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 Twin puzzles with a difference 
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Posted on: Mon Oct 30, 2017 4:08 pm




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Joined: Sun Jan 31, 2016 7:52 am
Post Twin puzzles with a difference
I have had some ideas for some variations to the standard Calcudoku puzzles. Below are two sample puzzles.

The first is for a 6x6 twin puzzle with an overlapping area. (I made a small mistake, the cage labelled 2/ should be 2: ) . The overlapping area provides extra clues for working out the solution: as an example by calculating the top right cell value, you can reason that the cage 13+ near the lower left corner has only 2 possible combinations.

The second is a 6x6 twin puzzle with cages that span across both puzzles. The large square is just there to help you see that there are two 6x6 puzzles, this needs to be improved, it does not look good. I thought this would make an interesting variation, but perhaps it does little to make it different to solve than a standard twin puzzle.

I would be interested to know what you think of these puzzles, I have some more ideas that I will share with you soon.

Image

Image


Last edited by michaele on Wed Nov 01, 2017 9:48 am, edited 1 time in total.



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Posted on: Mon Oct 30, 2017 4:57 pm




Posts: 279
Joined: Sun May 22, 2016 2:17 pm
Post Re: Twin puzzles with a difference
These look really cool! I can't wait to try them myself.
(By the way, Patrick, how's my puzzle coming along? Just wondering - I don't mean to be pushy [smile] )


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Posted on: Mon Oct 30, 2017 6:51 pm




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Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 11:58 pm
Post Re: Twin puzzles with a difference
marblevolcano wrote:
(By the way, Patrick, how's my puzzle coming along? Just wondering - I don't mean to be pushy [smile] )


Sorry, you're in the queue [mellow]

It's just that there's a long queue of requests at the moment (for the puzzle site, for work, for other projects),
so as soon as a request will involve a sizeable chunk of programming/testing, it will take a while until a find
a time slot for it...


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Posted on: Tue Oct 31, 2017 7:22 pm




Posts: 253
Joined: Tue May 24, 2011 4:55 pm
Post Re: Twin puzzles with a difference
I really enjoyed both of these new varieties of twin puzzles [smile] Thanks, michaele [thumbup]

I didn't begin well, though, because I made the silly mistake of just printing the puzzles and starting to solve them without reading the instructions or even paying attention to the title of this thread [blush] For a long time, I believed each twin puzzle to be "just" a set of overlapping or neighbouring non-twin puzzles with some shared cages [rolleyes] Having struggled to solve these supposedly non-twin puzzles, I was frustrated to find in the end that neither of them seemed to have a unique solution [crying] :-)

One funny thing about my getting it wrong: You may have noticed that the three-cell "0-" cage that straddles the neighbouring puzzles in the second set has a surplus broad line that makes it look like a two-cell "0-" cage [scared] with an empty one-cell cage to the right of it. Most puzzlers probably realise right away that the intended layout is a single three-cell cage because the apparent one-cell cage lacks a descripton and because a two-cell "0-" cage would be unsolvable (the cells would have to contain the same number, which would then occupy different positions in the same row in the two neighbouring puzzles, breaking the "twin" condition). But if the puzzles had been non-twin like I thought, a two-cell "0-" cage in that position might indeed have been solvable, and I worked for a long time on the assumption that you had included such a novelty on purpose in order to surprise and challenge your fellow puzzlers [biggrin]

A note for new calcudokuers: Twin puzzles are usually two separate calcudoku puzzles, shown side by side, that have a shared solution. That is, even if each puzzle may have more than one valid solution, there's only one arrangement of numbers that works as a solution to both puzzles (you could say that the solutions, not the puzzles themselves, must be "identical twins"). These new varieties by michaele, in which the twin puzzles are overlapping or neighbouring and have some shared cages, still retain the condition that the arrangement of numbers in each of the "twins" must be the same.


Last edited by bram on Tue Oct 31, 2017 11:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.



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Posted on: Tue Oct 31, 2017 11:03 pm




Posts: 149
Joined: Sun Jan 31, 2016 7:52 am
Post Re: Twin puzzles with a difference
There is a mistake in the second puzzle, the 0- cage in the centre of the puzzle should include the cell with no label.

Thank you bram, I had missed the mistake with the 0- cage in the second puzzle. Usually if I make a typo in my puzzle it crashes when drawing the puzzle, but this time it managed to draw the puzzle with a mistake. It is good to know you enjoyed the puzzles, I think the overlapping puzzle has more potential to provide an interesting challenge, I will post another overlapping puzzle that is a bit more difficult soon.

I have some other ideas for variations, I am very interested to know what people think of them, even if it is to say you don't like something.


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Posted on: Wed Nov 01, 2017 7:39 am




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Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 11:58 pm
Post Re: Twin puzzles with a difference
michaele wrote:
There is a mistake in the second puzzle, the 0- cage in the centre of the puzzle should include the cell with no label.


You can edit the post to fix the mistake (or I can do this if you want).


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Posted on: Wed Nov 01, 2017 9:53 am




Posts: 149
Joined: Sun Jan 31, 2016 7:52 am
Post Re: Twin puzzles with a difference
Quote:
You can edit the post to fix the mistake


I have fixed the mistake (hopefully the only mistake). I will take more care next time to get it correct first time.


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Posted on: Wed Nov 01, 2017 8:06 pm




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Joined: Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:20 pm
Post Re: Twin puzzles with a difference
Thank You, Michaele. [thumbsup]

These were fun to to do. I have a hard time changing old habits. It was hard to get out of the mindset of not having numbers repeat in a row or column.

For what ever reason, the first puzzle was easier than the second, for me


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Posted on: Thu Nov 02, 2017 12:08 am




Posts: 149
Joined: Sun Jan 31, 2016 7:52 am
Post Re: Twin puzzles with a difference
Quote:
For what ever reason, the first puzzle was easier than the second, for me


The first puzzle is too easy, I was mostly just trying to demonstrate the idea of overlapping puzzles. I will post another overlapping puzzle that is more difficult soon. I think if it is more difficult it will make the overlapping area of the puzzle a useful clue to solving it.

Quote:
I have a hard time changing old habits. It was hard to get out of the mindset of not having numbers repeat in a row or column.


Certainly the second puzzle has that problem, it looks more like an oddly shaped Calcudoku that does not follow the rules, I will probably not do another puzzle in that style. For the overlapping puzzle I will try a background colour for one of the 6x6 puzzles, maybe that will take away the feeling of some of the rows and columns having numbers repeated.


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