Friday, 4 August 2023

Menderbug

Walkthrough for yesterday's Sea Serpent: https://youtu.be/DH6nCbh42v0

Sooner or later, someone is going to get an adorable Bonus Otter 🦦, I'm sure. But sadly not today. So keep your guesses coming!

Today's genre was created a couple of years ago for a German instructionless contest. It's a loop genre called Turn-and-Run and was also featured at this year's Logic Masters (as well as the qualification round). Since then I've been a big fan and would love to see more of it.

Rules: Draw a loop through the centres of all cells which crosses over itself only at the given perpendicular intersections, and define its direction of travel. Each time the loop enters a cell containing a number, it must turn in that cell, travel straight for exactly the indicated number of cells, and then turn again.

Notation tip: It might help to notate the direction of loop segments once it is known. There is no particularly convenient way to do this in Penpa, but I've found that Shape -> Arrow -> Arrow Tips works reasonably well. This should be pre-selected if you switch over to the Shape mode.

I'm not sure how useful (or obvious) it is, but if you're struggling to get started here's a GAPP 101: Each number clue of value N must have at least one segment of length exactly N leaving it, so it's worth checking each clue's options.

Score a Speedy Sloth 🦥 by solving the puzzle in 3:00 or less!
Collect a Quick Crab 🦀 by completing the puzzle in 5:00 or less!
Finish the puzzle in your own time to become the proud owner of a Turning-and-Running Coua 🐦!

Example (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/28yfne58
Puzzle (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/24rmp4vp