nearly four years ago, i won my first logic showcase. it also happened to be the first showcase i ever entered. since that time, i’ve become a regular participant and even host, honing my craft and hoping to inspire others, altogether making some wicked ambitious logic puzzles. i cherish the time spent, but i won’t deny i can get quite competitive, and despite all my efforts, a second victory has always eluded me. until now:
statue kurodoko rules
place the bank of shapes into the grid such that each shape segment occupies one cell, no shapes overlap or share an edge, and all of the unoccupied cells connect orthogonally in a single group. shapes can be rotated/reflected. each numbered cell indicates the number of unoccupied cells extending from it horizontally and vertically, including itself.
“two can play at this game”
of course it’s statue park (or a variant thereof)—my fixation on this puzzle type will never relent. this was one of the two winning entries for the recently concluded logic showcase 65, all about revisiting rulesets of prior showcase winners. for a long time, i’d wanted to knock out a 10×50 using the dreaded hexomino bank, and incredibly this construction only took me a day. it isn’t the only one to do so either:
scan lines rules
label some cells with one letter each such that each row spells exactly one word from the bank (ignoring empty cells), each word is spelled once, no letter repeats in a column, and all lettered cells connect orthogonally in a single group.
“evens and odds”
this was the other winning entry for the showcase. i tied myself for first. my longest yeah boy ever. i did have specific ideas going into this construction, and i had to get clever about massaging it into something that worked at all, but it took shockingly less effort than i thought it would, and i rocketed out of my chair upon completing it.
shiftopia rules
draw some paths indicating movement from some or all circles such that no paths turn or overlap each other. after all movements, each circle indicates the directions of the other circles that are nearest to it along the same row/column.
“tilted square”
this final showcase entry of mine didn’t place on the podium, but i think it’s actually my proudest puzzle of the set. took me the longest time to make, too; this puzzle type deserves more love.
this is in all likelihood the last you’ll see me #puzzlechosting. it’s been lovely sharing this space w/ y’all; i’ll truly miss this place. as i mentioned before, i can be found on bluesky, or you can follow my intermittent game work on itch.io. hit me up on discord, even! catch you in the next life, digital or otherwise.