AkashG23's Puzzle Locker

To those who are trying to solve all my puzzles in order — I hope you had fun with the 10x1,200 look-air. If you're into variant sudoku, you'll probably like this next puzzle. Also, should I call this a "KenKen" or "TomTom"? Oh well, I'll just put both in the labels. Creator's time:  3:32.3 Rules:   Standard KenKen/TomTom Rules \ Place a number from 1 to N in each cell, where N represents the side length of the grid. You can’t repeat any numbers in the same row/column. The heavy lines indicate cages that contain groups of numbers that can be combined (in any order) to produce the target number shown in the cage, with the indicated operation. Variant: Renban Lines \ Numbers on a pink line must not repeat and must form a consecutive sequence in any order. Difficulty:  5/14 Online interface (Penpa+)

10x1,200 Look-Air. Enjoy! Creator's time:  121:20 (2:01:20) 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. Difficulty:  11/14 Tall version (puzz.link)  \  Long version (puzz.link)

The numbers on the thumbnails are based on the order in which I post these puzzles to the CTC discord. I'll add difficulty here soon. Maybe. Rules :  Standard FiveCells Rules \ Divide the grid into regions of 5 orthogonally connected cells. Clued cells must have the indicated number of region borders or grid borders surrounding them. Creator's Time : 2:40.0 Difficulty:  4/14 Online interface (puzz.link)

Wow, I'm behind on here... Anyways, here's the beginning of my Phase II thumbnails. Rules :  Standard Nurikabe 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 every orthogonally connected area of unshaded cells contains exactly one clue, the value of which represents the size of the area. Creator's Time : 1:33.0 Difficulty:  3/14 Online interface (puzz.link)

In this post, we'll take a deep dive into the rules of Look-Air, a puzzle genre by Nikoli . Examples and visuals will be included. Part I: Setting the Scene To start, here are the rules, according to this dictionary : "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." Let's break down each of these rules step by step: 1. "Shade some cells so that each orthogonally connected area of shaded cells is in the shape of a square."     On the grid, each cell can take one of two states --- shaded or unshaded. If you know that a cell is unshaded, interfaces tend to use green, and if you know that a cell is shaded, interfaces tend to use black or dark gray. White is also used to show cells...

 After that initial surge of puzzles, you'll start seeing puzzles come at more normal and manageable times. Rules : Shade some cells so that each orthogonally connected area of shaded cells is in the shape of a filled square. Squares may pass through region borders. Not all unshaded cells need to be connected, unless otherwise stated in a region border. Tasquare \ Left, Right - Clued cells cannot be shaded, and represent the total size of the shaded squares that share an edge with the clue. Circles and Squares \ Middle - All unshaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. Cells with black circles must be shaded, and cells with white circles must not be shaded. Look-Air \ Whole Grid - Two shaded squares of the same size may not have a vertical or horizontal line of unshaded cells between them, unobstructed. Creator's Time : 2:55.3 Difficulty:  5/14 Online interface (Penpa+)

       Ten puzzles on this blog! I know it's not that much of a milestone, but I'll still take it. Also, as the title implies, I set this puzzle at around 4 AM today in my time zone, and it's a Star Battle. I almost forgot some basic rules. Creator's time:  0:46.0 Rules:  Place stars into some cells such that each row, column, and outlined region contains exactly N stars. The value of N is given outside the grid. Stars may not touch one another, not even diagonally. Difficulty:  3/14 Online interface (Penpa+) Online interface (puzz.link)