Thursday 17 May 2012

Puzzle #105: Quattro Stagioni (Corral, Nurikabe, Tapa LITS)

I have made a bunch of puzzles for friends for various reasons. Mostly for special occasions. I usually try to theme them in a certain way. This is mostly just based on the way the givens are oriented. For this puzzle though I had the fortune to get three handy numbers to work with, namely 2, 3 and 7. The numbers were handy to build into most genres, so I attempted to use them as best as I could. This puzzle is built up of four quadrants that each belong to a different genre. I thought a while about a good fourth genre to add as Nurikabe, Tapa and LITS have a similar general puzzle idea behind it. I couldn't come up with a good fourth genre that used this type of clue. So I cheated a bit by using corral-like clues, within the same puzzle structure. I think the puzzle worked out well, not overly difficult but still interesting.

Quattro Stagioni

General Rule:
Colour some cells to form a single contiguous shape. The shape doesn't form any 2x2 squares anywhere.

Left Top: "Corral"
The numbers in this section are all part of the shape. The numbers indicate how many cells that are part of this shape can be seen from this shape in horizontal and vertical direction, not including the cell itself. The numbers can't see past white cells. [Note: This section doesn't work like normal Corral. The clue type doesn't include the cell itself. Also there's no loop constraint.]

Right Top: Nurikabe
The numbers in this section each indicate a seperate island of orthogonally connected white cells. The numbers indicate the size of the island they are part of. All remaining cells in this section not part of an island belong to the shape. The islands can cross the border of this section.

Left Bottom: Tapa
The numbers in this section indicate how many consecutive cells are to be coloured around it. If there is more than one number in a cell, then each section of consecutive cells must be seperated by at least one empty cell.

Right Bottom: LITS
In this section colour 4 orthogonally connected cells in every boldbordered region. Two identical shapes in different regions can't touch eachother by a side. Rotations and reflections are considered the same shape.


Click to enlarge

2 comments:

  1. Great puzzle! Especially liked the way the LITS worked out and the Nurikabe's interaction with the other 2 quadrants. Kept me awake half an hour more than I'd planned, but totally worth it :P

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    1. Thanks. The LITS was the hardest to get right as I needed one region to be a particular shape or the Tapa wouldn't be unique. It worked when I moved the 3 one left. It started right between the 7 and 2 shape.

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