tough call!
my most ambitious puzzle might be my cipher liar slitherlink, originally an entry for logic showcase
. not a popular entry by any stretch, but i still think it’s solid, and in any case it feels nice to have “make a cipher liar puzzle” crossed off the bucket list.
cipher liar slitherlink rules
draw a loop that travels along dots orthogonally and does not overlap itself. each letter represents an integer from 0 to 3: identical letters represent identical numbers, and different letters represent different numbers. each lettered cell indicates the number of its edges occupied by the loop. additionally, each lettered cell outside of the loop is false.
“particle collider”
perhaps my most “successful” puzzle is my yajisan-kin-kon-kan, the winning entry for logic showcase 19. honestly a part of me still thinks that victory was such a fluke, with a grid clocking in at a measly 49 cells and a central idea i stumbled upon by sheer accident, but hey we take those!
yajisan-kin-kon-kan rules
mark some cells with diagonal double-sided mirrors such that no marked cells share an edge and all of the unmarked cells connect orthogonally in a single group. each numbered arrow indicates the number of times its line of sight reaches a mirror, and each mirror redirects any line of sight that reaches it according to its orientation. any numbered arrow cell can itself be marked: such cells no longer indicate anything and can be true or false.
“lying at the center of the galaxy”
the closest thing i have to a miracle construction is probably my windowed statue park, an entry for logic showcase 37. i don’t know what the “correct” way to construct a puzzle like this is, but it can’t be the tediously convoluted way i did it.
windowed statue park 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 black circle indicates a cell occupied by a shape, and each white circle indicates a cell not occupied by a shape. additionally, for each occupied cell in a window, the same cell in the other window is not occupied, and vice versa.
“fertile soil”
which of these is the puzzle i’m proudest of? ultimately, none of them! my standards as a constructor continue to evolve, and while i do believe these are highlights of my puzzlography, they carry a greater context for me: the processes of their creation. and while i suppose what matters most are the puzzles themselves, i can’t help but see reflected in them the constructor i used to be, and i can’t help but think about how much i’ve improved since then. so, in all honesty, the puzzle i’m proudest of right now is the one i made most recently! that’s the second statue park in this post; it’d be conceited of me to elaborate the reasons i think it’s an effective showcase of my current skill, but the most personally relevant one is that all its qualities were achieved in full deliberateness on my part. well, considering the length of this post, i guess i’ve let myself be a little conceited.
