This page holds the 31 puzzles I posted through the month of July, 2013 for PADE. For more details see the Photo A Day Experiment page.
Day 1 : Theme – Alone.
Puzzle – Hitori.
Rules – Black out some of the digits in the grid so that each row and each column contains distinct digits. Black cells must not touch each other horizontally or vertically. It must be possible to visit any white cell from another white cell using horizontal or vertical paths.
Reason – This puzzle is also known to some as “All Alone”, and the rules themselves lend to making sure each digit is “alone” in it’s row or column. Left a 7 all alone in the middle of the grid for good measure too 😉
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 1 – Alone
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Day 2: Theme – Books
Puzzle : Slitherlink.
Rules – Draw a single continuous loop along the dotted vertical or horizontal line segments. Crossovers or branches are not allowed. Digits given inside the cell indicate the count of line segments surrounding that cell.
Reason – Ok, this one was hard. I thought a little, and then said, ok, let’s pick a random puzzle type from a book. I picked Akil Oyunlari issue 78 as the book, as that’s the first book my puzzles got published in, and turned to page 16 as 16’s my favorite number. Turns out it’s a Slitherlink. I’ve added 2 images below, one is colored to make the theme clearer. The theme has nothing to do with the solve so you can use the 2nd one for solving purposes.
Solution Link – here. Enjoy!
Day 2 – Books
Day 2 – Books
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Day3: Theme – Candles.
Puzzle : Candles (Variation of Akari).
Rules – Place a candle in some cells of the grid. The candle will follow a downward path. As it burns down along this downward path it illuminates the 4 orthogonally adjacent cells at each instance, until it encounters a black cell or grid edge directly below it. For an image description of this “path of illumination” of a candle, click here. The number in a black cell gives the number of candles placed in it’s orthogonally adjacent cells (although candles can be placed where there’s no black cell next to them too as long as they follow the other rules). a Candle cannot directly be placed in the path of illumination of another candle (although their paths can share cells), and all white cells need to be illuminated by at least one candle.
Reason – Today’s theme was tough too. The moment I saw candles, I thought Akari, also known as light bulbs, many examples of which can be found by going to the Akari category in this blog. Then I thought, how are candles different from light bulbs and came up with this. The explanation of the “Path of illumination” can still be complicated, but try to imagine a real-life candle. It’ll light up certain areas around it, then as it burns down, it’ll light up areas at that height. The rules are a bit tough to grasp, but it’s a nice little puzzle once they’re grasped. You can always just post a comment asking me to try to explain it in a different way or to explain how to solve it.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 3 – Candles
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Day 4: Theme – Distance.
Puzzle: Search 6 Sudoku.
Rules – Place a digit from 1-6 in each cell of the grid so that every row, column and thickly outlined 2×3 box contain the digits 1-6. Also, arrows point at the 6 in that row/column. Numbers placed in a cell with an arrow, give the distance between that number and the 6 in the direction of the arrow (taking 1 cell as 1 unit of distance, meaning if a 1 is in an arrow cell, the 6 has to be right next to it in the direction of the arrow).
Reason – There are numerous puzzle types that could be themed around distance, so this was an easy one. Being an easy one, I wanted to make the most of it and try making it a popular base-type. There’s actually a variant called Distance Sudoku as well, but that might be a bit more complex. Here you just need to search the 6s using the distance rules, and that helps you solve using normal Sudoku rules.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 4 – Distance
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Day 5: Theme – Fresh.
Puzzle: Tents.
Rules – Place a tent horizontally or vertically next to each tree (Every tree has to have exactly one tent attached to it, and it only). Tents connected to different trees do not touch each other, not even diagonally.
Reason – A camping trip in the midst of trees is bound to make one feel fresh, right? This puzzle type will also appear in the IPC, with the rule of numbers outside the grid added to it. This particular puzzle doesn’t need numbers outside to get to the solution, so I left that part out.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 5 – Fresh
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Day 6: Theme – Layer.
Puzzle: Ikebana (Also known as Weather Signs).
Rules – Locate the given figures (on the right), in the grid so that each row and column contains each figure exactly once. White pieces are transparent, and black pieces can block out the background for the area that they cover. (which means existent white inner shapes can only be changed by adding a black piece on top that covers them).
