The Light Maze (Chaos Construction, RGB)
(Published on 7. January 2025, 16:15 by Chilly)
The rules:
- Almost normal Sudoku rules apply.
- Chaos Construction: each row, column and region must contain one complete set of the digits 0-9, with no repeats. Regions are orthogonally connected, and must be determined by the solver.
- RGB: Each row and column must contain exactly three filter cells, one red, one green and one blue, that filter out red, green and blue light respectively. Filter cells are not part of regions and do not contain digits. The clues outside the grid indicate the sum of the digits that are the same colour as the clue in the respective row/column when white light illuminates the grid from the clue along its respective row/column, taking filter effects into account (region borders do not affect light). The effect of the filters is as in physics, i.e. white light is formed from a mixture of red, green and blue. So, removing red from white gives cyan, removing green from white gives magenta and removing blue from white gives yellow. Removing a further colour from cyan, magenta or yellow (secondary colours) leaves one of the primary colours (red, green or blue) and then removing the final colour leaves black (no light). The respective colours are indicated by the colour of the background in the clue. A '0' clue can mean either that the total sum of digits is zero, or that there are no such digits of that colour in the row/column.
- Example: in a row with a blue 12 clue on the left, if the order of cells were:
12 -> --R---G---B-- (where '->' is the direction of lighting and viewing, 'RGB' are filters, and '-' are digits)
then the first two digits would be white, the three digits after the R would be cyan (white minus red = cyan), the three digits after the G would be blue and must sum to 12 (cyan minus green = blue). The last two digits after the B would be black.
- Arrows: an arrow in a cell indicates that there is at least one other cell in the direction of the arrow that is in the same region as the cell with the arrow, but that there is at least one filter cell, and/or cell of a different region, somewhere between these two cells in the direction of the arrow.
I realise that the RGB rules in particular are a little complicated, so I'm including the first picture below to show how the filters work.
Solution code: Row 10 digits - including '-' for region and filter borders, and R, G and B for the red blue and green filters respectively (filters have borders on all sides, even when adjacent to each other). Eg. Row 4 of the example puzzle would be 152-B-4-G-R-3
Comments
on 31. May 2025, 10:08 by Rafje
I gave it 6 stars for difficulty, one for each week it took me to solve it.
on 28. March 2025, 15:33 by Ekkojensen
Wow, this was a difficult one for me. Took a long time, but fun all the way, and a very cool ruleset. :) I am curious as to how you go about making a puzzle like this? Do you start from a 'solution' and work your way backwards, figuring out which clues you need to have, or do you start with some idea regarding the clues and ruleset and build up a 'solution' from there, or some other way entirely. I would be interested in making a puzzle myself sometime, but it seems kind of daunting, to be honest.
Hi - thanks for the kind feedback! The ruleset came out of me exploring some other ideas and once I settled on it, it took quite a while to set. I started with a few break-in ideas, but as with most chaos construction puzzles, you quickly get to a point where the puzzle has no solutions if you keep adding clues - so my approach is to start with a break-in, then add one or two clues that have nice logic associated with them, then make sure to make a completed grid that works, and build in the rest of the clues into that. But those other clues are tricky - designing them so the puzzle is solveable by a human is the trick. Of course, other setters probably have other approaches.
on 19. February 2025, 04:40 by Tacosian
Fantastic puzzle, loved it.
on 24. January 2025, 00:29 by MazzleFlush
I have started this puzzle over and over but keep getting stuck at the same way. Where I get stuck is with the violet 28 which can only fit in 3 cells. Someone who can give me a hint?
Hi - if you still need some help, feel free to DM me on discord (Chilly) - I will need to see a picture of your grid to understand where the problem is.
on 19. January 2025, 04:37 by Agent
Great puzzle! I found it tricky, but all the steps were fair, and there was always a way to make progress.
Thanks for the kind words, and for the solve :)
on 12. January 2025, 01:17 by Silverstep
Long but not difficult!
For the arrows, I would suggest a shorter version "Following that direction, it walks out of its own region and enters its own region again".
Hi Selene - thanks for the solve! Yeah, that's a good wording :)
on 11. January 2025, 21:41 by askaksaksask
Ha! What fun this was. The ruleset is intimidating but eminently workable when approaching this as any other CC/ shaded Japanese sums puzzle. That said, this is such a standout entry. Brilliant approach, to "induce" sums with filtering, and great cluing with the arrows for region building. This was one of my favorites in a long time. Thank you!!
NB: like many others, part of my initial struggle was understanding the language around the arrow cells. Clearing that up in some of the below comments helped smooth things out a bit.
Thanks for the kind comments - glad the puzzle was a lot of fun, and that the arrow rules got clarified in the comments.
on 10. January 2025, 19:42 by XeonRisq
Very interesting ruleset. Fun solve but I kept having to look back at how the colors mixed to produce the secondary colors. Tough puzzle but satisfying to the end.
Always a pleasure - thanks for the testing and your support!
on 9. January 2025, 16:13 by evan0822
So the cell directly next to an arrow cannot be of the same region of the arrow? Even if there is still a “gap” cell(s) and another cell of the region down the arrow?
Yes, the cell directly next to the arrow CAN be in the same region as the arrow. That will work as long as there is still enough room for the region to reach around another different cell.
on 8. January 2025, 23:41 by evan0822
So directly next to each arrow is a region border then?
No - there doesn't have to be a border directly next to an arrow. There just has to be a cell of a different region (and/or a filter) somewhere between the arrow cell and another cell in the same region as the arrow cell.
on 8. January 2025, 16:29 by marcmees
Fantastic Cc. Thanks
Cheers marc - glad you enjoyed.
on 8. January 2025, 03:46 by gfoot
Brilliant puzzle with interesting rules - considering how hard it was overall, it was refreshingly easy to get started - and there was always a way forwards, just hard to spot sometimes!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed. There are some tricky spots in there for sure.
