Featured Puzzle – Hashi #4
Connect all of the numbered islands into a single group, using a series of bridges. No more than two bridges may connect any pair of islands.
Featured Puzzle – Tetroid #1
Spring is coming, a time of renewal. So why not introduce a new puzzle? Today, we have Tetroid, a grid division puzzle. It’s a little like L.I.T.S., except that there are no predefined regions, and you’re using all 5 tetromino shapes.
Featured Puzzle: Apple Tree #2 – Happy Johnny Appleseed Day!
Johnny Appleseed, born John Chapman, is an American folk hero. During his lifetime, he championed natural conservation, and introduced apple trees across much of the northern United States. Interestingly, this is one of two holidays celebrating Johnny – the other is in September. Naturally, this is a great reason to play another Apple Tree puzzle! Draw lines to connect all apples in the tree with the trunk.
Featured Puzzle: Aquariums #1 – Aegir Sea Festival
In Norse mythology, Aegir was a Frost Giant that was also god of the sea. He was also the brewer for the Asgardian pantheon. One of his better-known feats is that when emptied, his mugs would magically refill with more ale.
To celebrate this ancient sea god, I wanted to showcase a Aquariums puzzle. The key to figuring these out is to think about how water flows. Shade cells in some regions to represent water inside them.
Featured Puzzle: Comparison Sudoku #2
Happy Baba Marta Day! This is a Bulgarian holiday to celebrate Grandmother Martha, the bringer of spring. Observers exchange and wear red and white tassels, called Martenitsas to guard against evil. Once the wearer has seen a stork or blossoming tree, they remove the Martenitsa and hang it from the tree.
Today’s puzzle, colored to resemble a Martenitsa, is Comparison Sudoku.
Featured Puzzle: Heyawake #4
Shade cells in each region equal to the number given. If a region has no number, it may have any number of shaded cells, including zero. The remaining unshaded cells must form a single orthogonally contiguous area.
Featured Puzzle: Meadows #1 – Isolate the Shamrocks
Saint Patrick was a fifth century Christian missionary in Ireland. Interestingly, he was actually British, kidnapped by pirates and held as a slave in Ireland for 6 years before escaping. Later, he returned to proselytize. Another fun bit of trivia – the four-leaf clover is not a shamrock. A shamrock has only 3 leaves, and Saint Patrick used it during a sermon to illustrate the concept of the Holy Trinity.
Today, we’re playing Meadows. Simply divide the grid into square regions. Every region must contain exactly one four-leaf clover.
Featured Puzzle: Nurimaze #1 – Beware the Ides of March
At one point in history, the Ides of a month was simply the middle of it, associated with the first full moon, due to the origins relating to the lunar cycle. But that forever changed in 44 B.C.E., when Roman senators assassinated Julius Caesar. But, can you change history and help Caesar escape to his waiting chariot?
The palace is divided into rooms. Some are impassable because the traitors have set them ablaze! Shade the impassable rooms to reveal the escape route.
Featured Puzzle: Pencils #1 – National Pencil Day
On this day in 1858, Hymen Lipman received US Patent # 19,783 for a pencil with an attached eraser. Sure, it was later rescinded because it wasn’t a new device, but just a composite of two existing products, but we still celebrate the day as National Pencil Day.
Much later, in 2017, a Japanese teenager submitted a new puzzle themed around pencils to Nikoli magazine that quickly gained popularity, because it seemed to capture the essence of solving pencil puzzles.
Draw pencils into the grid. Each pencil must also draw a line as long as itself, so that all grid cells are used.
Featured Puzzle: Rabbits & Trees #1 – Find the Easter Bunny
Happy Easter! Today we have a special treat. Rather than a traditional Easter egg hunt, we’re going to be playing hide and seek with the Easter Bunny and his friends!