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Schedule for Next Week

Last week’s combination of Masyu and Fillomino puzzles can be found in this PDF.

This upcoming week features some puzzle variations from Serkan Yürekli, specifically six Tapa variations chosen from the top styles from Serkan’s Tapa Variations Contests. There are many interesting puzzles this week, just as you’d expect from the author of the Classic Puzzles and Variations series.

Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Pentapa by Serkan, access to puzzle solutions, and a video walkthrough of one of the puzzles. If you’d like to receive some of these special rewards, please click here for more info.

Schedule for Next Week

The most recent Patrons’ week of puzzles can be found in this PDF.

This upcoming week brings together classic puzzle and variations in two genres: Masyu and Fillomino. Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Pentominous by Murat Can Tonta, access to puzzle solutions, and a video walkthrough of the Saturday puzzle. please click here for more info.

Also, check back here towards the end of the week for a special puzzle from Prasanna Seshadri.

Schedule for Next Week

Our last week of puzzles from guest contributors can be found in this PDF.

This upcoming week is another “Patrons’ week”, featuring requested puzzle styles from our top patrons. As usual for these patrons’ weeks, the difficulty is on the higher end.

Monday: Tapa (Borders) by Murat Can Tonta
Tuesday: Castle Wall by Prasanna Seshadri
Wednesday: Fillomino by Grant Fikes
Thursday: SLICY by Thomas Snyder
Friday: Arrow/Shape/Thermo-Sudoku by Prasanna Seshadri
Saturday: Japanese Sums by Serkan Yürekli

Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus LITS by Carl Worth, access to puzzle solutions, and a written walkthrough of the Saturday puzzle. If you’d like to receive some of these special rewards, please click here for more info.

PS: Our webmaster has been working on the solver widget and it looks like it may be back online again. Please tell us if you are having any issues with the widget and, if so, what browsers you are using. You might have to clear your cache or do a hard refresh (Ctrl+F5) to see the updated widget.

Schedule for Next Week

Our recent Colossal Cave Collection week can be found in this PDF.

This week features a mix of guest contributions to the website. We get a lot of great submissions every year, and think you’ll enjoy the selections we have for you this time.

Monday: Slitherlink by Walker Anderson
Tuesday: Fillomino by Izak Bulten
Wednesday: Balance Loop by Bryce Herdt
Thursday: Country Road by Bryce Herdt
Friday: Cave by Walker Anderson
Saturday: Sum Star by Dan Adams

Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Tapa by Prasanna Seshadri, access to puzzle solutions, and a video walkthrough of the Friday puzzle. If you’d like to receive some of these special rewards, please click here for more info.

Schedule for Next Week

Our last week of puzzles, including Balance Loop and Tapa (Islands), can be found in this PDF.

This week marks a new paperback book release for us. The Colossal Cave Collection by Roger Barkan, which has been in our e-store for several months, is now available in print at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other fine retailers. We’ll be posting some puzzles from the book, as well as one special new variation from Roger, throughout the week.

Cave by Roger Barkan

We are planning to release Logic Puzzles 101 and then The Art of Puzzles in paperback form this February and March. Besides print versions of existing titles, we are on track to release ~12 e-books this year. This weekend our grandmaster patrons received an early release of the first section (Yajilin and Double Yajilin) from The Art of Puzzles 2: Double Trouble. The e-book will be in our store soon, but if you want to be sure to get all our e-books early then please click here for more info.

Schedule for Next Week

Our first week of puzzles from 2017 can be found in this PDF.

This week will feature two “mini-weeks” with these variations: Balance Loop, and Tapa (Islands). The puzzles are harder than usual (probably starting at mid-week difficulty).

Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Fillomino by Murat Can Tonta, access to puzzle solutions, and a video walkthrough of the Friday puzzle. If you’d like to receive some of these special rewards, please click here for more info.

Schedule for Next Week

We’re starting January with Just One week of puzzles. How often will we publish on the web in 2017? Only time will tell.

Monday: Nanro by Grant Fikes
Tuesday: Castle Wall by Serkan Yürekli
Wednesday: Battleships by Thomas Snyder
Thursday: Cross the Streams by Serkan Yürekli
Friday: Pata by Serkan Yürekli
Saturday: Pentominous by Carl Worth

Our supporters will also be receiving a bonus Cave by Murat Can Tonta, access to puzzle solutions, and a video walkthrough of the Saturday puzzle. If you’d like to receive some of these special rewards, please click here for more info.

Best of 2016

All of the puzzles selected by our solvers as the “Best of 2016” are gathered in this PDF. You can read more about them in our other “Best of” posts.

Best of 2016: Shading Puzzles

Here are our best Shading puzzles of 2016, now our second most frequent category behind Loop/Path with 50 posts this past year.

Leading off this list was an Easy as LITS variation from Serkan that had a super high FAVE/solve ratio as a patron bonus puzzle. [Note: this is one of two supporter bonuses to win a Best Of award this year, but they’ll stay blurred on this site for non-patrons.]

Easy as LITS by Serkan Yürekli

Prasanna was our shading puzzle master this year, including this surprise of a Nurikabe variation prepared as practice for the WPC with a clean logical theme.

Nurikabe by Prasanna Seshadri

Prasanna also created a new Nanro variation “by accident” this year, which we call Nanro (Signpost). This early Spiral-themed example was well reviewed.

Nanro (Signpost) by Prasanna Seshadri

But the two best shading puzzles of this year were a kind of call and response from Prasanna and our audience, based around a “Windows” variation Prasanna experimented with. This Tapa in particular got high scores from the Windows week.

Tapa by Prasanna Seshadri

And then inspired guest contributor Jack Lance to make another version, this time with overlapping windows.

Tapa by Jack Lance

Basically tied in votes and clearly connected in origin, these Tapa (Windows) together are the best Shading Puzzle of 2016.

Best of 2016: Region Division Puzzles

Here are our best Region Division puzzles of 2016, selected from the 39 web posts in this category.

While we didn’t have as many guest contributions in 2016 as in earlier years with the site, there were still some stand-out puzzles from our guests including this magnificent Cave by Bryce Herdt with Fibonacci Spiral theme.

Cave by Bryce Herdt

Another Cave, this time a Diagonal variation from Prasanna Seshadri, also got top marks from many solvers.

Cave (Diagonal) by Prasanna Seshadri

Carl Worth demonstrated the quality that earned him a contributing puzzlemaster position this year with a tough Fillomino puzzle with a dominoes theme.

Fillomino by Carl Worth

The best Region Division puzzle this year though went to this combination of Pentominous and Star Battle by Grant Fikes that gave solvers a unique kind of logical challenge.

Pentominous (Star Battle) by Grant Fikes