🐦 🦀 🦥 🦦 Happy 4 Years of GAPP! 🦦 🦥 🦀 🐦

Today is the 4th anniversary of the GAPP series! The first GAPP, a Heyawake by jovi, was posted on Oct 27, 2021. Since then, we’ve covered over 800 different genres, posted hundreds of supersized and strange-shaped puzzles, and offered over 100 potential bonus otters, mostly during special August events. Other GAPP authors also will be posting their stats and thoughts; I’ve got a lot to type and a limited message character count, so I’ll just say: thank you to everyone involved in writing and solving GAPP, and I’m excited for many more puzzles!

For the anniversary, the GAPP authors have written nine puzzles, each in a genre involving tetrominoes. For examples and past GAPPs in these genres, check the messages below this one. Have fun solving!

LITS (by Lavaloid): https://tinyurl.com/r535cymj
Tetroscope (by Walker): https://tinyurl.com/4hdf3k69
Tetrochain-Y (by shye): https://tinyurl.com/4x8anzff
Statue Park (by jovi): https://tinyurl.com/5525pf3b
Four Cells (by Freddie Hand): https://tinyurl.com/mvryv4b9
Tetraview (by bakpao): https://tinyurl.com/4rvv68fe
Tetrominous [Borders] (by Tyrgannus): https://tinyurl.com/3r5mvf9b
Tetrosnake (by Eric Fox): https://tinyurl.com/25njugdd
Kissing Polyominoes (by Menderbug): https://tinyurl.com/37x5aky9

Solve in 44:44 or under for a Speedy Sloth! 🦥
Complete in 1:44:44 or under for a Quick Crab! 🦀
And all solvers who complete the puzzle will earn a Four-Year Fieldfare! 🐦

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.

Tetroscope: Shade some tetrominoes of cells such that no two tetrominoes touch each other, not even diagonally. Exactly one tetromino must be placed of each of the seven possible shapes, counting rotations as the same but reflections as different. A clue represents how many of the (up to) four cells it touches are shaded.

Tetrochain-Y: Shade some tetrominoes of cells such that no two tetrominoes touch each other orthogonally, but all tetrominoes form one diagonally connected network. Two tetrominoes of the same shape may not touch diagonally, counting rotations and reflections as the same. Clues cannot be shaded, and represent the number of shaded cells in a straight line in the indicated direction.

Statue Park: Place each shape from the bank given outside the grid into the grid exactly once so that no two shapes share an edge and all unused cells form one orthogonally connected area. Rotating and reflecting shapes is allowed. Cells with black circles must be used by a shape, and cells with white circles must not be used by a shape.

Four Cells: Divide the grid into tetrominoes. Clued cells must have the indicated number of region borders or grid borders surrounding them.

Tetraview: Shade some tetrominoes of cells so that no two tetrominoes touch each other orthogonally. Clued cells cannot be shaded, and a clue means that the first tetromino seen in a straight line in the indicated direction is of the shape associated with that letter.

Tetrominous (Borders): Separate the grid into sets of four orthogonally connected cells. Tetrominoes of the same type cannot share an edge orthogonally, but they can touch diagonally. Borders must separate two different tetrominoes.

Tetrosnake: Shade some cells to form a non-intersecting path which does not touch itself orthogonally. Circles mark the ends of the path. Each orthogonally connected area of unshaded cells must be exactly four cells in size. Clues cannot be shaded, and contain the letter associated with the tetromino shape of their unshaded area.

Kissing Polyominoes: Place each shape from the bank given outside the grid into the grid without overlap. Rotating and reflecting shapes is allowed. All edges along which two shapes touch are marked with thick bars.

Try past GAPP puzzles:
LITS (Eric Fox): Discord message
Tetroscope (Eric Fox): Discord message
Tetrochain-Y (Eric Fox): Archive: Monday, 20 March 2023
Statue Park (jovi): Discord message
Four Cells (Tyrgannus): Discord message
Tetraview (Eric Fox): Discord message
Pentominous [Borders] (Tyrgannus): Discord message / Tetrominous (Freddie Hand): Archive: Thursday, 23 May 2024
Pentosnake (Eric Fox): Discord message
Kissing Polyominoes (Menderbug): Archive: Tuesday, 28 November 2023

4 years! I want to extend a massive THANK YOU! to everyone who has solved over the years. Whether you're just joining us and solving your first pencil puzzles, or you're a long-time veteran slothing day in, day out, we see you and appreciate you! We wouldn't still be doing this if you weren't solving every day. I also want to extend a massive THANK YOU! to all of the authors who have contributed over the last four years. Thousands of hours of collective work have poured into this project, and it wouldn't be where it was today if everyone didn't put their heart into their work, consistently producing absolute bangers.

On a personal note, when this started, I anticipated it going for a year or two. I definitely didn't expect that it'd still be going after four years, and also that I'd still be involved (even though I did leave the team for exactly 600 days). My own life has changed so much during this time, as I'm sure all of yours have, and it's been so beautiful to watch this project become what it is and to watch the storylines and (sometimes infamous) regular characters in the discussion channel. I feel lucky I have gotten to be a part of this project, and I appreciate everyone coming along for the ride!