ShakaShaka!

I have to say I love this puzzle's name. The rules of ShakaShaka are kind of odd, so read carefully. I'm rather fond of this one: the logic flows smoothly, it's nicely Q-shaped for a similar commemorative reason to a prior puzzle (minus the drink), and didn't take forever to make.

A little lightup.

Akari, or light up, is a popular Japanese puzzle (rules). This one is easy-ish.

Hidden Halfgrid

Draw a loop that contains exactly half the grid by connecting orthogonally adjacent dots. All cells with the same letter have the same number of sides used by the loop. All cells with different letters have a different number of sides used by the loop. Packs a decent punch for the size and clue density. And yes, I win no points for elegance.

Had enough of Masyu yet?

I for one am sated for the moment. This one is difficult.

Masyu 3 - now with added pzv

(Rules). Medium, I guess. There's a uniqueness fix that I'm not too crazy about in there.

You may notice that clicking on the picture brings up the wonderful pzv.jp site, where you can solve the problem online. I was considering the much more capable janko.at applet, but board entry is currently manual, and the Java requirement means some users will miss out.

Easy Masyu

Antisymmetry is the hip Masyu thing everyone else does better. This one is rather easy.

Counting

Count triangles of all sizes in the picture. This is one of those things that is achievable in either a minute or an hour, depending on prior experience. Since it's rather hard to verify one's own answer for this sort of activity, I'm going to spoil the puzzle for lovers of Early Byzantine history: the answer is the year Gainas fled from Constantinople.

Local fun

I participated in a local Sudoku tournament yesterday, and won myself some drink I'll have to pass to someone. Turns out there are pleasant, dedicated and organised puzzling folk nearby, which was news to me. Let me clue their name in an event-appropriate way:

Ice Barn 2

(Rules). Less pretty, but more meaty than the previous one.

Another Pentomino tiling.

For once, looking where to put Xs won't help much. Otherwise, everything from the previous post applies.

2 grids, 4 minutes

Get your stopwatches out, read under the fold, and fill these two sudoku grids in four minutes or less.

Welcome to the Ice Barn

Ice Barn is a rather rare Nikoli type. Rules go something like:

Draw a directed path from IN to OUT, visiting all the ice barns (grey areas) along the way. You move from cell centre to adjacent cell centre in an orthogonal fashion. You may not backtrack, overlap or branch. You may not turn inside a barn. Crossing your path is only allowed inside barns. In some puzzles, parts of the path will be given; an arrowhead on them indicates direction of movement along them.

I've got some nerve publishing this: I wrote this a couple of hours after learning this puzzle type existed. The solution is more symmetric than the grid, so I think that's obvious.

I have to say I love the Japanese naming connotations. Ice, because of the sliding inside presumably. And barn, because, um... , that's where you usually revisit your past actions? Or keep your ice, for that matter.

Bridges

Aka Hashiwokakero (rules in German and English).

Pentomino tiling

Cover the white cells of the grid with one of each of the 12 different free pentominoes. This shape is uniquely tiled on its own, but you will likely have more fun if you use the clues. The clues on the top and left specify the number of pentominoes in that row / column. Any pentomino on a row / column with a clue to its right/bottom covers at least as many cells of that row / column as the clue.

A brief slalom

Slalom aka Suraromu problems (rules) are notoriously soft against uniqueness logic. For those not in the know, uniqueness is the label for the kind of logic which assumes that the puzzle is correct and has exactly one solution. This particular problem isn't susceptible. Much.

Lent Sudoku

Or why fasts are not diets.

An unpleasant Nurikabe

Well, a Nurikabe variation actually. The two squares with crosses must be of different colours.

This is a punishing puzzle, with no pleasant path to solution. So, why publish? Because I can use it to win an argument with a friend.

Art Deco

This post contains a rarely used puzzle type, with inconsistent naming. I shall add to this inconsistency by calling these puzzles Art Deco. Rules are:

Paint some cells black. Each outlined area is different to all others. Clues on the left and top indicate the length, in cells, of the longest consecutive area of the respective row/column painted black; clues on the right and bottom indicate the length, in cells, of the longest consecutive area of the respective row/column remaining white. Clues in a circle indicate the number of orthogonally contiguous regions of the circle’s fill colour.

I am not entirely happy with either of the above puzzles; I do like the way you earn your break-ins, but flow is lacking, and I’m not taking full advantage of the (rather large) rule set.

Friendly Ribbing

A Turkish shirt exported to Greece.

Greg, proud survivor of an ant attack (and a pretty good guy)

 

A simple mystery puzzle. Mystery puzzles have no stated rules, and their answers are usually a word or short phrase. I suppose I am getting in gear for this year's MIT Mystery Hunt. Some spoilery discussion of this particular kind of mystery puzzle follows.