Mark Sweep's puzzles

Rules Divide the grid into regions of orthogonally connected cells. Each region must contain exactly two circles and have an area that lies between the two numbers in the circles, exclusive. Solve online

Five cells and pentominous are obviously quite similar in a way. Hence this hybrid. Enjoy! Rules Divide the grid into regions of five orthogonally connected cells so that no two regions of the same shape share an edge, counting rotations and reflections as the same. Letter clues must belong to a region with the pentomino shape associated with that letter (see here ). Number clues indicate the number of edges around the clue, including the border of the grid. Solve online

One of the most well known Tapa variations. This puzzle has a bit of a tricky start. Rules Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. Clues cannot be shaded, and represent the lengths of the blocks of consecutive shaded cells in the (up to) eight cells surrounding the clue. There may not exist a run of more than three consecutive shaded cells horizontally or vertically anywhere in the grid. No 2x2 region may be entirely shaded . Solve online

This combination felt quite natural while setting it. Hopefully that translates well to the solving experience. Enjoy! Rules Draw a non-intersecting loop along some of the edges that passes through every circle. The loop must turn on black circles and travel straight through the cells on either side. The loop must go straight through white circles, and turn in at least one of the cells on either side. Numbers represent the number of edges drawn surrounding the clue (up to four). Solve online

These puzzles were made for a speed setting contest on the CTC Discord server. The assignment was quite simple: create 3 puzzles from 3 out of 5 listed genres, in a time period of 75 minutes. To challenge myself, I tried to share elements between the puzzles (the givens and the regions). Due to time pressure near the end I had to use an online solver to make sure the Nurikabe would be unique with the same numbers as the Double Choco, which actually caused the Nurikabe to be very hard to solve logically. Hence, I spent some time since then to find a more enjoyable Nurikabe, although this did make the Double Choco somewhat harder. Anyway, I have shared the old versions below as well if you're interested. Enjoy! Rules LITS Shade one tetromino of cells in each region so that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. Two tetrominoes of the same shape may not share a bold border, counting rotations and reflections as the same. No 2x2 region may be entirely shaded. Double Cho...

Enjoy this classic puzzle after all the variants I published recently. Rules Within each region, draw a non-intersecting path through the centers of all cells. No two cells in the grid containing endpoints of paths may be touching one another, not even diagonally. Solve online

This puzzle was made for a speed setting contest on the CTC Discord server. The assignment was to make a simple loop with one rule change within 60 minutes. For some reason I immediately thought about my favorite round from WPC 2021: Night and Day. So, I made one with a double loop. Enjoy! Rules Draw two loops in the grid, such that all empty cells are visited. A loop cannot touch or intersect itself. The two loops can intersect each other without turning, but may not touch each other otherwise. Solve online

An important pattern in this puzzle is actually inspired by me overlooking a possibility in an interesting Masyu puzzle by bakpao , which, like this puzzle, is a twist on regular Masyu. Enjoy! Rules Draw a non-intersecting loop through the centers of some cells that passes through every circle. The loop must turn on black circles and travel straight through the cells on either side. The loop must go straight through white circles, and turn in at least one of the cells on either side. In addition, the grid is cylindrical, meaning the left and right border are connected. Solve online

Here is a bigger puzzle to celebrate the first ten puzzles on this blog. Enjoy! Rules Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. No 2x2 region may be entirely shaded. Clues cannot be shaded, and represent something in the (up to) eight cells surrounding the clue, depending on their location in the grid: Tapa (top left): the lengths of the blocks of consecutive shaded cells. TapaQ (top right): the number  of blocks of consecutive  shaded  cells. PataQ (bottom left): the  number  of blocks of consecutive  unshaded  cells. Pata (bottom right): the  lengths  of the blocks of consecutive  unshaded  cells. In addition, the four 5x5 squares (outlined in blue) are exact clones of each other. The X in these squares cannot be shaded. Note that for Pata or PataQ clues, other clues also act as unshaded cells. Solve online

This should be a relatively easy hybrid. The clues are rather restrictive with this particular ruleset, especially from a setter's perspective, so I might try setting another with slightly modified rules in the future. Rules Shade some cells to form a non-intersecting loop which does not touch itself, not even diagonally. In addition, place lights in some unshaded cells so that every unshaded cell is illuminated. Lights illuminate the cell they’re in as well as all cells seen in a straight line horizontally or vertically, not obstructed by a black cell (either a clue or the loop). Lights may not illuminate each other. Clues cannot be shaded, and represent the number of shaded cells in the (up to) eight cells surrounding the clue, as well as the number of lights in the (up to) four cells surrounding the clue (e.g. a clue of 1 means there is 1 shaded cell of the loop in the eight surrounding cells and 1 light orthogonally adjacent to the clue). Solve online