Schickes Ei
(Published on 11. September 2023, 20:39 by glum_hippo)
A new loop puzzle type, dedicated to Christian Halberstadt, with gratitude for 10 years of service in LMD's board of directors. The word 'Shikisai', I'm told, is Japanese for 'colors'.
Draw a closed loop in the grid which fulfills the following requirements:
The loop moved orthogonally or diagonally from cell midpoint to cell midpoint. The loop does not cross itself nor visit any cell more than once. Not all cells need to be visited.
Assign to each cell color (yellow, green, red, blue) a different angle, selected from 0°, 45°, 90° and 135°. In each cell of the same color the loop must turn at the indicated angle (at 0°, of course, it continues straight). When the loop passes through a white cell it may turn at any angle, including 0°, and the angle can be different for different white cells.
Some of the thick-bordered regions contain a number which indicates the number of cells in the region that must be visited by the loop.
It is possible for some regions to not be visited by the loop at all.
| Example | Solution |
Penpa version of the main puzzle.
Alternate version of the main puzzle, for color blindness (same colors are marked with same letters)
Solution code: For each row within the 12x12 grid, the number of visited cells (the 4 extra cells on the edges are ignored). In the example, 4555563
Comments
on 15. October 2023, 21:35 by OGRussHood
Zetamath, Tristan, and the chat abandoned this puzzle after 2 1/2 hours... but I continued to play with it for an additional hour and I finally cracked the solution. That was definitely a beast of a puzzle.
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Thank you for persisting, and I'm sorry I couldn't be around to help the stream. It sounds like some chat members were quite dismissive in away that makes me think twice about subjecting future puzzles to the livestream medium.
on 20. September 2023, 20:29 by Mr.Menace
That was some puzzle. A bit of doodling came a long way in the end! Thanks for making this interesting riddle for celebrating Christian, and for us to enjoy!
on 20. September 2023, 19:46 by glum_hippo
add link to example puzzle
on 19. September 2023, 17:56 by CHalb
Das schicke Ei war für mich eine harte und leckere Nuss. Vielen Dank für diese sehr gelungene Novität! U.a. hat mich freilich gefreut, dass die Grundidee der Achtelwenden charmant und gelungen aufgegriffen wurde.
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Lieber C, Deine Worte bereiten mir unheimliche Freude. Danke fürs Lösen!
on 18. September 2023, 23:17 by glum_hippo
Fehlender Hinweis! Nun hinzugefügt in allen Versionen
on 12. September 2023, 18:49 by JayForty
Quite tricky, for me, but fascinating! I'm impressed it solved with so few clues and so much flexibility.
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I hope this puzzle inspires more puzzles! Thanks so much for your comment and your perseverance, Jay!
on 12. September 2023, 11:52 by Leonardo024
I am about to start the puzzle now, looking forward to it! But before starting it, I think it would make more sense if you call the 0° angle actually 180°, as 0° would imply that an endpoint is being created.
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A 180° turn is when you stop and continue in the opposite direction. A turn by zero means you continue straight. This debate has been had with this type of puzzle many times. Sorry for any confusion but I’m going to go with the conventional explanation… we’re not talking about angles but about degrees of turn. Thanks for the note and I hope you enjoy!
on 12. September 2023, 04:30 by glum_hippo
version für Farbenblinde
