pzprRT slitherlink experiment

Perhaps I'll reflect more on this after I finish the experiment - but for the time being I'm going to live-blog a slitherlink puzzle setting process which relies entirely on the hugely impressive pzprRT project.  Let's see how many puzzles I can publish in the next 30 minutes...

UPDATE: The answer is 9 puzzles, which feels like a lot for 30 minutes worth of work.  I have now gone through and solved them all - they are unique and cover a surprising range of difficulty levels.  Some of them are more fun to solve than others!

Here are the puzzles:

Puzzle 1: 15:03 - https://puzz.link/p?slither/10/10/332b01co63cg635bkcg7251837bgck735cg25do32a321b

Solved in 1'02.  The solve was a bit disjointed solving symmetric parts of the grid, but after that it was surprisingly smooth.  Not the ugliest looking puzzle in the world either.

Puzzle 2: 15:06 - https://puzz.link/p?slither/10/10/1b0a122c2c1cdhbicdg06ch230bh81dgddidhb2c3b222c3b3d

Solved in 1'59.  A smooth enough start to the puzzle, it got a bit fiddly at the end.  Some interesting topological deductions in play here but it did feel somehow artificial.

Puzzle 3: 15:09 - https://puzz.link/p?slither/10/10/gdch1ckdg111116aahd7706dh8286cchd511111bgdk1dhbb

Solved in 4'29.  I didn't want to have to guess to solve any of these puzzles, but I ended up doing so here.  There's probably a clever topological argument at play here, but this one definitely feels the most computer generated puzzle so far.

Puzzle 4: 15:13 - https://puzz.link/p?slither/10/10/2b51bh2bh11bg26agbh2bc03b212bhac2bhcg52bg33dh2bh38d2b

Solved in 3'13.  Again needed to guess to finish things off at the end, so pretty hard.  You can kind of see how I tried to build up a theme, and then compromised it quickly in order to get out the unique solution.  Not amazing either.

Puzzle 5: 15:17 - https://puzz.link/p?slither/10/10/b3321ao836dbg187126dgabhbdg812672dgb508ao3221cb

Solved in 1'54.  This one I remember trying to set by including a few patterns of clues I'm familiar with.  It kind of works, but not entirely successfully.  Definitely better than the previous two, but still with an undeniable artificial feeling to it.

Puzzle 6: 15:21 - https://puzz.link/p?slither/10/10/g20271bgdgbg7202c75ci5c7c727a8c7ci75c2027cgagbg16202c

Solved in 1'36.  This one is largely easy and with a smooth solve, except for a fiddly end which kind of ruins things a bit.  Again you can see how the initial visual theme got watered down a bit.  I suspect it wouldn't take that much work on this to keep the theme stronger and have a more consistent solve.

Puzzle 7: 15:23 - https://puzz.link/p?slither/10/10/3dj3d1bbi16516aj16751bl16571bj51651bid1b0cj3d

Solved in 1'20.  Basically a taburega puzzle for those familiar with the reference.  Solves smoothly and with a couple of interesting moments, but always with the sense that the thing is one big gimmick.

Puzzle 8: 15:27 - https://puzz.link/p?slither/10/10/gag73bg27bg3627012chdg2c327dg0bg832c2cgch2238270dg62cg15bgb

Solved in 2'16.  This one felt very computer generated.

Puzzle 9: 15:30 - https://puzz.link/p?slither/10/10/jb580d8dpa3580dbblbb0880dap8a355adh

Solved in 0'29.  Nice to have an easy one, although that was always going to be the case using patterns like this.  I suppose if I'm honest I'd have to say this one is fairly taburega-like as well.

The Art of Puzzles: Slitherlink

A quick heads up - I have a slitherlink puzzle published on Grandmaster Puzzles today!  See https://www.gmpuzzles.com/blog/2018/01/slitherlink-tom-collyer/ for more details.

Friday Puzzles #189

Right, I'm going to end the year as I started, with slitherlink.  I think the theme has come out quite nicely here (perhaps my dearest American readers will have to bear with me), and there's a little bit of bite towards the end of the puzzle as an extra bonus.

See you in 2013 - enjoy!

    #226 Slitherlink – rated medium

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-12.

Friday Puzzles #173

So the nice thing with slitherlink puzzles is that there always seems to be a way to accommodate new ideas.  The not so nice nice thing is that trying to make a moderately difficult puzzle throws up lots of uniqueness issues.  Getting round those can be a pain in the arse, and this isn't quite as full blooded as I'd intended, but I think this probably just about deserves its label of hard rather than medium... but only if you resist the temptation to guess or (ab)use uniqueness, it's only a small grid.  Enjoy!

    #208 Slitherlink – rated medium

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-12.

Friday Puzzles #138

So I think rather than me going on a Thomas S style 2012 theme-athon, the inspiration for this week rather comes from Palmer M’s excellent slitherlink puzzle pack. Still, I do manage to squeeze in quite a few 2012’s there, and I think there’s just about enough in the puzzle to keep things moderately interesting as you are solving. Maybe I’ll think of something for next week too – who knows? Not me, yet, haha. Enjoy!

