hutt's puzzle dump

 Recently, I came across the book "Artisanal Sudoku". I must confess that I've been spending most of my offline time working through its puzzles. They accomplish the rare feat of being both logically approachable and aesthetically pleasing, and on multiple occasions I've found myself impressed by some more abstract realizations that I haven't seen before. I especially look forward to the final chapter, but I'm forcing myself to go in order. I think the reason I really enjoy variant sudoku and don't often enjoy classic sudoku is because classic sudoku usually isn't set with rigorous deductions in mind. I'd wager that 98% of any uniformly randomly selected classic sudoku is likely solvable with some combination of pointing sets, digits that can only go in one place because the other eight would cause repetition, and places that can only have one digit because the other eight would cause repetition. This is in stark contrast to the flexibility of vari...

I like how the complexity of this extremely exotic ruleset is surprisingly intuitive when framed with the chosen symbols. It feels easier to set well than Lollipops due to having nearly twice as many possible symbols and slightly larger groups. https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?mrokmrno/8/5/6b2c3d3j3d3c3b2c5 https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?mrokmrno/6/5/b33a34j3i4a3 https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?mrokmrno/7/7/4a4a4a4zd4e4b4a4

 Made and shared on 6/27/26 while thinking about how connectivity works in shading puzzles https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?disco/8/8/ku7ikgi8m2907gubifpsfuv0 https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?nuritwin/9/9/8l1kbgi2oi142gg7pvivbubsfovovgu

 I get the impression this is a relatively old genre because I recall seeing the name in penpa's Shape tab, but the example provided in the rules tab is the first puzzle of this type that I've seen and solved. The auxiliary clue almost reminds me of Akari but it doesn't feel like a fair comparison to make due to how numbers are placed in entire rows/columns of the grid rather than just in whole runs of white space. Really, it's more like if Doppelblock traded sandwich summing for Kakuru-like clues. This genre tends to lend itself especially well to logic involving what must be placed horizontally next to a clue, or vertically next to a clue. This puzzle was set on 6/22/26 and shared the next day. https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?slovak/9/9/5/am2h-11p-16p-19h-23i0i-1eh-28p-31p-32h0m-37

 I've been taking the idea of making a book a bit more seriously recently. I think I could get away with compiling a ton of puzzles from the blog if I exercise quality control and organize it well, both in terms of solving difficulty and conceptual topic. Something I recently realized could make a logic puzzle book unique is an introduction that builds up the foundational logic of different types from the ground up. Perhaps it starts with easy Simple Loop strategies and moves on to entrance counting and parity arguments, then sidesteps to talk about minimums and maximums in set-based puzzles. XO Loop feels like the best contender for a first puzzle in the book because of how simple and scannable it is for a loop puzzle and the realization that XO Loop can be used to express Simple Loop. At some point, I considered adapting XO Loop to tie in the idea of minimums and maximums, and the result is a genre that I don't think I've seen before despite its simplicity. Although I...

 Made to celebrate the occasion https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?nurikabe/6/7/6g7zh6g7t https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?cave/6/7/67h67i67g67p67k6p https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?balance/6/7/ldfzidndf https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?waterwalk/6/7/0g4ujp080g67zv67g https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?nikoji/6/7/g-139-18i-135-165el-16zi https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?fillomino/6/7/67n6g67i7l67i7j7g67j https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?nikoji/7/3/g-15iegak5g-135-165eg