Reason – I participated in the UKPC today, and found an old puzzle type that had appeared in IPC 2009, then called Ikebana and now under the name of Weather Signs. I could only think up weak samples for the Layer theme before this, but this one fit right in with the theme, as you’re adding a layer onto some of the existent pieces as well to cover them and get the desired solution.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 6 – Layer
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Day 7: Theme – Light.
Puzzle: Akari.
Rules – Place a number of lightbulbs in the grid, so that every square is lit by at least one light bulb. A Light bulb illuminates all squares it can see horizontally and vertically. Black squares block its view. No two light bulbs are allowed to illuminate each other. The numbers in the grid indicate the amount of light bulbs that touch that square horizontally and vertically.
Reason – I figured since I invented a variation of this type for Day 3, its fine if I showcase the original version for the Light theme.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 7 – Light
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Day 8: Theme – Rules.
Puzzle: Consecutive Sudoku.
Rules – Place a digit from 1-6 in each cell of the grid so that every row, column and thickly outlined 2×3 box contain the digits 1-6. Additionally, All neighboring cells which contain consecutive digits are separated by white dots.
Reason – Since all puzzles have rules, it was difficult to pinpoint something that gives the rules more importance. During the IPC this Sunday, there were a few twisted puzzles that pushed the boundary of the interpretation of their rules. So, I thought to the first time I experienced a surprise because I hadn’t considered a possibility the rules implied. In the Indian Sudoku Championship 2011, there was a round where no markings were given in all the puzzles after all the instructions said that digits could be separated by markings. Even something with no markings can be influenced a lot by the rules that say what happens when there are markings. So here’s a small sample of that scenario, where you need to read the rules carefully to solve the puzzle.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 8 – Rules
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Day 9: Theme – Sharp.
Puzzle: Arrow Sudoku.
Rules – Place a digit from 1-6 in each cell of the grid so that every row, column and thickly outlined 2×3 box contain the digits 1-6. Additionally, the digit placed in the circled cell of an arrow must be equal to the sum of the digits along the arrow.
Reason – I had more abstract ideas of presenting sharpness, but those all involved making the puzzle a bit hard, which I don’t want to do in this space as much as possible. So a simple enough association, arrows are generally sharp, so an Arrow Sudoku.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 9 – Sharp
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Day 10: Theme – Shoes.
Puzzle: Puss in Boots.
Rules – Draw a path from the cat to the bottle, passing through all the shoes. The path passes through exactly 5 cells between each clue (cat/shoe/bottle) The numbers outside indicate the number of cells visited by the path in that row or column (clue cells are included in this count).
Reason – I remembered a puzzle called Cat walk, that had these rules minus the shoes part. So I thought, what if the cat can only walk with shoes, and the shoes get worn out within 5 cells. Conceptually, that was fine, but I needed to tweak the rules a little to make it a (hopefully) nice puzzle.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 10 – Shoes
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Day 11: Theme – Street.
Puzzle: Country Road.
Rules – Draw a closed loop through the grid, connecting the centres of cells horizontally and vertically. The loop runs through all boldly marked areas once. Two neigbouring cells in different areas can’t both be unused by the loop. The numbers in the grid indicate how many cells in that the loop runs through.
Reason – A road across regions, good choice to depict a street me thinks. There’s a puzzle called Streets but I don’t have the image tools for it, and my laptop having crashed and being unavailable for a while, I went with this choice.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 11 – Street
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Day 12: Theme – Tool.
Puzzle: Thermometers.
Rules – The thermometers in the grid all have their own level of mercury, which always flows from rounded end towards the other end (So partially filled Thermometers can only be filled from the rounded side, and not the other way). Thermometers may be empty, partially or completely full. Numbers around the grid indicate the numbers of cells in the corresponding row / column that contain mercury.
Reason – Thermometers qualify as a type of tool. I added a little of the theme into the solution too, and I’ve provided some coloring in the 2nd solution link to make the theme clearer if you don’t get it looking at the first one.
Solution link – here, here. Enjoy!
Day 12 – Tool
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Day 13: Theme – Window.
