (you can see my post on  Puzzle Night 3  to see the zone colors and placements). My goal this time was the podium. because that's where I placed last time. My placement went down from last time, but it's okay.  This night had more varied puzzles due to a new mod team in the server. Puzzle 1: Crossword \ Time: 8:52 \ Placement: 12th The first puzzle was a crossword. I was a bit concerned since I've never actually solved a crossword puzzle before, but the puzzle wasn't that bad. I got a bit stuck at the end, but still solved the puzzle quite fast. Puzzle 2: Nurikabe \ Time: 1:35 \ Placement: 6th The second puzzle was a GAPP-level Nurikabe. I didn't expect to solve the puzzle this quickly, but I took it anyways. Puzzle 3: Puzzle Hunt \ Time: 13:45 \ Placement: 6th No, this wasn't an entire puzzle hun...

Wait, 2025? Not 2024? Oh wait... Another puzzle night (speed solving competition) was hosted by  Deckardv  on his puzzle server! I participated and placed... 3rd  (!) out of 25 participants, which was in the podium! (you can see my post on Puzzle Night 3  to see the zone colors and placements). My goal this time was the "purple zone" or higher, because that's where I placed last time. And, while I didn't expect it, I placed in a higher zone! Funny thing: I placed above three puzzle winners despite not placing in the podium in any puzzle lol This night was based on Nikoli-styled puzzles. Puzzle 1: LITS \ Time: 4:42 \ Placement: 8th First, we had a LITS that was slightly above GAPP level. I had a nice start and found a few nice logic points, but eventually resorted to bifurcation around 2-3 minutes in. Puzzle 2: Yajilin \ Time: 4:53 \ Placement: 8th Next up was a Yajilin puzzle. This one claimed to be the easiest puzzle, and... it was of similar difficulty to...

Deckardv  hosted another "puzzle night" (speed setting competition) on his puzzle server! I participated and placed... 5th out of 27 participants! (the "purple zone"). My goal was the "blue zone" or higher, so I'm glad I accomplished that! If you're wondering why I'm using these "colored zones", here are my names for each zone and their associated rankings (they are numbered this way in Deckardv's server): 1st - 3rd : Podium 4th - 5th: Purple Zone 6th - 10th: Blue Zone 11th - 20th: Green Zone 21th and below: Red Zone This night was titled "See Example", and the description implied instructionless puzzles, Since I didn't make the main puzzles, I won't be posting them here. If you want to see them, they're on Deckardv's puzzle server. Puzzle 1: Instructionless Loop I - "Number Loop" \ Time: 12:24 \ Placement: 9th First, up was a loop-based instructionless puzzle similar to Touch Slitherlink. Ther...

No new puzzles?   Another "puzzle night" (i.e. a speed solving competition) happened on  Deckardv 's puzzle server. I participated and placed... 7th out of 22. Definitely better than my previous placement , and definitely higher than where I thought I would place. This time, there were some more familiar puzzle genres, as well as a theme of "Missing Information". Again, I won't show the actual puzzles here (because I didn't make them), but I'll describe and show my experiences for them. If you want to see the puzzles, they're on Deckardv's puzzle server. Puzzle 1: Star Battle \ Time: 9:46 \ Placement: 8th First, there was a 10x10 star battle with 2 stars. However, five of the regions were combined into one "mega-region" containing 10 stars. It had some interesting logic with the mega-region. Puzzle 2: Word Snakes \ Time: 18:09 \ Placement: 8th Next up, a Word Snakes! However, there were some missing letters that formed two eight-let...

 I participated in a "puzzle night" (i.e. a speed solving competition) on Deckardv 's puzzle server! I didn't do that well, but here are some of my experiences. I placed 25th overall out of around 35 competitors, which was a bit disappointing for me, but not too bad for my first puzzle night. I felt like I had some fun solving the puzzles. There were only 5, consisting of both familiar and unfamiliar genres. I won't show the actual puzzles here, but I'll show my thought processes and experiences for them. Puzzle 1: Word Snakes \ Time: DNF \ Placement: 32nd Word Snakes is a genre where you have to find words on a grid, similar to a word search. However, the words are all paths instead of just horiz./vert./diag. lines. I got thrown off by a word that wouldn't fit any other words but eventually found the correct solution. Unfortunately, I was a few seconds too late to have my completion time counted. Puzzle 2: Gerrymandering \ Time: DNF \ Placement: 32nd Gerr...

