Broken Sign Blog
#014: Diorama (Cipher)
2 June 2022This is a new genre I created for the Logic Showcase #35 on Puzzlers Club , “Bring Your Own Cubes”. The prompt was to create puzzles on triangular grids that involve partitioning the triangles into rhombi, and optionally interpreting them as an isometric projection of some cubes.
Since this puzzle is a cipher on top of the basic genre rules, I recommend trying out this simple example puzzle first.
I think the idea is interesting, but it would probably need some tweaking to make more puzzles with it. In particular, some clues end up determining large parts of the grid, but you end up with pockets of ambiguity that need to be resolved via clues that don’t do much otherwise. One option might be to allow rhombi to contain two clues and use the sum of the values in that case.
Rules: Subdivide the grid along dotted lines into rhombi made up of two triangles.
When viewed as an isometric 3D projection of unit cubes (such that each rhombus becomes a cube face), a number clue on a face indicates the number of cubes “underneath” that face. In other words, a number clue on a face indicates the distance between the face and the back wall it is parallel to.
Variant: Cipher — Each letter represents a different non-negative integer, which the solver must determine.