Puzzle: Windoku.
Rules – Place a digit from 1-6 in each cell of the grid so that every row, column and thickly outlined 2×3 box contain the digits 1-6. Additionally, the two “windows” also contain all the numbers from 1-6.
Reason – Pretty obvious one. The usual 9×9 Windoku looks like this, just FYI.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 13 – Window
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Day 14: Theme – Word.
Puzzle: Hidden Words (not the IPC type).
Rules – Place the words in the list on the right into the grid. Words can only be read left to right or top to bottom, and must be placed as such (EDAP is not allowed for PADE for instance). Words cannot touch each other, even diagonally. A letter outside the grid means that that letter must appear at least once in that row/column. Words cannot be placed in black cells.
Reason – There’s many word puzzles out there but this is one I like and feel comfortable creating. So, I thought I’d theme it a little more. The added theme is to acknowledge the organizers who have allowed, and welcomed this little twist to their event that I have provided. I saw a chance to further theme it with “twin” outside clues after the first try, so tried that too, hence there’s 2 puzzles today.
Solution links – A and B. Enjoy!
Day 14 – Word (A)
Day 14 – Word (B)
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Day 15: Theme – Bokeh.
Puzzle: Bokeh Kakuro.
Rules – Place a digit from 1 to 9 in each white cell. Sum of each horizontal/vertical group of cells equals the number given on its left/top. Digits must not repeat within such group. Additionally, some of the clues are blurred out of focus, but still give information on whether the sum equals a one-digit number or a two-digit number.
Reason – I just thought of this earlier today, specifically for the theme. I liked this idea because the blurred clues are still used for something. Also, any better suggestions for naming of this variant are welcome. I’m horrible at naming my ideas so went the obvious way with this one.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 15 – Bokeh
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Day 16: Theme – Art.
Puzzle: Tapa.
Rules – Paint some squares to create a continuous wall. Number(s) in a square indicate the length of painted cell blocks on its neighbouring cells. If there is more than one number in a square, there must be at least one white cell between the painted cell blocks. Painted cells cannot form a 2×2 square or larger. There are no wall segments on cells containing numbers.
Reason – Tapa’s full form is Turkish Art Paint, and is a type thought up by Turkish puzzle constructor and inventor, Serkan Yürekli. I love constructing Tapas myself, and usually, I love using the same-sum theme. I used that theme here with a bit added. Not only do all symmetric clues add up to the same number, but they are also odd-even inverts of each other. This has nothing to do with the solve itself though.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 16 – Art
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Day 17: Theme – Bliss.
Puzzle: Four Winds.
Rules – Draw one or more horizontal or vertical lines from each numbered clue so that all blank cells are connected to exactly one of the numbers. Lines cannot enter other numbered squares or intersect with other lines. Each number represents the total number of blank cells occupied by the lines from that number(the number-cell itself isn’t included in the count).
Reason – I thought a lot and lined up many ideas for Bliss, but the thing with having many ideas is that none of them stand out. So, I thought about adding a personal touch. I have a bit of a heat problem. Only someone who has seen me in person on a summer’s day will probably understand just how much it bothers me. I am quite literally allergic to the heat. So for someone like me, on a summer’s day, a gust of wind is quite definitely a moment of bliss, in the midst of all the heat-related problems. So I remembered the four winds type. The name is four winds because each clue can “be windy” in 4 different directions. Added theme – I tried making each diagonal of clues an arithmetic sequence.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 17 – Bliss
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Day 18: Theme – Bridge.
Puzzle: Hashiwokakero (A.K.A. Bridges).
Rules – Draw single or double straight lines between the circled numbers. The number in a circle indicates how many lines must end there. The lines must run only horizontally or vertically and must not cross or branch off. All circles must be connected to each other; i.e. it must be possible to travel from any circle to any other circle following the lines.
Reason – Well, this one’s obvious. Added theming – Since the theme is in singular I decided to have a singular touch to the puzzle too (You’ll see if you solve it).
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 18 – Bridge
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Day 19: Theme – Caged.
Puzzle: Killer Sudoku.
