Monday Mutant 80: Streampunk / Tetra Firma

Shade in tetrominoes such that the black cells are all connected to each other through their edges, and no 2x2 cell area within the grid contains all black cells. No two congruent tetrominoes may share an edge, even if they are rotated or reflected versions of each other. Numbers in a cell indicate the sizes of the orthogonally contiguous groups formed by black cells sharing a corner or an edge with that cell. For example, "3" means that the cell shares a corner or an edge with three black cells, and they form a single group, whereas "1 3" means the cell shares a corner with four black cells which form a group of three cells and a single separate cell. Cells with numbers cannot be black.

Fillomino-Fillia is over, and MellowMelon is hosting a contest where you can try guess the authorship of each of the 18 puzzles. Check it out!

Fillomino-Fillia has begun!

I've mentioned it before, and Palmer Mebane and I have previewed it – now Fillomino-Fillia has actually begun! You have approximately 47 hours and 37 minutes from the time of this post (I didn't plan ahead like Palmer and have this post prepared beforehand :[ ) to visit Logic Masters India, download the password-protected puzzle booklet, log in, and start the test. Then you will have 120 minutes to solve as many of the puzzles as possible. See how you compare against puzzle solvers all over the world! Also, good luck and stuff!

Fillomino-Fillia Preview Series: Shikaku Fillomino

This is a Shikaku Fillomino (AKA Polyominous). In addition to the usual rules, every polyomino must be shaped like a rectangle.

Answer entry: Enter the units digits of each square in the marked rows and columns, from left to right for rows and from top to bottom for columns.

Highlight to see the answer: 1545342144 2212444444

Fillomino-Fillia Preview Series: Cipher Fillomino

This is a cipher Fillomino (AKA Polyominous). The given numbers have been replaced by letters; all instances of a particular letter represent the same number, but two different letters must represent different numbers.

Answer entry: Enter the units digits of each square in the marked rows and columns, from left to right for rows and from top to bottom for columns. In Cipher Fillomino, answers providing either the letters or substituted units digits will be accepted.

Highlight to see the answer: 4444666266 5512525555 or AAAALLLRLL GGURGRGGGG

Don't forget to check out MellowMelon's blog for the other half of the preview series! I'd be remiss not to remind you of this, since he's been reminding his readers of this blog's existence constantly during this time. :)

Fillomino-Fillia Preview Series: Odd-Even Fillomino

This is an odd-even Fillomino (AKA Polyominous). In addition to the usual rules, the odd numbers must form a single polyomino, and the even numbers must similarly form a single polyomino.

Answer entry: Enter the units digits of each square in the marked rows and columns, from left to right for rows and from top to bottom for columns.

Highlight to see the answer: 9142436235 1999913315

Long-time readers may recall the first odd-even Polyominous on this blog, where the odd-even parity of each cell was given from the outset. This incarnation allows the odd numbers and the even numbers to interact more (by which I mean at all).

Fillomino-Fillia Preview Series: Classic Fillomino

This is a classic Fillomino (AKA Polyominous), operating by the classic rules.

Answer entry: Enter the units digits of each square in the marked rows and columns, from left to right for rows and from top to bottom for columns.

Highlight to see the answer: 8887771445 7772272554

You may notice that this image looks different from my usual images. That's because it was created by MellowMelon using a program (although the puzzle represented by the image was, of course, lovingly crafted by yours truly). This is how all of the images will look on the test, meaning you won't be able to tell which puzzles I made and which ones MellowMelon made, drastically increasing the difficulty of the test! (Or. . . not. :) )

Fillomino-Fillia!

In October of 2010, I had my first taste of solving puzzles in a competitive environment, thanks to the 20/10 Puzzle Decathlon, a well-written test by grandmaster Thomas Snyder which was hosted on Logic Masters India. As exciting as the whole experience was, I am even more excited to announce that this coming weekend, as I have hinted at previously, fellow logicsmith Palmer Mebane and I will present Fillomino-Fillia, a test on Logic Masters India consisting entirely of Fillomino puzzles (including a bevy of variations). I hope you will choose to participate in this test.

To participate, you will need to register an account on Logic Masters India. Download the instruction booklet and (when it is made available, which I'm told is usually a day before the test starts) the password-protected puzzle booklet. You may choose to start the test at any time during the weekend of June 4 and June 5 (note that this is GMT, so participants in the US, for example, will have between late June 3 and late June 5 to begin the test). When you do, the password to unlock the puzzle booklet will be given to you, and you will have 120 minutes to print out and solve as many of the 18 puzzles as you can. Each puzzle is worth a varying number of points, roughly corresponding to its difficulty; the harder the puzzle has been judged to be (based on the opinion of the authors and the test-solvers), the more points it's worth. When the 120 minutes have expired, you can see how well you performed, and how you compared to other contenders.

Some words of advice based on my experience:
* Read the freaking instruction booklet. When you're an idiot like me, you have no idea how much having your mind as prepared as possible to the puzzle booklet's contents will help you perform better on the test, until you've made the mistake of starting the test without such preparation.
* Check your answers as you enter them! Improper checking of my answers definitely cost me some points. In particular, I wish that I had notated the grids more than I thought I needed to for the purposes of solving quickly, to make it easier to check my answers.
* Practice! Over the next few days, and in lieu of my usual Monday Mutants post, MellowMelon and I will be posting practice puzzles of the varieties you'll see on the test. (It'll be like having several Monday Mutants instead of just one!) Use them to your advantage to sharpen your mind and to prepare yourself for the test that is to come.

Also check out the LMI forums for more discussion regarding Fillomino-Fillia!