I don't expect mine to be typical at all, either. They're certainly quite different from the sample puzzle and the one above. Note that "heavily clued" is somewhat misleading, as "empty space" is often a stronger clue than a coloured circle for this type.

Some small questions/clarifications:

1) After 60 minutes has passed for a puzzle, there is absolutely no difference if I submit at 70 minutes or 7000 minutes? So I can just go to bed and submit it another day (if I eventually find the solution!). So no differences to scoring and no potential tie-breaking rules...?

2) As a consequence of that, is it possible to have more than one puzzle started at any time, and then they can be answered in any order?
For example, I could start all 10 puzzles on Saturday, look at them, submit one answer quickly for bonus points, then submit the other 9 during the week but with no time bonuses.

3) When you say the first wrong answer gets a 0.5 minute penalty, do you mean a 0.5 point penalty, or 0.5 minutes less time, or both?

and 4) If I submit wrong answer(s) for a puzzle but never submit a correct answer, will I get negative points or zero points for that puzzle overall?

Bit surprised to see questions so late, I expected them much earlier after posting the IB :-)

I need to mention that we expect lots (yes LOTS) of players to complete most of the puzzles in 60 minutes and grab time bonus.
To answer your exact question, there will not be a difference in scores if a puzzle is submitted at 70 minutes or 100 minutes. In the unlikely event of ties in total score i.e. sum of 9 best scores, we'll use following tie breaker rules to determine the ranks
1. score with 10 puzzles
2. total time taken
Didn't want to complicate the IB with small points, but these would have been posted before the test starts

Yes, you can.
As I mentioned, we expect that the winners will be determined by "Bonus points", not just by "how many puzzles they solved".
There is also one more tweak here which you would have figured out anyway. After starting a puzzle "X", you can't start another puzzle until you submit the correct answer to "X" OR 1 hour is elapsed. This is done so that players don't start multiple puzzles at the same time by mistake, and lose bonus points.


0.5 points, But I think there is no difference.

This is the first time we are having this format (hopefully we'll have more depending upon players' feedback). So the scoring system may not be perfect. It is roughly borrowed from the Screen Tests we had earlier. But if anyone sees major flaws in the system, it is best to have it debated before the test starts.

someone please help out with "BRAILLE WORD SEARCH " ..
How to start??

Since I'm pretty new to puzzle creation, when LMI approached me to create for this test, they were smart enough to ask me to make 3 so that I got comfortable with the type first. So I made two practice puzzles, the first of which I have put up on my blog here : http://prasannaseshadri.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/puzzle-no-18-loop-... and the second one will be put up tomorrow.

Thanks for your practise puzzle prasanna. I had 40 minutes fun with it! Nice to see how the masyu clues influence the loop clues and vice-versa.

Choose a letter, translate it to Braille, scan the grid for occurrences. But you've probably thought of that yourself?

I must agree, that this puzzle was really fun, however it was too huge and surprisingly too easy for me. It takes me only 11 minutes to solve it. I hope that all the contest puzzles will be similarly easy and nice.

The way we look at each puzzle, we consider them as a separate round. So 10 rounds for the whole contest.
It is best that one shouldn't get -ve points from any round. So, you will get 0 points for a puzzle, which has wrong submissions, but no eventual correct submission.

I hope not, else I've made the wrong choice. The one you solved today was the first ever puzzle I'd made of this hybrid type, so I hadn't yet understood ways to play with the difficulty. Practice for me, practice for you too

And Richard, you're welcome. :)

The image for the answer for Braille Word Search in the IB is wrong. The lines are off.

Looking forward to the marathon.

TheSubro

Erm, I don't think so, partial letters can overlap too, and the words Vodka, Milk and Soda can be read in the highlighted part of the solution.

I see now. You have simply drawn rectangles around each "word". I was misinterpreting how it was broken up on the image. My apologies (but at the same time, it has demonstrated a few complexities I had not truly appreciated before). Thanks.

TheSubro

It seems that it's a good strategy to guess the missing words on the Braille Word Search when you get near the end…

That sounds like a fair warning to increase the number of arrow marks.

http://prasannaseshadri.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/puzzle-no-19-loop-...

Practice puzzle number 2 :)

Thanks for the practise puzzle.
Well constructed and took about 20 minutes for me to solve. Even I hope the contest puzzle will be as easy as this one :D

Regards,
Ravi

I have some older Braille Word Search puzzles on The Griddle that could be used for practice:
http://thegriddle.net/tags/braille

I don't quite recall the difficulty level or if I threw any other tricks in those, though.

ETA: I should also mention to save your answer to the Braille Word Search. Once the test is finished, the two words not found in the puzzle will unlock a badge if you have a profile page on The Griddle. I'm waiting to implement it though, just as an added precaution to prevent cheating. (Not that you honest puzzlers would do that. :))

Edited by davmillar 2012-01-20 11:08 AM

Thanks for another nice puzzle. Again with nice logic steps. I definitely like this type!

I found one loop, but there is one cell that can be passed in two different ways: it's the 2 in Row 16, Column 20. When I found this spot halfway solving, I hesitated to proceed, since I thought I had made an error somewhere. But I ignored, went on en finished the puzzle, with this minor non-uniqueness left.
Maybe you can have another look at it?

Best regards, Richard

Hi Richard,
This is the first type I have solved and solved it very carefully. I found it to be having unique solution.
I think you are wrong at the two consecutive white circles to the right top of R16C20 clue '2', for that part the path is unique and direct.
Please check it.

Regards,
Ravi

You're welcome Richard.

Regarding the uniqueness, what Ravi said, you need to consider the behaviour of the two consecutive white circles above it. Its very much unique, I'm pretty sure of that now, I've had to check that one some 9 times by now because different people seem to find different spots to get confused . Anyway I'll be putting up the solutions today sometime in 2 hours when I get over my laziness. You can check and tally if you want.

Solved the practice puzzle #2, I made a mess somewhere else, but it is certainly unique around the 2 at R16C20.

Yep, sorry, my mistake. I worked overtime till late yesterday evening and decided that I still had right to have half an hour of puzzling fun so started the puzzle. Being tired is not the best condition to start puzzling, as I can see now. I missed indeed the two white dots on the right side. My sincere apologies for all the confusion!

Best regards, Richard

Its alright. I was in the same state while giving the Shapes and Sizes test, so I understand :D

Anyway, here's the solutions for both puzzles : http://prasannaseshadri.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/practice-puzzle-so... Password - PP12.

Also, I made a Graffiti Snake which can also be used as practice I suppose, so I've put it up today even though its actually the 22nd puzzle I've made

Here it is : http://prasannaseshadri.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/puzzle-no-20-graff...