Rules – Place a digit from 1-6 in each cell of the grid so that every row, column and thickly outlined 2×3 box contain the digits 1-6. Additionally, the number in top-left corner of a cage represents the sum of digits in the cage. Digits cannot repeat within a cage.
Reason – Another obvious one, with the cages. Like Tapa’s my favorite puzzle type to create, I think Killer’s my favorite among Sudokus. Its also my favorite in Sudokus, as a solver.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 19 – Caged
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Day 20: Theme – Cartoon.
Puzzle: Paint By Number.
Rules – Form a picture by painting some cells in the grid. Numbers outside give the number of painted cells in that direction, in order. If there are two or more numbers, there must be at least one white cell between each pair of painted cell blocks of the given lengths.
Reason – Just tried to merge the cartoons I grew up watching with something that can be pixelated into a small grid, and narrowed it down. Solve it preferably using some shade of green as the Painting color, and if you still don’t get the reference, have a look at the solution.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 20 – Cartoon
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Day 21: Theme – Framed.
Puzzle: Frame Sudoku.
Rules – Place a digit from 1-6 in each cell of the grid so that every row, column and thickly outlined 2×3 box contain the digits 1-6. Additionally, a clue outside gives the sum of the first 2 numbers in that direction.
Reason – Another obvious one. The clues outside form the frame.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 21 – Framed
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Day 22: Theme – Letters.
Puzzle: Letter Snake.
Rules – Place a Snake of one-cell width in the grid, that has its head in the cell with the letter “H” and its tail in the cell with the letter “T”. The snake doesn’t touch itself, even diagonally. The snake passes through all cells with letters (no particular order between the Head and Tail).
Reason – I’m a bit short on time, and since I already did a Word Puzzle for the Word day (I don’t really like creating word puzzles, with the exception being that one), I thought I’d put some letters into a Snake puzzle. Its pretty rushed and not my greatest idea, but should be a nice easy solve.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 22 – Letters
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Day 23: Theme – Play.
Puzzle: Slot Machine Sudoku.
Rules – Place a digit from 1-6 in each cell of the grid so that every row, column and thickly outlined 2×3 box contain the digits 1-6. Additionally, the two shaded columns are like a slot machine. The 6 numbers they contain will be in exactly the same order/sequence.
Reason – I was thinking whether to go a “sports” route, but then remembered solving this nice little concept elsewhere. I think it suits the “Play” theme perfectly.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 23 – Play
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Day 24: Theme – Rain.
Puzzle: Nurikabe (A.K.A. Streams and Islands)
Rules – Determine for each cell if it’s part of the stream or an island. Each number is part of a single island of horizontally and vertically connected cells, which size is equal to that number. Islands can’t touch eachother horizontally or vertically. The cells not part of an island form the stream. The stream is a single connected area, which doesn’t cover any 2×2 areas anywhere.
Reason – I had a choice today, either to go to a not-common/innovative puzzle that is an exact instance of the theme, or a nice common enough puzzle type but with a bit of a vague interpretation towards the theme. I chose the latter. You can think of the concept of the rules as the puddles/streams forming on the streets due to heavy rains, especially as I’m living in Mumbai 😉 Oh and what’s this? I seem to have made 2 Nurikabes, for no other reason than that I felt like it.
Solution link – here and here. Enjoy!
Day 24 – Rain
Day 24 – Rain
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Day 25: Theme – Shapes.
Puzzle: LITS.
Rules – Colour a shape of 4 orthogonally connected squares in each black bordered region so that all coloured squares form a single contiguous area. This area can’t contain any 2×2 coloured squares. Two identical shapes in different regions can’t touch eachother by a side. Rotations and reflections are considered the same shape.
Reason – This puzzle is called LITS because there are only 4 basic shapes possible by the rules (but these shapes can be rotated or mirrored as the solve dictates), and these shapes have a resemblance to the letters I, L, S, T.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 25 – Shapes
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Day 26: Theme – Signs.
Puzzle: Inequality Sudoku.
Rules – Place a digit from 1-6 in each cell of the grid so that every row, column and thickly outlined 2×3 box contain the digits 1-6. Additionally, every inequality sign must be respected.
