hutt's puzzle dump

 There's been a couple of new important releases this year in terms of metroidbrania sudoku. I've gotten through the smaller one and most of the way through the larger one. While I was solving them, it occurred to me that most of the variant rules included in these massive puzzles have already been established as sudoku variants. I find it particularly interesting to consider that clues often resemble their conventional symbols despite the logical solve path assuming the solver doesn't know what they mean until they're explained. Maybe this is intentional thematically in the same sense that someone might discover a useful trick or a secret passageway on their own in a game. But for me, I see black dot and my brain wants to go on autopilot, but I feel like I owe it to the creator to restrain myself until I see the popup that explains them. I think it would be fascinating to see a metroidbrania sudoku in which every single variant clue type is unheard of to the veterans. ...

 Despite having suffered from a cold, I'm getting back into the swing of things. Last week, I picked up the Patchwork project again and made a little more progress in the second part. However, at the moment, I'm focusing most of my free time on something related to algorithmic puzzle solving: I made a particularly interesting independent discovery on Wednesday and I intend to type up an informal paper on the ramifications. I've been burning a lot of my time on solving the 2025 category puzzle, but by osmosis this has inspired me to get back into setting custom Connections. The first puzzle here was set on 2/11/26 as a better version of a puzzle I've sent previously in the blog. The second was made on 2/24/26. Just as a heads up, I've been told that the first is too hard and the second is kinda lame. I recommend trying to solve the second without looking things up, as a large part of its charm is how well the cards mesh with each other. It Just Wasn't in the Card...

The following puzzles were set and shared on 2/18/26.  I especially like how the clues feel local despite being able to influence large portions of the board. https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?bhaibahan/7/7/q2i56g.q2g2.i2q https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?bhaibahan/9/9/j1n2w1s59h1h41p2h3h1k1j

The following trio of puzzles were set and shared on 2/17/26, although I thought of the first one a few days earlier. Variant rule: All numbers are wrong. You can verify your solution by enabling "Check multiple errors": every circle should be red and all broken rules should relate to clue numbers. https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?teri/v:/3/3/369l https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?kurodoko/v:/5/5/729g9j47g7g54j9g523 https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?oasis/v:/7/7/2h2h1h2k3h9h5k2h6h2k3h1h5h4

 I am somewhat familiar with the concept of link rot. When sites go offline, the hyperlinks that point to them are often considered broken or dead. A few years ago, I lost a few Witness panel sets I had made through Looksy because the link shortener I used for them, git.io, went out of service. I don't know what the status is there because, for example, the git.io link for my Plateaus puzzle still works but the link to the puzzle in its Source does not, but it is unfortunate nonetheless that information can just disappear from the internet. It was about a year ago that I mentioned someone advised me to provide pictures of the puzzles on the posts. I didn't think that the sites I was still linking to were liable to stop working. I did notice late last year that the Kudamono editor started adding a pop-up on puzzle completion asking for donations. I also noticed that this pop-up disappeared in December, so I assumed it had accrued enough donations to keep going. Now I fear the op...

 I assume the name is a nod to how it's like a more restrictive version of Energy Walk. I set these three yesterday with a certain solving theme in mind. https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?circuitwalk/5/5/04400o6pcj https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?circuitwalk/5/5/08200k6y https://pzprxs.vercel.app/p?circuitwalk/5/5/060c0zj6