Some combinations of constraints are difficult for people with colorblindness. So there’s a version of this puzzle as I initially intended it, but a friend with deuteranopia very patiently reviewed more than a half-dozen different attempts to ensure the pink and green cages were easily distinguishable, and this is the version that was clearest for him. So it’s the official version.
Inseparable
These digits are not just good friends, not even just best friends. That’s a relative term, after all, not an absolute term. These digit pairs aren’t just best friend, they’re inseparable. Just try it: you’ll break the puzzle!
Lavender Fields
I really love these “fully-caged” puzzles. Some day I think I could publish one or two of these a week and still enjoy the process. I mean, I do have to pick a color for the untotaled cages, but if I did more of these, I’d just cycle through a short list, repeating colors. And sometimes a puzzle could have a bare minimum number of totaled cages, unlike this one, which has a few more than absolutely necessary–although not many more.
Equal and Opposite Reaction
It isn’t as easy as 1-2-3-4. Or, it’s as easy as isn’t 1-2-3-4. It’s hard to express things in negative terms! The point is: If all of those anti-quad clues were normal quadruples clues, well, this puzzle would be broken. But also, it would be incredibly easy. However, they’re not quads, they’re anti-quads, so they provide slightly less information, keeping this puzzle fun.
Getting Foggy With It
Na na na na na-na! (Getting foggy with it) Fog puzzles do one thing very well: they provide focus. By obscuring most of the grid, they narrow down where you need to look to get started. In this case: to eight cells out of 81.
Stay in Your Lane
I’m always looking for new ways to describe Autophilia. Homebody, lover of self, or today, driver. Whether literally, while driving a car, or metaphorically, while offering opinions, most of us have been told at least once: stay in your lane! Really, isn’t that all Autophilia is?
Things Fall Apart
Life is full of contrasts, and so is this puzzle. The pink lines pull things together, while the global entropy rule pushes things apart. Push, pull, pushmi-pullyu, back and forth and then things fall apart. Or fall into place, and the puzzle is solved!
DoubleDoku With a Vengeance
So many movie execs seems afraid to be honest about how many times they’ve gone back to that well for more money. It wasn’t Die Hard 3, after all. This is DoubleDoku 3, and it’s my favorite so far, but now I’m determined to mimic the silly names movie execs have come up with.
Lost in the Blue
These net-shaped extra regions aren’t very compact, so it’s challenging to fit very many of them into a standard 9x9 grid. But I love the color!
RC Cola and a Moon Pie
These diamonds are nifty, I can’t believe I waited so long to revisit them! What I find fascinating about them is that as much asthe first digit in a row or column affects the cells separated by diamonds, cells separated by diamonds affect the first digit in the row or column. At least sometimes.