This was my puzzle for Memeristor's Caterdokupillar! It's a 6x6 sudoku with a few variants, and also my second sudoku if you count  Mysterious Pink Lines (15)  as a sudoku. But what will I do for my 25th puzzle on this blog? Well, I've worked on it for quite a bit. It's pretty big, but not as big as  Winds of Aeolus (14) . However, the genre is the same. Maybe I'll make a 9x9 sequel to this puzzle... Creator's time:  4:25.1 Rules:  Standard Sudoku rules apply. Variant 1: German Whispers Lines (6x6) \ Adjacent digits on a green line must differ by at least 3. Variant 2: Kropki Pairs \ Digits separated by a black dot have a 1:2 ratio, while digits separated by a white dot are consecutive. Variant 3: Look-Air Hybrid \ Cells with a hexagon act as look-air clues. The final grid must be shaded in such a way so that it forms a completed look-air grid. Look-Air rules: Shade some cells so that each orthogonally connected area of shaded cells is in the shape of a square. ...

 I measure difficulty using a scale different from the CTC server. The two scales are comparable. This scale is inspired by the osu!  difficulty scale and the MODS server's scale. My scale goes from 0  to 14  on normal puzzles, with higher difficulties representing harder puzzles. Yes, the scale goes above 14, but this blog rarely has a d15 or higher puzzle. Attached for each difficulty is an approximate real-life comparison in mathematics. d0 \ The easiest a puzzle can get. This difficulty is generally reserved for some joke puzzles or really easy example puzzles. These puzzles practically require no effort whatsoever. \  Real-Life Comparison: Addition and subtraction with integers d1 \ Most example puzzles fall in this difficulty. Puzzles here are almost never made as a joke, but are harder than d0 puzzles.  This difficulty includes puzzles that many people, puzzle solvers or not, will find pretty easy. \ Real-Life Comparison: Multiplication and division ...

When I posted this on the CTC discord, I only got 9 testers (not including myself), at the time of writing this. I didn't feel that it was enough to post the puzzle here or add it to the discord archive, but then I remembered  Winds of Aeolus  also didn't have a lot of testers (though it was probably due to the length and size of the puzzle). When this puzzle was first posted here I started to think I under estimated the difficulty for once (but only by 1 or 2 points). Well, now it’s a d7 instead of a d6. Creator's time:  2:42.3 Rules:  Standard Look-Air Rules \ Shade some cells so that each orthogonally connected area of shaded cells is in the shape of a square. Clues represent how many of the five cells forming a cross around the clue (including itself) are shaded. Two shaded squares of the same size may not have a vertical or horizontal line of unshaded cells between them, unobstructed. Variant 1: No Divide \ All unshaded cells form one orthogonally contiguous are...

help there's a given digit that I'm too lazy to remove Creator's time:  2:10 Rules:  Standard Skyscrapers Rules \ Place a number from 1 to N into each cell so that each row and column contains every number from that range with no repeats, where N is the side length of the grid. A clue outside the grid represents how many cells in the corresponding row or column contain a larger number than all cells before it in that row or column from the direction of the clue. Difficulty : 5/14 Online interface (puzz.link)

I need to be more creative in naming puzzles... Creator's time:  1:27 Rules:  Standard Double Choco Rules \ Divide the grid into regions of orthogonally connected cells, each containing a connected group of white cells and a connected group of gray cells, with the property that the shape of the white cells is identical to the shape of the gray cells, allowing rotations and reflections. Clued cells must belong to a region containing the indicated number of white cells and the indicated number of gray cells. Difficulty : 4/14 Online interface (puzz.link)

 Funny thing — when I gave this puzzle to my IRL friends for testing, I accidentally gave rules for Akari instead of Creek. Anyways, this post will have the correct rules this time. Creator's time:  0:51 Rules:  Standard Creek Rules \ Shade some cells so that the remaining unshaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. A clue represents how many of the (up to) four cells it touches are shaded. Difficulty : 3/14 Online interface (puzz.link)

This is kind of a follow-up puzzle to the previous. Creator's time:  0:23 Rules:  Standard Akari Rules \ Place lights into some empty cells so that every cell is illuminated. Lights illuminate the cell they’re in as well as all cells seen in a straight line horizontally or vertically, not obstructed by a black cell. Lights may not illuminate each other. Clues represent the number of lights in the (up to) four cells surrounding the clue. Difficulty : 2/14 Online interface (puzz.link)