Nurimino:

Here's another hybrid puzzle. In a sense, each solution is both a valid Nurikabe and a valid Fillomino solution.

All given numbers clues in the puzzle are Fillomino-style clues. Each bold number is also a Nurikabe clue (referring to an "island" of that many squares).

There's an additional dimension to the puzzle. Each island of ( Read more... )

Al-Heyawake:

This is another variation on Nikoli's Heyawake puzzle and assumes familiarity with those rules.

I wanted to create puzzles that incorporated some simple equations/relations, venturing out beyond the single operator logic used in puzzles like Ken-Ken and Futoshiki.

For instance, A (5 rooms) = 5 means that there are 5 "A" rooms whose ( Read more... )

Kotak-Kotak:

This is a new 3-d puzzle type based on an earlier type of mine called Dervish PackingThis puzzle consists of several square grids of the the same dimension that together make up a cube.  Future puzzles could be rectangular solids as well ( Read more... )

Dervish Hotel

Here's a somewhat larger puzzle of a type I came up with late last year. The original post (along with the rules and a walkthrough) is here.

I think this is my first repeat puzzle on this blog.  I got some nice feedback on this type last year so I hope you enjoy it.

One hint in solving this puzzle (if you get stuck) is to remember ( Read more... )

Steroid Masyu:

This is a variation of Nikoli's Masyu puzzle and the explanation below assumes familiarity with it.  Like normal Masyu, each puzzle has a unique solution in the form of a loop which does not intersect itself and satisfies all of its constraints (in the form of "pearls").

I wanted to create a version that makes uses of diagonals as ( Read more... )

Heyawake Fences:

This is a variation of Nikoli's Heyawake puzzle where numbered squares indicate how many edges of the square border a colored square (unlike normal Heyawake, where a number would only occur in the upper left corner of a box and indicate how many black squares were within the box).

The colored squares follow the rules of Heyawake: ( Read more... )

I have a new puzzle idea in the August issue called Factor Flowers.  It's kind of a sister puzzle to Serpent Factors.

It's on the newstand.  Please check it out.  :)

(cyrebjr  told me that it reminded him of something called "Eminent Domain")

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( Read more... )

Tandem Puzzles:

Tandem puzzles are pairs (trios, etc.) of puzzles that are related to each other by shared letter clues.  The cool thing about this idea is that the two puzzles don't have to be of the same type.  The idea is to alternate between puzzles making headway on one and using those solved clues to make progress with the other and vice- ( Read more... )

Well, it's been a long time since I posted.  I was laid off in November from a company that rhymes with Storgan Manley.   I was actually terminated oddly enough on inauguration day.   Since then, my job has been searching for one.   I have been spending a lot of time at  a "career resource network" place.  Companies often set up downsized employees ( Read more... )

Battleship Heyawake

As it sounds, this combination of the old favorite Battleships with the  more recent Nikoli puzzle Heyawake.  This idea was inspired by Thomas Snyder's great book:  Battleship Sudoku.

The solution must be a valid Heyawake solution while placing each of the ships specified so they do not touch each other, even diagonally.

Unlike ( Read more... )