(Emerges from hiding)

Looking at early WPCs and USPCs, visual puzzles have always been there. WPCs aren't limited to just logic puzzles - as long as they're language-neutral its fair game right? Which is also why I welcome the Casual section of the Puzzle GP with open arms.

So even if I feel visual puzzles deserve their place in these competitions - I won't try to argue about them being logical, cause I feel they're not. With this specific puzzle though, I did attempt to make it more methodological by adding areas where you can cross out to narrow down to the solution.

Initially there was a choice between a word or a visual puzzle. I sent Deb a list of potential candidates (list included scrabble, word search, spot the differences etc) and given the marathon format and the online medium - we decided on the Twins. For this particular fairy tale-themed puzzle (not culture-neutral?) I spent 2 three-hour sessions drawing it up on MS Paint. This is probably the most time (just under 6 hours total) I've ever spent making one puzzle. (Bonus points: can you name the stories where all the characters came from?)

The puzzle had two versions: the black/white one (that you solved) and one with colours (actually just different shades of gray) which should be somewhat easier. After seeing one solver guessing 231(!) times, I felt like hiding from LMI until the marathon was over. Congrats to Nishinanntoka who amazingly finish in just over 10 minutes.

As a competitor, I'm glad to snatch one first place in Sudoku from the Japanese solvers :). Also enjoyed the Futoshiki, Slitherlink was surprisingly fun and impressed at how James managed the LMI theme on the heavily-constrained Neighbours puzzle.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Every Second Breakpoint
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Pentopia
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Neighbours
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Linked Poset Futoshiki
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Hidoku
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Pentopia
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair

I enjoyed the puzzles, but didn't have time to finish all of them. It felt slightly easier than previous marathon sets.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Neighbours
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Spiral Galaxy
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Hidoku
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Every Second Breakpoint
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Hex Slitherlink
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Linked Poset Futoshiki
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair

No congratulations for top solvers this time or I miss them? I am very satisfied with my performances and I had a lot of fun. Almost in all puzzles somehow I didn't feel big size of the grid. Maybe the organizers being carefully too much to avoid hard puzzles and possible complications. Thanks to all who are involved in this contest and congrats to Hideaki and Ken.