    #169 Slitherlink – rated medium
 

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-12

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

Friday Puzzles #130

And so, dearest reader, it matters not that that I’ve been away all week at both a world sudoku championship and a world puzzle championship performing quite well in the former and somewhat forgettably in the latter. Here is a Friday puzzle which is (just about) on time!

Yup, no puzzling updates, because frankly at this stage I’m not sure I want to write about how pear-shaped things have turned and I am sure that you probably don’t want to hear about my moanings just quite yet, so here is a slitherlink, plain and simple. Conceived on a long and boring coach trip, no less. Enjoy!

EDITED EDIT: this one works!

    #160 Slitherlink – rated hard
 

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11

Friday Puzzles #116

So thanks to everyone who gave feedback re the javascript akari – it’s clearly not quite ready for the big bad world, but hopefully firefox users at least managed to glimpse the potential there. Rest assured all comments and criticisms will be passed on!

And so most dearest of readers, on to this week. This puzzle started life almost as something of an exercise, but I think it’s turned out reasonably well, all things considered. Maybe that’s just the claret speaking though. I think there’s just about enough bite there to this to warrant the medium tag, although that too you might attribute to the good claret. Anyway, there are too many other things to be worrying about, alors, c’est tout. S’amuser!

    #146 Slitherlink – rated medium
 

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11

Friday Puzzles #107

And so we’re back up to date with this entry. Unfortunately I’m running very low on inspiration for blurb text, I’ll let this Slitherlink puzzle speak for itself. Enjoy!

    #134 Slitherlink – rated easy
 

Ah what the hell, seeing as I’ve got this lying around anyway, and this is apparently the only thing I do on my blog, why not another twisted-symmetry Masyu? You’ll note I’m sure, that this (along with the vast majority of my other recent Masyu offerings) indeed has the full twisted symmetry. Enjoy!

    #135 Masyu – rated easy
 

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11

Friday Puzzles #89

So I don’t really do many slitherlink, and I think undoubtedly I have a lot to learn about how you skilfully put together a really good coherent puzzle. This one probably counts as an easy, although it isn’t entirely trivial. Enjoy!

    #115 Slitherlink – rated easy
 

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11

Friday Puzzles #76

So after the treat I served up last week, I’m afraid it’s time to come down to earth a bit this time around. This is one of those promised weeks where I’m serving up a puzzle featured in the recent LMI puzzle test I was responsible for. Albeit this one was fairly well received. I suppose that a possible ulterior motive for posting a slitherlink puzzles is that recently I have been in the habit of solving at Kwon-Tom Loop – which is curious as I don’t really enjoy the puzzles there that much. They are all taken from the generator and whilst all are certainly challenging, there is no elegance to them. On the other hand, I think that when you have a hard puzzle there should be a certain je ne sais pas to the solve that feels like getting a good bit of logic is being rewarded. Hopefully you get this here.

    #096 Slitherlink – rated hard

Ah what the hell, why not have something original? I’ve been on something of a roll with my twisted symmetry masyu recently (it’s very therapeutic to design them) – and whilst it’s fair to say that most of them are fairly trivial to solve and I should really try making them in sizes larger than 10×10 – I am a bit pleased with this one as it’s by no means a trivial solve. So I don’t think that I could ever call a 10×10 masyu hard, but this at least isn’t totally easy. Enjoy!

    #097 Masyu – rated medium

 All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-10

Finally, I’d like to offer a hearty congratulations to all competitors at the 19th World Puzzle Championship in Warsaw, Poland. I wasn’t out there myself, but I have been following the progress of the British contingent via the UKPA forums with great interest. See also Thomas Snyder’s blog (over there on the left – I’m getting tired of linking everything).

Special congratulations should go to the nikoli.com solving behemoth, Hideaki Jo, of Japan, who finished third; to seven-times world champion Ulrich Voigt of Germany; and finally to the new world championship himself, Taro Arimatsu, also of Japan. You might surmise that the Japanese had an excellent time of it out in Poland, but they were ultimately pipped to the post by an excellent American team. Not only did they feature Mr. Snyder on the left there, but for the first time none other than Palmer Mebane – a.k.a. MellowMelon – whose blog you can also find there over on the right. So I suppose the final congratulations go to them.

Really finally, expect news of the immanent UKPA sudoku championship very soon!

Friday Puzzles #61

Another puzzle week busy making sudoku, and now also this slitherlink puzzle. Nothing too taxing, but hopefully enjoyable enough. Tested properly this time, too! 

    #075 Slitherlink – rated easy

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-10

Friday puzzles #49

Funny how forgetting to make a puzzle until lunchtime brings out the urge to try new things. Of course, this Slitherlink puzzle is in no way a little bit silly. Just as the titling is by no means getting ridiculous. Oh well – I thought it might be more fun for regular readers to have one a day rather than a huge glut of them on a Friday.

Anyhow, ditto yesterday, this is the first time I’ve ever made a puzzle of this type, and ditto yesterday, if you don’t know the rules, then please check out the “how to play” section on the right. Enjoy!

    #059 Slitherlink – rated easy

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-10