Janus (Chiaroscuro + U-Bahn)
(Published on 15. May 2025, 01:25 by sfushidahardy)
Janus
This puzzle was made for the final of the Pencil Puzzle Madness tournament. Huge thanks to Agent, Niverio and dumediat for judging, and isajo4002 for organizing. I hope you enjoy the puzzle!
- U-Bahn: draw a connected loop network through the centers of some cells, which may branch or turn, but may not have any dead ends. A clue outside the grid indicates how many times the corresponding line type (i.e. a cross, branch, straight line, or turn) appears in the corresponding row or column, irrespective of the line type's rotation.
- Chiaroscuro (unclued): shade some cells so that each group of shaded or unshaded cells is a unique shape. Shapes that are rotated or reflected are considered the same shape. All shaded groups have an even number of cells, and all unshaded groups have an odd number of cells.
- Interaction: within a Chiaroscuro shape, all non-empty cells must have the same line type (cross, branch, straight or turn).
Other puzzles I've made for the tournament:
Round one: Anableps.
Round two: Canyonlands.
Round three: Zombie!.
Semi-finals: Amoeba Festival.
In the finals, I was up against yttrio. I thoroughly enjoyed his creation too, which you can view here.
Solution code: The number of shaded cells in each row, from top to bottom. (For the example puzzle, the solution code would be 32133.)
Comments
on 18. June 2025, 00:03 by Christounet
Brilliant! Thanks :)
on 18. May 2025, 09:04 by askaksaksask
Exceptional puzzle. I believe I've solved all of your recent entries, and even among your other ace puzzles this is a standout. Brilliant work. Everything was creative, the logic was fresh, the setting was tight, and the challenge was very rewarding to crack. So fun to incorporate the shading as chiaroscuro, to introduce some new approach to the natural Ubahn/shading pairing. Thank you very much for this!!
on 15. May 2025, 12:27 by Jesper
Great puzzle!
on 15. May 2025, 11:39 by Niverio
Beautiful finale! Really enjoyed all your creations throughout the event, well deserved win :D
on 15. May 2025, 06:59 by yttrio
Simply fantastic puzzle! If I had to lose the finals, I'm glad it was to a puzzle with this high of quality. Congrats again on your win!
on 15. May 2025, 05:13 by KNT
can only echo the other comments - very good!
on 15. May 2025, 02:27 by MaizeGator
Congratulations to the champion! Hopefully this does not signal the end of weird hybrid pencil puzzles from you
on 15. May 2025, 01:36 by Agent
Awesome puzzle, very good break-in and ending, it was always rewarding to make progress!
on 15. May 2025, 01:35 by dumediat
This was an excellent puzzle, and certainly fitting for a finals match. Thank you for bringing this to us, and congrats on your finals victory! :D
