The Art Of Puzzles

** TODAY'S PUZZLE **
gmpuzzles.com is about to start a new season of puzzles and they've sent us this Snake Egg/Star Battle hybrid by JinHoo Ahn to have a go at! This is a PHENOMENAL miracle of a grid - just three dots is all you get. The logic feels like magic when you find it.

Play the puzzle at the link below:
https://sudokupad.app/Tqfg9qNd2L

Rules:
Draw a snake (a 1-cell-wide path) in the grid. The snake can touch itself diagonally, but cannot touch itself orthogonally or revisit any square. The grid already provides some of these diagonal touching points (as grey circles). The remaining cells (not occupied by the snake) must then form a 'Star Battle puzzle' ie there must be two stars in every row, column, and region divided by the snake's body. Stars cannot be placed in adjacent cells that share an edge OR a corner. (For answer check to work, use a 1 in a cell with a star.)

You can find out more about gmpuzzles.com here:
https://www.gmpuzzles.com/blog/2024/0...

** NEW SUDOKU HUNT ON PATREON **
We're delighted to share with you a brand new sudoku hunt themed around snake egg puzzles by Glum Hippo. If you've never tried snake egg logic puzzles before, prepare for serious fun - these sudokus are outstanding! Finish by May 20 to enter the competition!

Other treats on Patreon include:

- the Sumgeons & Diagrams sudoku by sunnyjum;
- Simon's latest forays into the world of Islands Of Insight;
- Mark's video looking at the new OneUp puzzle from Rodolfo Kurchan;
- his solve of Region Geometry by Emre Kolotoğlu (3hr 36min long...!);
- and Mark's latest solve of The Times Club Monthly cryptic crossword

  / crackingthecryptic  

** GET OUR FOG KICKSTARTER DELUXE & OUR BOOKS **
Check out this link for the kickstarter books and Fog Novella we've created over the years:

https://coffeebean.games/product-cate...

▶ SUDOKU PAD - Use Our Software For Your Puzzles ◀

You can input classic sudoku puzzles into our software and help support Sven, the programmer responsible for the wonderful user interface we all use to play these puzzles everyday. The app also comes with 12 handmade puzzles from us:

iOS:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/svens-s...

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/17...
Android:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/de...

ALSO on Amazon: Search for “SudokuPad”

▶ Contents Of This Video ◀

0:00 Theme music & puzzle intro
2:52 Patreon
3:35 Happy Birthdays and other announcements
6:36 Rules
10:00 Start of Solve: Let's Get Cracking

▶ Contact Us ◀

Twitter: @Cracking The Cryptic
email: [email protected]

Our PO Box address:

Simon Anthony & Mark Goodliffe
Box 102
56 Gloucester Road
London
SW7 4UB

(Please note to use our real names rather than 'Cracking The Cryptic'.)

**************************************************************

▶ CTC FAN DISCORD SERVER◀
  / discord  

▶ OUR BACK CATALOGUE – ALL CATEGORISED WITH LINKS!◀
https://tinyurl.com/CTCCatalogue

▶ NEW CRACKING THE CRYPTIC MERCHANDISE◀
https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/cr...

▶SEND US PUZZLES TO SOLVE/CONTACT US◀
[email protected]

▶FOLLOW US◀
Twitter: @crypticcracking
Instagram (for how to solve daily clues from The Times): https://www.instagram.com/crackingthe...
We also post the Wordle In A Minute videos on TikTok.