OK, no more instruction book fare from now on. So where else could I possibly turn to for inspiration? Hmmm. I’m beginning to wonder if my blog is quickly becoming the primary source of Masyu with twisted symmetry out there on the internet. Maybe – maybe not; I’d be interested in seeing any other sources that’s for sure.
I’ll confess that it’s getting harder to put these together to my own satisfaction, both in terms of aesthetics and indeed in the way they solve, but I do think that this doesn’t fare so badly in either metric. I hope you agree – enjoy!
#131 Masyu – rated easy
All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11
You can find a bunch of these antisymmetric Masyus on puzzlepicnic too. Me and Fred actually made puzzles with this property at about the same time the first time around. Mathgrant did a few too. Always found it surprising how many unique puzzles with this property there seem to be as I found it very restrictive when I first started trying to design one.
ReplyDeleteEasy but not trivial; good one.
ReplyDeleteI posted two of them on my own blog, and I have made several others – most of them are not very interesting, but they had the merit of making me realize what Para just said, as none of them is similar to the ones you have posted there.
I find the challenge in making these is to not have too many superfluous clues. With the symmetry constraint, you will almost certainly have a couple of extra clues that you didn’t need, but many of the ones that I have seen have got rather too many clues to really be a puzzle of any sort. I have a personal stash of about 20-30 of these now without having too many clues, and many have already been posted on this blog. I have been aware of some of those mentioned above – certainly Grant’s and those on Puzzle Picnic (I seem to recall really enjoying a couple of those). I’m always pleased to be made aware of more!
ReplyDeleteWhen you manage to get a couple of these that actually have some bite to them, then you have something rather more special. I think I have maybe 3-4 of these – 1 of which will be seen in the next month or two – that are really something to be proud of.
One of these antisymmetric masyus is posted at anuragthefirst.blogspot.com .But it does have atleast 8 superfluous givens.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely beautiful puzzle in every regard.
ReplyDelete