Monday, 9 December 2024

Menderbug

Clouds is a very old genre that still shows up with some regularity in various contests. It's got a very nice and simple ruleset. The main reason that it has never appeared on GAPP is that most Clouds in the wild use only outside clues, which makes it pretty much impossible to construct a GAPP-level break-in for the puzzle. But we can cheat a little. For other similar genres it's reasonably common to specify some cells which cannot be shaded, so let's do the same here.

Rules: Shade some cells so that each orthogonally connected area of shaded cells is in the shape of a rectangle at least two cells wide and at least two cells tall. Rectangles may not touch one another, not even diagonally. A clue outside the grid indicates the number of shaded cells in the corresponding row or column. Cells containing an X cannot be shaded.

Score a Speedy Sloth 🦥 by solving the puzzle in 1:30 or less!
Collect a Quick Crab 🦀 by completing the puzzle in 3:00 or less!
Finish the puzzle in your own time to become the proud owner of an Cloud Cisticola 🐦!

Example (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/26kwwago
Puzzle (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/22svhaz2