Polynesia (Nurikabe Deconstruction)
(Published on 27. September 2022, 09:00 by Agent)
After exploring Yin Yang hybrids over the past months, I started to wonder what other pencil puzzle genres would be interesting to combine with sudoku. I'm sure there are many other interesting ideas for Yin Yang, and I'm pleased to see an increasing number of puzzle creators experiment with it. In the meantime, I hope you will enjoy this slighly different twist on hybrid puzzles, with a Nurikabe flavour!
Rules
- Shade some cells in the grid so that all shaded cells are orthogonally connected. No 2x2 area can be fully shaded.
- Place some digits from 1 to 9 in unshaded cells such that no repeating digits occur in any row or column. Shaded cells do not contain digits.
- Groups of orthogonally connected unshaded cells form islands, which do not touch orthogonally, but may touch diagonally. An island of size N must contain the digits 1 to N once each.
- Cells with arrows contain a digit that indicates the total number of unshaded cells (including itself) in the indicated directions combined.
- Caged cells contain a digit that indicates the size of the corresponding island. All possible cages are given.
Puzzle link
Have fun solving!
Solution code: Row 9 (left to right) then row 10 (left to right). Use X for empty cells. 22 characters in total.
Comments
on 27. March 2024, 21:40 by Piatato
Smooth and fun! A lot easier than I expected.
on 31. July 2023, 18:28 by StephenR
This was a beautiful puzzle which mostly flowed very smoothly. I did manage to break it at one point, because I'm an idiot. I still enjoyed it and hope Agent can forgive me the grievous insult to his excellent construction.
on 14. June 2023, 04:10 by Calvinball
I've been saving this puzzle for after I built up some Nurikabe experience and it sure did deliver, honestly wished I had tried it sooner. Brilliant puzzle yet again, thanks for taking your time to set this!
Although I think I did things backwards because this felt like a walk in the park after battling my way through Mathpesto's Nurikiller 2.
on 6. November 2022, 09:04 by RubberMittens
Wonderful puzzle, loved it.
-- Thank you @RubberMittens!
on 8. October 2022, 00:05 by Agent
Thank you @Dandelo @fserb @Crusader175!
@Christounet @Dandelo I'll keep this in mind when I post puzzles in the future. It seems like a majority of people don't think that this is a sudoku.
on 7. October 2022, 11:24 by Crusader175
Beautiful!
on 7. October 2022, 08:05 by fserb
this was so fun! <3
on 5. October 2022, 12:27 by Dandelo
Very nice.
I think it's not a Sudoku, not a Suguru, not a Latin Square, but has elements of all these types. Maybe the Chaos Construction tag without Sudoku tag is best?
The problem is, that many people here either look for non-sudokus or for sudokus, but I can imagine that both groups would like it.
on 3. October 2022, 15:07 by Christounet
@KNT : Sorry, I wanted to write "one of the closest thing", and I am aware that there are many other types of puzzles that might be close and that I don't know yet. By the way, I do like to discover these puzzle types through the work of setters that I follow regularly, and I think I would have done this one even if it did not have the sudoku tag.
on 1. October 2022, 16:54 by KNT
@Christounet I agree with @polar. There are a lot of non-sudoku genres in which you are to fill areas of size n with the digits 1-n. However... I do know a lot of people on this side of the portal (unfortunately) only check the "sudokus" section of the portal, so it is nice for a great puzzle like this to get the attention it wouldn't get if posted under non-sudokus.
-- What genres are you thinking of? I considered Suguru but didn't like it, because normal Suguru has no restrictions in rows and columns. I don't like having Nurikabe as the only puzzle genre either, because clearly this puzzle is very different from a pure Nurikabe.
on 1. October 2022, 02:17 by Christounet
A good puzzle is a good puzzle !
Definitely deserves the sudoku tag as it is the closest thing to describe a puzzle where to have to fill digits from 1 to 9 into some region, however weird they may look. Great job again, Agent !
-- Thank you @Christounet, glad you enjoyed it!
on 30. September 2022, 02:40 by Agent
Thank you @Franjo @Steven R @polar @MagnusJosefsson @cdwg2000 @Jesper @KNT @elpadrinoIV @kjholt! I'm glad that you enjoyed this Nurikabe hybrid, you can expect more of them in the near future :-)
on 29. September 2022, 02:45 by kjholt
Absolutely incredible. I love these hybrids so much.
on 28. September 2022, 11:58 by elpadrinoIV
So glad this was marked as Sudoku, otherwise I would never have seen it.
This deserves nothing less than 100% rating, thank you very much!
-- I'm glad you decided to give it a go!
on 28. September 2022, 01:24 by KNT
awesome
on 27. September 2022, 22:51 by Jesper
A very fun and approachable Nurikabe variant, enjoyed it, thanks!
on 27. September 2022, 15:28 by cdwg2000
Very nice!
on 27. September 2022, 14:46 by MagnusJosefsson
Fantastic! Very enjoyable hybrid with a well set solution path. I really love the direction you have been going with your setting.
-- I'm very grateful to hear this coming from you!
on 27. September 2022, 13:52 by polar
Beautifully executed. At risk of sounding like a broken record.. more please! :)
Edit: Pretty sure this belongs on the 'no sudokus' list!
-- I'm never really sure how to classify these hybrid puzzles. My reasoning is that the puzzle has essentially the same number placement restrictions (rows, columns, and regions) as regular sudoku.
on 27. September 2022, 13:24 by Steven R
A lot of fun, thanks!
on 27. September 2022, 12:15 by Franjo
As an old Nurikabe-lover I couldn‘t resist trying this one. And I had a very good time with it. Thank you very much for setting this lovely puzzle!
-- Thank you for showing some love to Nurikabe!
