Friday 7 May 2010

Smallest Hardest Part 2






http://puzzlevalves.blogspot.com/2010/05/smallest-hardest.html

Smallest Hardest Part 1

A - ?
A - E


Well time to the ball rolling again, I suppose. Now, many puzzle makers take delight in making absolutely massive puzzles into which they put all that difficult logic. I however, this week have decided to do the opposite. Instead of massive puzzles, I have introduced smallest hardest featuring eight of the hardest 5x5 puzzles known to man! The first Easy as ABC even has another challenge as you may have guessed. The value represented by ? is the lagest value to yield the puzzle with a unique solution, all you have to do then is solve it!

http://puzzlevalves.blogspot.com/2010/05/smallest-hardest-part-2.html

Friday 23 April 2010

The Ye Gods of Interviews






Why Ye Gods I hear you say? Well it's simple really, who hasn't at any time gone into an inverview at any time and thought "Ye Gods!" There you go!

Moving swiftly on! A few special puzzles here for you today, in order a nurikabe, a heyawake, a fillonimo and an extra regions sudoku, all with their own unique concept! The extra regions having both the traditional 3x3 grids and it's own "colour coded" areas!

Author's note, The symetry down the one diagonal of the nurikabe is entirely accidental originally i just went for the 12345 series down the digonals but it wasn't until I'd finished I noticed it was diagonally symetrical, so I suppose I can't claim that one!

Friday 16 April 2010

Woop, Summer at last!




A-F
Ok Folks, got some more puzzles for you all. The most are self explanitary, a kuromasu, a 16x16 Irregular, an extra-regions, and one easy as ABC (A-F), in that order!

I'll just say this for the extra-regions, there are only 4 extra-regions, not 9, this was the only way I could illustrate it though!

Saturday 10 April 2010

Stepping Up






Five puzzles for you today, that's two akaris and three sudoku variants, all of them with their own challenge. hope you all had a good Easter holiday!

Wednesday 31 March 2010

British Summer Time - That's B*S*T!



Well here in England we have entered British Summer Time, which naturally means it's cold, wet and windy (I prefer winter, it's warmer!) Anyways, while we're freezing over here you guys can settle down and look at these, lovely little gems!

Here's to a good Summer!

Tuesday 30 March 2010

Extra Regions, it's on a whole different level!




Well I've got another new(ish) genre for you today with not one but two puzzles for you to feast your eyes on. To help you the rules for this challenging genre located here... http://puzzlevalves.blogspot.com/2010/01/rules-for-sudoku-variants.html

Monday 29 March 2010

A couple for the road



Well, back again. I'm sorry I haven't updated the site in a week, I've had puzzler's block (or whatever it's called). However, I'm back again with some new puzzles for you guys. Take some time and enjoy them, all being well I'll have some more up tomorrow!

Friday 19 March 2010

Get the ball rolling again





Triple trial for you here as you can see, a Masyu, a Hitori and an Akari, all 10x10, all quite advanced and all of them ready for a challenge... go on you can do it!

Thursday 18 March 2010

Easy as ACEDB

A-E
What gets me is that these puzzles are titled Easy as ABC or similar, but do you ever see them in word order down every line, if at all, of course you don't, hence the title, anyways this one is an ABCDE, or whatever so watch out for those two blanks!

Two new puzzles - Kuromasu and Akari



Well here goes nothing, two new puzzles, one a Kuromasu also known by the English "where is black cells" and one Akari or "Light Up" both of them come with there own challenge, what else to say but stay tuned for more!

Rules for Akari

Rules for Akari are as follows,

Place light bulbs in the grid so that all squares are lit up.
Light bulbs occupy one square and light up all squares in a horizontal and vertical direction, as well as themselves.
No light bulbs are in another light bulb's "line of sight"
The numbers dictate how many light bulbs there are touching horizontally or vertically the black square the number is on.

Rules for Kuromasu

Rules for Kuromasu are as follows,

Divide the grid into black and white squares
Each number Shows how many white squares are seen from that point, including itself
No numbered cell can be black
All white squares are connected
No black squares touch

Saturday 13 March 2010

The grand finale- Masyu Madness


Well congratulations if you've got this far, the end is in sight, but first a Masyu to finish the series. This is one that wont go down so easily either, the core challenge here is to keep moving, get stuck and its got you.

Here's to the winners!

Friday 12 March 2010

Fillomino - Friday's Fiendish Fiesta


No let up here I'm afraid, still only one more after this one, then you can have a well earned break! Not today though, today's puzzle is this nasty fillomino, full of traps, hiddens and logic enough to make ya head hurt, I would say enjoy but how can you, this puzzle is evil!

Thursday 11 March 2010

Nurikabe - Now in bite size!


Day four, still struggling? Well you will be with this one let me tell you. It's a nurikabe, a nurikabe with a nasty trail. S'all I'm gonna say about it 'cept the usual good luck solving it!

Wednesday 10 March 2010

Master of the third trail - Heyawake



How you folks keeping up, I've got a heyawake with your names on it. This puzzle is so intricatte, just a fancy word I use for fiddly and nasty, good luck solving it cause it ain't nice!

Tuesday 9 March 2010

Round Two - LITS


Right, there's no let up with these, and to prove it here's a little LITS puzzle for you. Well, I say little but of course I don't mean it . Round two in the series is this LITS, good luck...

Monday 8 March 2010

25x25 Series - Sudoku



Betcha thought I'd gone. Well I haven't, actually I've been working on these, the giant series, each one 25 by 25, that's 625 squares!
The first one's Sudoku A through to Y in each row, column and box. You enjoy while I catch some zzz's!

Friday 26 February 2010

And The Winner Is...



Well, here it is, the results to the first ever Puzzle Valves Challenge. Our winner for the chance to have his puzzle featured on this very blog is.... Fred Coughlin of PuzzlePicnic fame! Proving it can be done on a totally symetrical 7x7 masyu which meets all the requirements and more! Congratulations and stay tuned for more challenges!

4 Puzzles For The Price of 1







Well, it's true I could have put them in seperate posts, but ah... what the hey, here it is 4 puzzles in 1 post happy puzzling!
By the way if you're wondering it goes Sudoku, Nurikabe, Heyawake, Fillomino!

Tuesday 23 February 2010

Bill Please!

Three people check into a hotel. They pay £30 to the manager and go to their room. The manager suddenly remembers that the room rate is £25 and gives £5 to the bellboy to return to the people. On the way to the room the bellboy reasons that £5 would be difficult to share among three people so he pockets £2 and gives £1 to each person. Now each person paid £10 and got back £1. So they paid £9 each, totalling £27. The bellboy has £2, totalling £29. Where is the missing £1?

LITS, the windmill


Well, I'm back agian with this LITS. Now LITS is named afer the shapes use L, I, T and S so surely SLIT would be better, I mean at least slit is a word, right? Anyways, if the wondering why I've called it the mindmill then try solving it, it'll have you going around in circles!