Reason – It uses inequality signs extensively. I usually don’t like solving these when they have no digit given but all inequalities given. I prefer this kind, with some givens either way where the Sudoku bit mixes with the added logic.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 26 – Signs
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Day 27: Theme – Smile.
Puzzle: Masyu.
Rules – Draw a single closed loop connecting the centres of cells horizontally and vertically. The loop doesn’t touch or cross itself anywhere. The loop runs through all black and white circles. The loop turns in every black circle and goes straight through both adjacent squares. The loop goes straight through every white circle and turns in at least one of both adjacent squares.
Reason – See the circles as an entire pattern in the grid, they form a face smiling, kinda. Other than that, nothing to do with the theme, but I really love Masyu puzzles! They make me smile!
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 27 – Smile
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Day 28: Theme – Special.
Puzzle: Heyawacky.
Rules – Black out some of the grid squares. Black cells must not touch each other horizontally or vertically. It must be possible to visit any white cell from another white cell using horizontal or vertical paths. Any room (thickly outlined region) with a number must have exactly that many shaded squares. Finally, there may never be a horizontal or vertical line of unshaded cells that crosses two room boundaries. This rule applies even if the line exits and reenters a room.
Reason – Long long ago (ok, not that long), I created my first puzzle. An odd-looking Heyawacky. For something special, I thought the obvious choice is to go back to that first type and create a newer instance.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 28 – Special
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Day 29: Theme – Vacation.
Puzzle: Anglers.
Rules – The digits on the outside represent anglers. Each angler catches one fish. The digit indicates the length of their line. The lines run by connecting the centers of cells horizontally and vertically. They don’t touch or cross each other.
Reason – Vacation is… a fishing trip? To be honest, more than anything to do with fishing, I just wanted to use this nice little puzzle type in this series 😛
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 29 – Vacation
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Day 30: Theme – Water.
Puzzle: Water Fun.
Rules – Fill water in some parts of the grid. The numbers below or next to the grid indicate how many squares of each row or column must be filled with water. Connected areas of filled cells must have same surface height everywhere.
Reason – Obvious one. Since it was so obvious, I tried to add a theme with only “4” clues given. Why 4 clue? I have no clue.
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 30 – Water
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Day 31: Theme – Night.
Puzzle: Star Battle.
Rules – Place 8 stars in the grid such that there is exactly one star in each row, column and thickly outlined region. Stars cannot touch each other, not even diagonally.
Reason – Starry night sky 😉
Solution link – here. Enjoy!
Day 31 – Night
PS's puzzles + 
Wow..I will tell you frankly..I wrecked my brains and couldn’t solve it 😦
I’ll get you started – look at the rules carefully. Now, look at the area near the top left where the 2 is between the two 1s. At least one of those 1s needs to be blackened, so the 2 is “safe”. So the 2 next to is has to be blackened. That gets you started, and it should be easy using the same logic to get further, and then you can use the last line of the rules and make sure white cells don’t get “closed” by black cells.
Thanks and done 😀
Awesome Prasanna, I was eagerly waiting for your entry. I love Hitori, even more than Sudoku and Kakuro! I never knew Hitori meant “All Alone”.
Hi Ritu. Blame it on WordPress but your comments have gone into Spam till now! Good thing I checked now. I’m glad you liked the entry. I hope you’ve seen the second one 🙂
Hey Prasanna, yes I go to Sfurti’s blog and check out the entries there since not everyone leaves a link in my blog. I do check it out every night. I saw all 3 of your entries! Love them. I have only played Hitori out of the ones you’ve posted for PADE till now.
I never thought themes for photography would blend so well with puzzles. Your ideas are amazing!
Hi Ritu. Posted on your blog too today 🙂 I hope you like the latest one. You said you like Hitori more than Sudoku but maybe variations can change that order. 😉
I love Sudoku and I’m def gonna solve it tomorrow. I did Hitori but didn’t try the second and third one. You are genious!
Seems like IPC is starting on Sunday – All the best for that. We at PADE are rooting for you, make us proud 🙂
Its a 2-and-half hour online contest, (open and free for all to participate) so starting as well as ending on Sunday actually. Thanks so much 🙂
Oh wow. It’s like an entrance test? I thought it would go on for a few days…never mind. All the best!
