Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

Standard sudoku rules applies. Fill the grid with numbers from 1 to 9 so each digit occurs exactly once in every row, column and 3x3 box.

The arrow indicates the number of the cells in the first x cells in the arrow direction who are larger than the digit at the end of the direction, where x is the first cell the arrow sees. The first x cells has to be inside the grid.

All possible arrows are given.

Now I revisit this, this is probably where i shift my style and turn to structure. I did not expect two easy ideas can combine into this stuff. As always, negative restraint is just there for convenience and distraction. Useful? Probably not. At this point, i did not put the structure at the beginning and the middle. I put it at the end, which is not noticeable enough, and leads to a hard opening. At this point, i really suspect this type of variant is hard to construct a structure at the beginning that is noticeable enough. It’s very, scatter like.

I think this puzzle conclude my first period of setting. Most of the ideas i think of have negative restraint. It’s easy enough for me to test different ways of setting. After this puzzle, font, grid, symbols are mostly set and ready. After this puzzle, it only takes me around 10 minutes to standardize my draft, not 30 minutes. And i think it’s after this, i don’t hold back. Negative restraint shows me what people might drawn to, or what i’ll be drawn to. Different looking grid also gives me idea on what a puzzle should looks like. Negative restraint is something i’m struggle to find the fun. It’s not always about using it. It’s more like a safe guard or a back up. For setters, it means he has enough confidence to let the solvers run wild. But the thing is, with negative restraint, the coverage for the clues, especially in-grid clues, are hard to control. Too dense, too messy. Too thin, too hard and unorganized. So for the next period, i focus on how to create a false sense of negative restraint and what i find interesting when solving the original. I map the negative restraint, how hard will other rules be?