Hey folks, and welcome back to Spandan's Birthday Puzzle, 2021 edition. I've taken things in a very different direction this year. Normally I try to make something very complicated, something emergent, but at the same time fundamental... with varying degrees of success. What usually happens is that only a very small number (usually 0-2) of people end up solving them, and even that's only with a decent number of hints and additional clues. I'm usually more fixated on a puzzle ideal than I am on making it enjoyable; that has its own form of value to me, but often leaves people frustrated.
So, here's a new direction I'm trying. I tried to invent a new Nikoli-style puzzle: a puzzle with clear, simple rules, with a well-defined progression path to the answer. I aimed for a puzzle like Hashi, Nonograms, or Sudoku, a puzzle that someone learns the rules to and plays in their spare time, deriving enjoyment from learning little tricks and shortcuts as they play. Let me be very clear - There is no "puzzle behind the puzzle" or anything else going on in this puzzle but the 12 puzzles and extras that are presented clearly at face value. In the past, I've delighted in hiding things in the introduction text, in changing details and making intentional typos as part of a deeper puzzle, and I'm sure I'll delight in them again, but this puzzle is exactly what it appears to be on the surface. That's a promise, and I wouldn't lie about that.
Now, the puzzle. It's called Twinominoes, and it involves adding lines to a figure to split it into pieces that follow some rules. Short of writing an app for it, my best choice is to resort to Excel / Google Sheets as the tool that the most people have access to (even though Sheets is terrible at handling custom border drawing). So, here's the link to the puzzle itself.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_wL3NMGQdyXwnys85hYnBiIX2I2mvzHB/view?usp=sharing
I strongly recommend downloading a copy; the Google Sheets preview doesn't always do borders properly, but I made sure the puzzles were all functional in Sheets, so it should work if absolutely necessary. Graph paper and pencil is definitely the best option, but it does require more effort. Whatever medium you use, and however many or few puzzles you solve, I'd love to see your solutions and hear your feedback about if this new kind of puzzle is fun or interesting. Thanks for reading!