Well, it’s always difficult to organize offline, and when that’s not possible, the go-to method is a 2-and-half hour test with many puzzles (26 this time). It’s pretty effective in picking the country’s finest solvers. The USPC and UKPC are similar as well like that (in fact the UKPC is on the same weekend this time, and is also a two-and-half hour online contest).
Great! I am choosy in puzzles and struggle with a few categories so it may not be for commoners like me. I’m sure it is going to be a lot of fun for you.
I think struggle can be translated into enjoyment in just a little leap. Just 3 years ago, I was a newcomer too, and I found a lot of categories to be a struggle, I hated some of those which are my favorites now. You can just “feel out” sometimes to types you think you might not like. In general I’ve found that people who like some types of puzzles start liking the others too with some practice.
The Puzzle Championship is designed to have some common questions and some not so, so that there’s a little for newcomers as well as enough to pick a credible winner. So, yeah, hopefully it’s gonna be fun for everyone participating, including me 🙂
Now you are tempting me to try. Hmm, I might just give in. Wow, you seem like a pro to me. Your PADE entries astound us with their aptness to the theme!
Well, I’m a regular author at Puzzle Championships everywhere, so I think I’d qualify as a pro 😛 The fact still remains I started in 2010 and didn’t know any more than you do now (Kakuro, Sudoku, Hitori, Fence). Its always good to just try a few new types and see how you fit in. One of three things will happen, you’ll either end up discovering a talent like I did, or you’ll end up enjoying it as a regular pass-time, or nothing will change. Win/win/nothing sounds good 😉
I’m thinking the reason you get marked in spam may be because you have your own “website” and not a blogger/wordpress blog. Generally those are the types that go into spam here at least.
You must be a master marketer because you make it all sound fun and doable! Then get ready, you may have a competitor at IPC, huhuhahaha
I just genuinely believe in my interest, there’s no marketing here 😛 I welcome competition 🙂
Also, what on earth does wordpress have against you, I keep needing to check the spam to enable your comments 😐
And I solved it!!!!! Hi5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Solved Tents without cheating btw!
Thats really good to know 🙂 Hi5! Maybe you can try the rest now if you liked that 😉
Hey Prasanna, IPC is tomorrow, wish you all the best!
Thanks Ritu 🙂 All the best to you too if you’re participating!
Thanks Prasanna. I have other plans for the day but I’ll def solve puzzles you post on your blog for PADE!
Never heard of Ikebana before but the trees look super cute 🙂 Glad to have another mindblowing entry from you!
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PS….A special surprise Badge for our special talented puzzler!!!!!!
Copy and brag dear.
We are all so so proud of you!!!!!!!!!!
Wow! Did not expect this.. Added it. Thanks so much to you all 🙂
Just one word – WOW! I haven’t got time right now, but once free I will for sure dedicate a few nights working on the puzzles! You are awesome Man!
I sure hope you do 🙂 Thanks for the compliments!
Hello IPC championji, good going in PADE! Partyyyyyyy
Hi Prasanna, absolutely loved the puzzle “Puss in boots” for shoes.
Your laptop crashed? That sucks! Hope you didn’t lose any data 😦
Thanks, I’m glad you liked it 🙂 Yeah, well, I’m trying to take a backup right now. Been slow progress, since it crashes every now and then, but done with all important stuff. Now just doing the parts which fall under “since I can, its better to keep them”.. after that, I’ll have to re-install the OS. 😐
That’s a bummer 😦
Heard of Windoku for the first time, it seems more difficult than Sudoku (also saw the full Windoku). I will def try to solve it.
Sorry about your laptop, hope it gets serviced soon and you get all your data back 🙂
Any Sudoku/variant/puzzle can be made easy/difficult by the author. I’ve seen classics that take me a long time, and Windokus/other variants that take me a lot lesser. Although, in general, Windokus are tougher, because there’s many intricacies (as I said, that’s only when the author decides to use these intricacies in construction) that aren’t obvious to someone who has only Classic Sudoku experience.
Ah, thanks. I have got my data backed up. Its more that my current schedule is suffering from having to set up everything on another laptop (not to mention the 2 days that were wasted in falsely fixing mine).
