Puzzle 21

A TAPA TAPA. Follow regular Tapa rules. Additionally, each train represents a city (though which is which is not given), and shortest distances between some cities are given. The distance between two cities is the number of shaded cells in a path that travels horizontally and vertically along the Tapa wall and touches both cities (it can touch the cities diagonally). [Rules source with example, though note that I’ve omitted the cities-are-all-ones rule since I didn’t notice it when constructing this]

Written on a train.

Puzzle 20

A Twopa. Under classic Tapa rules this puzzle has several solutions. Your goal is to find the unique pair of solutions for which every clue behaves at least a little bit differently (i.e. the eight cells around the clue are not filled in the same exact way in the two solutions). [Rules source with example]

Puzzle(s) 19

A Country Road and a Regional Yajilin:

I spent several hours today trying to write an 8×8 “Happy Purim” Cipher Skyscrapers, but I kept on switching from under-constrained to impossible. I’m giving up now while it’s still the 23rd somewhere; instead I’m posting some unpublished puzzles I wrote a few years ago when I worked at Palantir. Happy Purim anyway.

Puzzle 18

A Masyu:

There’s a contest at Logic Masters India right now featuring a mashup of various loop types including Masyu, so practice with this one and then go check it out.

Puzzle 17

A Black Hole Tapa. Follow regular Tapa rules. Additionally, some shaded cells are supermassive black holes, each of which counts as ∞ consecutive shaded cells. Each row and column contains exactly 1 black hole. (Today’s sketchy math brought to you by cardinals, not ordinals: ∞ + 1 = ∞ = ∞ + ∞). [Rules source with example]

1..2..3..4..Infinity! The black holes got a lot more massive today, as did the clarity of the png.

Puzzle 16

A Black Hole Tapa. Follow regular Tapa rules. Additionally, some shaded cells are supermassive black holes, each of which counts as 3 consecutive shaded cells. Each row and column contains exactly 2 black holes. Any two-digit numbers are underlined to more clearly distinguish them from multiple one-digit clues. [Rules source with example]

That 19 has me thinking I should have waited 6 days to post this, but that would require creating a replacement for today and I’m lazy.

Puzzle 15

A ciphered Water Fun. Each letter corresponds to a distinct number.

If you are a university student interested in teaching anything or a pre-college student interested in learning anything – from Machine Learning to Magic to Interstellar War – you should check if there’s a Splash program near you. In particular, if you’re anywhere near UCSD on April 10, come check us out: ucsd.learningu.org.

Puzzle 14

A Remembered Length:

Puzzle 13

A Heyawacky:

Puzzle 12

A Country Road:

Made with a shockingly obscure design constraint that no one will ever guess.