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So, as you might know, the Christmas season is coming up. (17 days until Dec. 1 at the time of writing)

I'm thinking of posting some Christmas-themed puzzles during that season, and just want some feedback for a test puzzle that I created around a week ago before I make the actual puzzle.

I've been trying to practice getting my Hidato puzzles to be difficult (like they're still solvable), but still have unique solutions, and am just wondering if I could possibly make it any more difficult while still having a unique solution.

I did have a few friends of mine try the test puzzle, but they all were unable to complete it for some reason.

Here's the puzzle (note that it should have a 100% unique solution, even with 24 of the numbers missing):

enter image description here

Now, as you might be able to tell right away, this is a Nonogram/Picross combined with a Hidato. You might be able to tell that this is also based off of my most recent puzzle, which used a cell color gimmick that made it so I could have only 6 digits on the board to start off with and it still would have a unique solution. Here is what the colors here represent:

  • If a cell is $\color{red}{\text{red}}$, that means that the number in the cell is a prime number.
  • If a cell is $\color{green}{\text{green}}$, that means that the number in the cell is a square number ($\sqrt x$ must produce a number $\alpha$ where $\alpha\in\mathbb N,\alpha\ne x$)
  • If a cell is $\color{yellow}{\text{yellow}}$, that means that the number in the cell is a cube ($\sqrt[3]x$ must produce a number $\alpha$ where $\alpha\in\mathbb N,\alpha\ne x$)
  • Otherwise, the cell is $\color{white}{\text{white}}$ because it does not satisfy any of the above conditions.
  • Note that the cells are uncolored to begin with.

Rules of Hidato

Fill the grid with a series of consecutive numbers adjacent to each other orthogonally or diagonally. All tiles are required to be filled in.

Rules of Nonogram/Picross

The grid must be colored or left blank according to numbers at the side of the grid to reveal a hidden pixel art-like picture.

Hint if you are having trouble solving:

Solve the Nonogram first to avoid possible confusion.

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  • $\begingroup$ @bobble I'll fix the broadness of my post $\endgroup$
    – CrSb0001
    Commented Nov 14, 2023 at 21:16
  • $\begingroup$ Shouldn't each row of the right-hand column sum to seven? $\endgroup$
    – msh210
    Commented Nov 14, 2023 at 22:18
  • $\begingroup$ @msh210 No, not necessarily. $\endgroup$
    – CrSb0001
    Commented Nov 14, 2023 at 22:55
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    $\begingroup$ The nonogram is very easy, and the subsequent hidato is trivial. This isn't necessarily negative, as quality is much more important than difficulty. Your test puzzle is very nice. Just focus on creating quality puzzles. More difficult puzzles will come with experience. $\endgroup$
    – Daniel Mathias
    Commented Nov 15, 2023 at 0:28

1 Answer 1

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Nonogram solution:

enter image description here

Hidato solution:

enter image description here

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