Araf is a lovely Japanese puzzle type. But it is hard to construct puzzle, especially providing uniquiness. In Puzzle Marathon, it was one of my favorites. Actually after the test, when I decide the three favorite types I considered two approaches: Which puzzles have lovely solving steps (solver side), which puzzles have cute construction? From solver side, my favorite type is Araf. Matus did a great job. Because as I mentioned, Araf is a hard choice to prepare, so I appreciate Matus's work. But from designer side, there was a given area in the puzzle, so I kept it in mind. But now I think that I could ignore this, because preparing such a big puzzle such good is a huge effort. Sorry for that.

Nanro is new for me, I didn't know this type before. This puzzle had lovely solution steps, and final movements in the middle of the grid were great. So, Nanro was satisfying for both sides.

Mintonette is also new for me. I had a lot fun when I was solving, and the designer made good job with (0) 1-2-3-4 theme in the puzzle. So, I put it to the same place with Nanro in my scale.

Gapped Kakuro... Maybe the puzzle was hard in the PM, but I've made so many Gapped Kakuro so far, so I know that most puzzles of the type appears hard because of the rules/construction. However Amit built cool solution steps in the current one, and the construction was great.

At the end, as a solver my favorite type was Araf; as a designer my favorite type was Gapped Kakuro. But Mintonette and Nanro did not only appeal to my solver feelings but also whispered to my designer sense. So I voted Gapped Kakuro, Mintonette and Nanro. Hmmm, I've told these now, but no one asked me: Serkan, what is your criteria about selecting best puzzles? :) I'm just talking.

An idea, maybe puzzle can be voted in two sections: Solving - Construction

[Edit]: I forgot to thanks, probably I need to sleep. Thank you so much Deb, you and LMI are doing huge things for puzzle community/culture. Of course thanks to all authors for their "huge size" effort. Thank you so much!

Edited by yureklis 2013-03-12 6:54 AM

So when Matus mentioned early last year that he wants to make an Araf for Marathon, I asked him for few samples of the puzzle, since I wasn't aware of it. Even after solving the samples, I wasn't sure how it will work in a big grid. But having worked with him multiple times in the past, I was certain that he will make a perfect puzzle for Marathon, and he did.


We listed Star Battle at the top of the list because of Star Battle's familiarity and the particular puzzle was not difficult at all (just focus on the 2X2X3X3 boxes). And for Fifty-Fifty, check Zoltan's solving guide which was posted in forum.

Couple of puzzles were made easier than their previous version, and I always wanted to upload the original versions. (That got delayed because I am not able to locate the pdf of original Masyu). But here are 3 others.
Nanro (After solving the puzzle in the competition, you might not find the original one much difficult. But I thought solving the original one first time could have been challenging. So we decided to add few hints and change couple of regions but the finishing with 8s remained as-is)
Mintonette (The regions belonging to 0/1/3 are same. All test solvers and me were finding the 2s region extremely difficult to solve. Considering its unfamiliarity, we thought might make the 4s region bit easy also. Thanks Fred for quickly revamping this one)
Fifty Fifty (The original version has fewer shaded triangles. I don't know if it would have made much difference to top solvers' timings, but from average players' point of view, it was good to have more shaded triangles)




Attachments
----------------
M201303P_Nanro (Original).pdf (27KB - 16 downloads)
P0X_Mintonette (Original).pdf (29KB - 12 downloads)
M201303P_FiftyFity (Original).pdf (49KB - 9 downloads)

Exactly. That precisely is our motivation to restrict bonus to 1 hour.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Star Battle
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Watches
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Gapped Kakuro
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

First time player. Enjoyed it. Thanks!

Enjoyed the puzzles I could solve during the week and glad that you made the rest available for those of us who couldn't devote too much time to solving. (I think one of my times was over 3400 minutes because I went to bed and then to work in between solving attempts!) Are the answer keys available anywhere?

Here are the answer keys.

---

Puzzle	Solution	Alternate
Star Battle	CACAHAIDBDFBEMEBD	31318194246253524
Masyu	333433#222342	444544#333453
Multi Skyscrapers	124231213312412
Gapped Kakuro	9X8X52X2X1745X71369
Maxi Loop	42271#33241	53382#44352
Graffiti Snake	53334323	42223212
Liar Diagonal Slitherlink	221100020111112	221120111002101
Mintonette	334353316	445464427
Araf	063830909701	30613823301910971011
Nanro	XX53XXX8XX85242X4X
Watches	2122212321213#412211224114
Fity Fifty	11100011#1110011111#00001001	00011100#0001100000#11110110

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Star Battle
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Fity Fifty
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Watches
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Star Battle
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Gapped Kakuro
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Masyu
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

How is the alternate key for the Slitherlink retrieved?

I figure it's top to bottom instead of left to right.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Star Battle
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Gapped Kakuro
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Liar Diagonal Slitherlink
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Multi Skyscrapers
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Star Battle
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Maxi Loop
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

I didn't have time, this week, to do all of these puzzles -- such a shame. I will finish them off over the next little while. I really enjoyed the ones I did, though I got terribly stuck on skyscrapers in particular.

It has been a wonderful contest. Better than last year because (1) the puzzles were more balanced and (2) the bonus mechanism was better. This is what I presume because I could not see a calculation of the bonus for each individual puzzle but only the sum.
Pity it came in a period in which I was very busy and in many cases I rushed a bit to solve some puzzle when I was a bit tired. In at least 3 cases I could not see the light and wasted a lot of time before getting through. But I am already looking forward to the next marathon.
Stefano

When you open the score page, there is a banner with submission time. If you select points instead of submission time, you can see the score of each puzzle for each player and so see how much points/bonus you got for each puzzle.

The rank bonus / time bonus split is not available online score page. It is available in the excel file here.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Liar Diagonal Slitherlink
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Multi Skyscrapers
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Maxi Loop
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Graffiti Snake
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Maxi Loop
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mintonette
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Feedback page is now disabled. The top 3 voted puzzles are Nanro, Araf, Mintonette. The difference between Minotnette and Star Battle is smaller than that between Nanro and Araf.



We will try to include as many of the favorite puzzles as possible in next year's marathon, just like we did this year.

The overall score for Marathon is 2.75 which is much higher than any other test we had after we introduced the new feedback system. Thank you everyone for voting.