This is part 9 of a "Better Know the USPC" preview series. The United States Puzzle Championship is scheduled for August 27th, 1PM EDT.

Type: Loop puzzles (specifically Masyu and Slitherlink)

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You might think there is a typo in the title. And there is, only it's the word Friday. As I was away in China for the last several days, I did not meet my normal publishing schedule. But my visit to the Great Wall encouraged this slitherlink variation where instead of forming a loop you form a single long wall. While the variation seems obvious ( Read more... )

We had a few goals when constructing the recent BANG 23, but the major one was to introduce good logic puzzle types (mainly Nikoli puzzles) to puzzle hunters that might never have seen them before. The natural fit we found was to incorporate the logic puzzles with the map, used throughout the day to figure out where to go next. So, I wrote 8 " ( Read more... )

So last week with my Camping Criss-Cross I started a series focused on my takes on some USPC mainstays and I intend to continue this for the next few weeks by revisiting some of the more interesting USPC designs from the years I've competed. I'll certainly take requests from the audience if someone really, really wants another counting puzzle or ( Read more... )

Happy New Year!

Theming logic puzzles around specific events/dates is often a fun challenge. For example, my favorite Nikoli.com Nurikabe, the 8-only creation by juno, was specifically released on 08/08/08. Last year around this time I wrote my Countdown Sudoku for New Year's Eve, showing how you can make a sudoku with a solving theme - ( Read more... )

Today is noteworthy in that Nikoli.com is running 3 contest puzzles at the same time, and even better, the contests are at 9 PM local time for me (not the usual 5 or 6 AM). So, given my lively Friday evenings, assuming I'm home from work, I'll be competing. In increasing likelihood, I'll start with Slitherlink << Shikaku < Nurikabe. It would be ( Read more... )