Broken Sign Blog
#142: Loop the Streams
28 May 2024Here is another batch of puzzles I made for a Logic Showcase, this time LS53: “The Outsiders”. The prompt was to add outside clues, such as those used in Cross the Streams, to other genres (or new rulesets).
This was the first entry I made. I wanted to make a loop puzzle and not just count segment lengths. So I took some inspiration from LUZ Loop. It was pointed out to me afterwards that the ruleset is also extremely close to this instructionless puzzle, which I had actually solved at some point and then forgot about, so there was likely some subconscious inspiration from that as well.
Starting with this showcase I’ve also been usually making example puzzles unless it’s a standard ruleset or straightforward variant.
Rules: Draw a non-intersecting loop through the centres of some cells. Clues outside the grid represent straight loop segments moving along the clue’s column or row, in order. An “S” (“Z”) represents a segment with both ends ending in a right (left) turn. A “U” represents a segment with both ends ending in opposite turns. A question mark represents a single segment with arbitrary turns at the ends. An asterisk represents any number of segments, including none at all. Note that clues do not see loop segments passing perpendicularly through the row or column without turning.
