Friday Puzzles #137

Delayed I’m afraid, until I get back from my New Year’s jolly in Budapest – which will mean either next Monday or Tuesday realistically.

In the mean time, thanks for sticking around, and I wish you all the best for the 2012!

And I’m back!

Apologies for the delay in updating this, but if you look at it another way you’ll be getting two puzzles in two days. Which is nice. I haven’t seen many 2012 themed puzzles thus far, so I thought what I’d do is fall back onto a theming favourite, yajilin. I’m actually quite pleased with how this one has turned out out. Enjoy!

     #168 Yajlin – rated medium
 

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-12

Friday Puzzles #136

So I’m afraid it’s only very tame offerings this week, especially compared to last week’s! It’s the usual mix of things to do, places to travel to and from and other projects to work on. On the other hand, I’ve not tried one of these for a while, and it’s nice to know I can still knock them up on demand. Even if it is rather easy. Happy Christmas, dearest reader, and enjoy!

    #167 Masyu – rated easy
 

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11

Friday Puzzles #135

Back to old times eh? I apologise firstly for the delay in getting a puzzle out in the first place, and secondly for then putting out something broken.

No such issues with this one. It’s moderately monstrous. I guess what with the small size and everything, some of the intended logic might get lost in small bifurcation chains, but I want you to know, dearest reader, there is definitely an intended solution path and I am really quite pleased with it.

Enjoy, finally!

    #166 Heyawake – rated hard
 

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11

Friday Puzzles #134

I was up quite late last night writing puzzles, with the intention of putting up a sudoku puzzle. But apparently I wasn’t quite up to it, and went back to some loop puzzles. I thought yajilin might be a good idea, firstly because I’ve been having a little fun playing with some relatively unknown tricks, and secondly because it gives me a chance to give an alternative presentation another go. I think the way I’m currently rationalising things is that the bordered squares represent holes in the grid, and whether you put clues in these holes is up to you. This works perfectly provided you don’t have too many holes next to each other!

Anyhow, you’ve been spoiled this week, dearest reader, because here are two puzzles to brighten your day. Or something like that. Enjoy!

    #164 Yajilin – rated easy

   #165 Yajilin – rated hard

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11

Friday Puzzles #133

So I’ve had a rather whirlwind week this week, including a trip down to BBC Television centre in London to offer my services as a sudoku “expert” (haha), as well as focussing some of my puzzling energies on a hopefully forthcoming UKPA project. Part of this is involving writing some easier style puzzles of more familiar type to try and encourage participation amongst those slightly more casual solvers.

Whilst I think it’s fantastic that some of the world’s best solvers maintain blogs with their own fiendish puzzling creations, I think sometimes its easy to overlook the beauty and elegance and simplicity of a really well made “easy” puzzle – and in particular the appeal these sorts of puzzles have for those who aren’t quite at the level of the MellowMelon’s of this world. The idea is that you don’t want things to be patronisingly easy, but you do want any sticking points to be resolved by the more casual solver after perhaps a few moments of careful thought. And of course you want a really pleasing design.

Something along the lines, hopefully, of this week’s puzzle. Enjoy!

    #163 Slitherlink – rated easy
 

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11