Firstly, this weekend LMI hosts Fillomino Filia 2. This is a sequel to a contest that took place over a year ago (when I was still a crappy solver) and is once again co-written by Mathgrant and Mellow Melon. With the preview puzzles they and some others have posted on the various blogs (links listed on the LMI forum here), its shaping up to be a highly anticipated set of puzzles.
Over the past few months, I’ve been writing puzzles for various different places. These include competition puzzles, practice puzzles, newspaper puzzles. I also recently worked with Deb Mohanty on a set for the 24 Hours Puzzle Championship which will be held in Hungary on 9th-10th November. Good luck to all the people participating there.
Anyway, the common thing about all the above categories of puzzles is that I am restricted to do what is required. Sure, I can put in some new variants, or change up the rules a little, but the difficulty, the base categories, etc. is all a little restricted. This is probably why, when it comes to my blog I like to just have fun. This is one of those times.
The rules of this Tapa variant may be very similar to the Sheeps and Wolves variant of Slitherlink, but I decide to go with Sharks and Humans as the only reason I thought of this is that I saw a Shark drawn by Tom C on his Battleships puzzle during the WPC, after which the judge checking his paper had promptly drawn a man with a word bubble that said “help!”. I know Tom was fed up after the WPC Tapa, so maybe this isn’t the best type to use for it, but it is one of my favorite types, and I also solve and create them really quickly and easily, so…
I created the first one, and then I realized it may not use the Shark-Human logic as much, so I tweaked it up a bit to create the second one. They are almost the same, but the 2nd might use the interactions just a little more. I’ve decided to leave the choice up to you solvers.
Anyway, follow regular Tapa rules. Additionally, the sharks cannot reach humans, and humans must be able to reach other humans. Humans and Sharks can both travel through “cracks in the wall”, i.e. they can travel diagonally. Neither can travel around the limitations of the grid. Both humans and sharks can travel through clue cells.
Rated – Around Medium.
Enjoy!
Version 1
Version 2
PS's puzzles + 