Friday, 3 June 2022

jovi_al

For answer check to work, use the medium circle size under "Shape," and use the first circle type. Also, if you used shading or coloring to aux-mark cells that must not be used by circles, make sure you get rid of it! Thanks!

Today's puzzle is of a genre created by Naoki Inaba from Japan. Upon googling it to find its inventor, I was surprised to see many books full of the puzzle type-- I had never heard of it before I set out to make a GAPP! So, I hope you enjoy this Fobidoshi, or "Forbidden Four"!

Rules: Place circles into some empty cells such that the cells containing circles form one orthogonally connected area. There may not exist a run of more than three consecutive cells all containing circles horizontally or vertically anywhere in the grid.

As always, an image of an example puzzle and its solution are attached to the image of today's puzzle. Solve the example here, if you wish (oops, now unique) (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/2co7vswo

Usually, we on the GAPP team spend time making the clues symmetric or otherwise visually appealing. I am pointing this out because I do not want the visual theme of today's puzzle to go unnoticed. Yes, I spent a lot of time on it, and yes, I am complaining about it.

To earn yourself a Speedy Sloth 🦥 solve today's puzzle in 1:45 or less!
To net yourself a Quick Crab 🦀 solve today's puzzle in 4:00 or less!
All other solvers are well-deserving of a Forbidden Fernwren 🐦!

Solve today's GAPP here (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/2ckmbgdw