What??? You dedicated the puzzles to us? That’s so sweet of you Prasanna. I cheated 😉 and looked at the solution A 🙂
Well, looking at solutions to get yourself started is ok as a beginner I think, as long as you try to solve some part logically. 😛
Wow PS…amazed..speechless really!!!!!!!!! Not been regular at solving them but have bookmarked your page…
Really Salute!!!!!!!!
Thanks Sfurti 🙂
Killer Sudoku for Caged? wow there are so many variations of Sudoku I had never heard of. I will solve it soon!
After you I started having problems with my laptop..still working on it. I’m in Korea so cannot even get help, and my laptop just turned 7 months old 😦
Yeah, well the sums are caged 😛 There’s countless Sudoku variations actually. And countless puzzle types/variations too. There’s always something new to keep you interested. Speaking of Sudoku, the Indian Sudoku Championship will be coming soon (check my latest blog post).
Ah well hope your laptop recovers. Mine, I got it back, and within 2 hours, same problem! Had to give it again, and also fight that there shouldn’t be any additional charge. Quite a lot of annoying time and effort wasted while I’m not even well.
PS I quickly cheated 😀 Was impatient to see who it was!!
Awesome work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Haha, thats ok. This one was pretty easy to solve though, I think 😛 Thanks 🙂
Hey thanks for your continued creativity…each one is unique. I never thought you would really come up with puzzles for such weird themes. Bad day? What bad day?? This is awesome!!
The reason I felt it wasn’t my best was purely technical 😛 because the “letters” weren’t really used as letters and could just as easily have been any markings and the puzzle would still work. I should thank you two for letting me go ahead with this officially and giving my posts some exposure too, I’m only doing what I like 😉
Bad day? hello. I (the cohost of PADE) struggled more and your entry is way unique and cooler than mine. Sorry about being a bit absent about coming here, I was (and still am) having laptop problems.
See just above for why I think it wasn’t a great day 😛 I’m still having laptop problems too actually, so can completely understand.
My laptop problems have cost me 200$ and now I’m down from Windows 8 to 7! Still installing drivers, Anti virus and stuff. No MS office yet. I’m just managing PADE posts somehow 😦 I had vowed to solve all puzzles but havent touched one in more than a week 😦
But I still want to tell you that I (and Sfurti) really appreciate your participation in PADE and hope you had a great time now that PADE is coming to an end.
I can understand, more because I’ve just had similar problems with my laptop too 😐 Its ok, you can take your time and get back to these, the page will be there 😉 Its been really fun, and a nice little challenge to keep up. Thanks to both of you for this 🙂
I’ve solved most of these and it’s been fun. Since you seemed to like doing it, maybe have a monthly week-long run of daily beginner-level puzzles or something?
Re: Day 31: Star Battle: if the break-in is what I think it is (the three left-most regions occupying the three left-most columns, shade excess), isn’t that a little advanced for a beginner puzzle? Then again maybe I’m just too accustomed to harder Star Battles and missing something obvious… 😛
I have given that thought.. But one of the big reasons this was fun for me to do was because the themes were decided by someone else, and I had to base the puzzle on that. Too often, even in my regular blogging, I just end up getting too many ideas on what to do, and then discard and forget a lot of nice ones. So this kind of “thinking towards a pre-decided goal” made it fun.
And yeah, 31’s a bit tough to spot for a beginner, but I think one such puzzle here and there is fine, just to allow for categorizations and growth within the beginner level itself.
Edit – And yes, the left sides excess part is the intended break-in. It flows really easily after that, so I decided to keep it that way 🙂
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Day 31 – Star Battle is a lot like parks right? Instead of planting trees, we place stars! Still loved it.
I’m a bit late to solve the puzzles. I think I’ve solved 14 out of 31. Not bad *pats herself on the back*
Yeah, with one star per region, its pretty much the same rules. Points to note are that Star Battles are usually 10×10 with 2 stars in every row/column/region, and also that I think Star Battle’s the original version 😛 Anyway, for solving purposes its the same. 14 out of 31’s not bad at all! Better late than never 🙂