a hot summer nightmare
(Published on 21. August 2025, 12:35 by aqjhs)
So marty_sears launched a prompt to make a sequence of puzzles tied together by a story and/or ruleset. Hope you enjoy this take on the task.
This story starts on a hot summer evening with a restless Marty trying to get some sleep in the middle of a heat wave, but his rest was interrupted...
Marty woke up to find himself alone in a cold and white room. There was a note on his hand: "It's your turn".
He looks around and feels as if the room is becoming smaller, there's only space to place the digits 1-6 once each in every row, column and box.
Suddenly a thunderous voice coming from the walls repeats in a loop:
- AIM OF THE EXPERIMENT: Marty must pick up the keys and get to the door by finding a path through the maze. The path must not visit any cell more than once, cross itself, or pass through any thick maze walls. As well as moving orthogonally, he may move diagonally if there's a 2x2 space in which to do so, but may never pass diagonally through a round wall-spot on the corner of a cell.
- TEST CONSTRAINT: Box borders split the path into segments with the same product.
Marty wanders in circles and doesn't seem to find an end to the maze... the grid is a torus: the edges are identified as the coloring indicates. The path wraps around the edges.
And as the voice keeps repeating its message, Marty feels a force that pushes him forward: he may only pass directly through a purple arrow if moving in the direction the arrow is pointing. An arrow always points to the smaller of the two digits it sits between.
This puzzle consists of multiple chapters, the first one in the following link and completing each puzzle in Sudokupad will reveal the link to the following chapters.
See also:
Solution code: Digits on Marty's path in column 6 of the final chapter, top to bottom.
Comments
on 2. October 2025, 05:37 by dovisutu
I wonder how many more dimensions you'll need to glue all the edges in place...
Anyway, rather awesome puzzle, glad that I managed to solve it before my brain melts :)
on 27. September 2025, 00:43 by ViKingPrime
I'm not sure how many more dimensions you can fit into a sudoku but I trust that you'll try nonetheless.
on 25. September 2025, 02:29 by Atticus837
Wow. gave this 5 stars for difficulty mostly because of the brain-melting geometry of the later grids. Everything along the way was totally fair, it was just hard to know where to look because there are holes in space and it's been unfolded for your convenience... Loved the way the product lines worked and interacted, especially in the final puzzle.
on 5. September 2025, 15:16 by Zibl
One of the best puzzles I've solved, even if my brain felt like mush after the final chapter... :)
on 29. August 2025, 18:26 by DubiousMobius
What a journey! These puzzles circle back on themselves like a recurring dream. Amazing work, thank you!
on 26. August 2025, 18:04 by aqjhs
cosmetic changes and one extra clue for good measure
on 23. August 2025, 01:56 by zeniko
What a mind-bending journey! That final level was indeed a nightmare, which brakes and shatters in so many ways. Very intricately set. Thanks for sharing.
on 22. August 2025, 10:22 by Piff
I made a lot of mistakes in the final one, but was motivated to try and try again, great puzzle, very mindbending geometry.
