How well did you like the theme of the contest?	I somewhat liked the theme
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Tapa
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

The theme was very interesting. At least in theory. In practice... there are too many summations involved. Large numbers, checking each possibility over and over. The best puzzles in this test are Tapa precisely because it doesn't involve too many additions. The second best are Hitori. I would've picked Skyscrapers or Sudoku, but the Skyscrapers puzzles still involved a lot of cases that I ran out of time before getting to the Sudoku. Speaking of difficult puzzles, the latter puzzles are too difficult, mostly because they had too much guesswork. (Checking among all possibilities of the snowmen, which of them can possibly work, is guesswork.)

How well did you like the theme of the contest?	I really liked the theme
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Average
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Samurai Sudoku
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

All the example puzzles had 3-snowballs. Seeing 2-snowballs in the puzzles confused me, I eventually decided what they meant.
I found Hidoku #1 was the hardest of all the puzzles.

The password is not working.

How well did you like the theme of the contest?	I really liked the theme
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Average
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Hitori
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Hidoku was too mathy and should have been something else. Other than that, the theme and puzzles were enjoyable.

How well did you like the theme of the contest?	I really liked the theme
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Hitori
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Thanks Ivan and Andrey for this innovative contest. I enjoyed solving the puzzles with more of mathematical ratios, summations and what else. The theme was really great and the puzzles were also of nice quality. I was able to complete on the the puzzles which required least calculations like Hitori, Tapa and Sudoku. There were quite some difficult puzzles, which I would rather say requires intuition than stating it to be difficult especially Hidoku. Thanks again for the contest.

Edited by rvarun 2017-02-25 2:17 PM

How well did you like the theme of the contest?	I really liked the theme
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Light Garlands
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How well did you like the theme of the contest?	I really liked the theme
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How well did you like the theme of the contest?	I somewhat liked the theme
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Tapa
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How well did you like the theme of the contest?	I really liked the theme
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Tapa
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

When I first printed the puzzles out and saw the dearth of given clues, I was worried I would not be able to solve any of them, but I managed to finish several. The theme was clever and well executed for the most part, giving a sense of freshness to common puzzle types. I liked the tapas, hitoris and sudokus the best; these felt fun to me while making great use of the theme. I did not attempt the hidokus at all--those looked like nonstop arithmetic with too many possibilities for error. Couldn't figure out how to break in to skyscrapers or the second fillomino. And of course there is never enough time, but I'm more of an average solver.
I read the instructions beforehand; in retrospect I should also have considered in advance possibilities for snowman ratios, especially those with a non-integral "heaviness factor".
Overall fun original puzzles. I made lots of snowmen in the USA when I was a child. Glad to see this is global, at least in colder climates.

How well did you like the theme of the contest?	I really liked the theme
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Skyscrapers
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Ugh. Way too mathematical and too many guesswork (look at Hidoku).
An ideal puzzle would be the 2nd Skyscrapers - little guessing and more intuitive logical steps, easily my favourite of the test.
Fillomino and Tapa were both fine I guess since they involve little arithmetic.

But the Sudoku, Hidoku and Hitori had too many calculation/guesswork for my taste.
Excellent idea but I think some were too arithmetic-heavy.

How well did you like the theme of the contest?	I really liked the theme
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Skyscrapers
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

At first my reaction was "ugh" and I soon abandoned any hope of scoring sensibly. However this proved to be wrong and I managed to solve a few, a good number for my standard.
I found the set extremely well conceived and realized, however sometimes it was difficult to get the logic. For example I solved the tough skyscraper and fillomino but could not see the aha trick for the two simple ones.
An excellent set, thank you Ivan and Andrey; special congratulations to Ken, the only one who finished the set so far (with 5 seconds to spare). I did not think it was humanly possible, he must be extraterrestrial

How well did you like the theme of the contest?	I really liked the theme
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Sudoku
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How well did you like the theme of the contest?	I really liked the theme
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Skyscrapers
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Answer keys could have been better
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How well did you like the theme of the contest?	I really liked the theme
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Fillomino
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Too many pages / too large grids

I agree with some of the above posts, that the idea is very nice, but there was a lot more math than usual on this contest. As somebody with math contests background, I personally am fine with this :P I disliked the puzzles that required a lot of guesswork, but I thought the two Fillomino had a nice balance of intuition, math, and logic.

Edited by mstang 2017-02-27 4:35 AM

How well did you like the theme of the contest?	I did not like the theme
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Below Average
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Tapa
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

90% of guessing the snowmen numbers, 10% of solving...
I started with Tapa and Hitori, which went really well, but the rest was beyond my understanding. Sorry :(

How well did you like the theme of the contest?	I somewhat liked the theme
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice

How well did you like the theme of the contest?	I really liked the theme
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Tapa
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Link to solutions booklet

Congratulations to Endo, Kota and Takuya for the podium!
Thank to all participants. Additional thank for the feedback - it's always quite useful to read comments even if it is negative.

The idea and most puzzles are created by Ivan Laptiev - this is his first experience as a puzzlemaker and I think he succeeded. Yes, puzzles required quite a few of summation and counting, but this was supposed by the theme. Surprisingly many strong solvers don't like math :)
Puzzles seems to be a bit too hard, but luckily Endo "rescue" the contest and solve all of them. Definitely preliminary preparation (for example writing down a list of sequences containing three-four members) can help a lot with this contest. Non integral "fattiness" could be a surprise, but the hint was in the file password.

How well did you like the theme of the contest?	I really liked the theme
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Tapa
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Favorites:

Both Tapas
Samurai Sudoku
Hidato 2

Thanks for a great test! I liked the theme behind this one and felt that it led to interesting puzzles. I made some guesses on a few of the puzzles so I'll have to look at them later.

Thanks!