Monday, 19 May 2025

Freddie Hand

Here's a reminder that the fifth round of the WPF Puzzle GP is open until Wednesday, with a bonus otter 🦦 on offer for giving it a go!

While Hanami won't be appearing, it is basically an easier version of Tren which is in the contest. This little-known genre first surfaced in the 24 hour puzzle championship about 10 years ago and had a themed ruleset involving 'placing sheets in the park', with white circles representing cherry flowers. If you understand a bit of Japanese this probably makes a lot of sense.

Rules: Place some rectangles in the grid such that the remaining cells form one orthogonally connected area. Each rectangle contains exactly one black circle, with the number in the circle representing the number of cells in the rectangle, and every black circle is contained in a rectangle. White circles cannot be in a rectangle.

Note: The answer checker only looks for edges - colours might be helpful to indicate which cells are part of rectangles, and which are not.

Acquire a Speedy Sloth 🦥 by solving the puzzle in 1:20 or less!
Obtain a Quick Crab 🦀 by solving the puzzle in 2:40 or less!
And all solvers who complete the puzzle will be rewarded with a Blooming Blossom-headed Parakeet 🐦

Example (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/yo72um47
Puzzle (Penpa+): https://tinyurl.com/yr4kq9uc