Thanks for liking the third puzzle. It was my first real go at an interesting one. Still a lot to learn.
I'm not sure all the other ideas are one-offs. I think just changing numbers to letters and keeping rules as is can make the presentation more fresh at times. Not all letters have to perfectly spell a message. Still, you ask, "Should I write hitori puzzles with sudoku kind of steps?"
or,
SHOULD IWRITE HITORI PUZZLE SWITHS UDOKUK
and that works, if the message is shortened. That kind of thing made the MIT meta fun, as a crossword-based logic puzzle actually felt word puzzle-like. The numbers feel forced to me, and are very hard to scan when they become double digit numbers (my same problem with 16x16 sudoku that use 1-16 instead of 0-F or something else).
Still, I'm not totally convinced. If you were to give me a whole book of wordy hitori in larger sizes I'm not sure I'd like it any more than a good book of standard hitori (which is not to say I'd dislike either by the way); although there's certainly an excellent novelty factor in the word puzzles.
I'm hardly saying letters or words should be the only next step for Hitori (it does remove language neutrality) but I can say it is an option for something different thematically and certainly tying in some word puzzle elements too would create a good niche hybrid
( ... )
How about a skyscraper type of rule. White cells could be a skyscraper with height and no skyscrapers of the same height can see each other, but taller skyscrapers may block the view so that you could have 2 skyscrapers of the same height in the same row/column, provided that there was a taller skyscraper between them.
Well, there are a bunch of other "seeing" rules that could work too, using the properties of the digits. Consecutive digits could not be anywhere in the same white-space connected row or column. There was a Turkish shading puzzle very much like this in the OAPCs last year. Removing the white-cells connected constraint but keeping the shaded cells from touching worked out really well. Its actually another favorite in the Hitori genre that outdoes Hitori. Of course it only ever had 8x8 sized grids if I recall correctly so it never got too grungy.
The Skyscraper idea you propose may or may not work. The role of black squares is similar to that of a very tall building? I like Skyscrapers puzzles for adding in numbers; Hitori is a puzzle that is about subtracting information and so it may not match as well. Still, I'd be convinced by any example (not to suggest anyone should spend time just to do this if other things are more compelling).
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Tom.C
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I'm not sure all the other ideas are one-offs. I think just changing numbers to letters and keeping rules as is can make the presentation more fresh at times. Not all letters have to perfectly spell a message. Still, you ask, "Should I write hitori puzzles with sudoku kind of steps?"
or,
SHOULD
IWRITE
HITORI
PUZZLE
SWITHS
UDOKUK
and that works, if the message is shortened. That kind of thing made the MIT meta fun, as a crossword-based logic puzzle actually felt word puzzle-like. The numbers feel forced to me, and are very hard to scan when they become double digit numbers (my same problem with 16x16 sudoku that use 1-16 instead of 0-F or something else).
Reply
Still, I'm not totally convinced. If you were to give me a whole book of wordy hitori in larger sizes I'm not sure I'd like it any more than a good book of standard hitori (which is not to say I'd dislike either by the way); although there's certainly an excellent novelty factor in the word puzzles.
Tom.C
Reply
Reply
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The Skyscraper idea you propose may or may not work. The role of black squares is similar to that of a very tall building? I like Skyscrapers puzzles for adding in numbers; Hitori is a puzzle that is about subtracting information and so it may not match as well. Still, I'd be convinced by any example (not to suggest anyone should spend time just to do this if other things are more compelling).
Reply
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