Puzzle 412: Product Snake

Another new variation.

Rules: Draw a snake one cell wide, that does not touch itself, not even diagonally. The head and tail are given as black cells. If a row/column contains a number outside, it represents the product of  lengths of all groups of contiguous snake cells in that row/column.

Puzzle 411: Cascade Snake

This is a novel snake style.

Rules: Draw a snake one cell wide, that does not touch itself, not even diagonally. The head and tail are
given as circles. Numbers outside rows/columns indicate how many snake segments in that row/
column have at least one neighboring snake segment in a row/column that is different than the one it is contained in. To make it simpler, for example, if the snake occupies R5C5-C7, the cell R5C6 adds 1 to the total for that column.

 

Non-puzzle

       I grew up in the state that I am residing in, and to my utter and persisting annoyance, I keep struggling to get my second name(sometimes the first name too) spelled and pronounced correctly ever since I was as young as I remember! This is no short of a tragedy. I can't find a sane reason why this happens, except that the people involved are certainly too ignorant, apathetic, insensitive and sometimes uneducated, some of those attributes being so native to my place. When I don't, EVER, misspell or mispronounce anyone, and absolutely anyone, and at least made a sincere effort if I have ever failed, is that not obligatory on the part of every other person, no matter what ethnicity they belong to? As outrageous as it may seem, they write down a name that they think is a near match, something that is usually common and prevalent in the country.
      This personal grief, apart from being a source of frustration, has often taken larger dimensions as it permeates into legal territory where I am forced to run pillar to post to get bad documents fixed, despite spoon-fed spellings. Especially with the present ruling entity that has set a benchmark for 'legalized lies" and legalized terror , these paperwork and corrections are a reason for deeper anguish. Dreaming of a digitized, 2 billion strong nation is one thing, knowing that you have efficient workforce to do so, is another.
    I also disliked that a person from the puzzle community did not care to find out the correct pronunciation, thankfully not the spelling, before announcing my name at a national event.
   
   

Puzzle 410: Islands and Capitals

This is a new puzzle style.

Rules: Shade some cells black to leave some islands, each island being a group of contiguous white cells, and  containing no more than one blue shaded cell.  Shaded cells cannot make a 2x2 square anywhere in
the grid, and must all be connected horizontally or vertically in one group. Each island would contain one instance of the number that represents its area in cells, or the "capital", and two or more instances of other numbers, if any. A single cell island is not prohibited. Some or all capitals are already shaded blue.

Puzzle design contest

Puzzle enthusiasts can enter by sending a puzzle. Rules and constraints are listed below. To allow for a result, at least five entries would be required. Furthermore, entries will be published here after the submissions close without revealing the authors, for the entrants to solve, vote and decide a winner. Puzzles will be voted for such attributes like logical  path to arrive at the solution, and clue symmetry. Polling method will be announced at the same time as the publishing of entries, depending on the number of puzzles. This contest is open to all. Puzzles may be sent before 11:00 pm GMT, the 30th of November, to anuragthefirst at gmail dot com. Again, contest may remain undecided if very few entries are received.

The entry has to contain a "fusion" puzzle, rules follow.
Rules:  Divide the grid along the gridlines into polyominoes, so that no two polyominoes with the same area share an edge. Every cell must belong to one of the polyominoes. All numbers contained in a polyomino must repeat in that polyomino, except one number, that must be equal to the area of the polyomino, and appears exactly once in that polyomino. The above rule allows a polyomino of area equal to 1.

Constraints: 

1. The puzzle has to use a 10x10 rectangular grid. 

2. No given clue shall be equal to, or larger than the area of the largest polyomino/s. 

3. While the previous constraint forces at least one cell without a given, you may leave as many empty cells as you like, which may also aid in introducing symmetry.
4. The puzzle has to have a unique solution.
5. There is no restriction on clues, but trivial puzzles are strongly discouraged. For example, a puzzle with one '99', and 98 2s may be considered trivial by definition. 

Note: Not all empty cells are required to be filled in the solution. A puzzle is not considered non-unique if cells can be filled in multiple ways as long as the polyominoes are uniquely formed. This was not mentioned in the rules paragraph. 

Puzzle 409: SDD Sudoku

New.

Rules: Place...ce. Digits are replaced by alphabets. A digit outside indicates that it has to be placed as many cells away.

Puzzle 408: Marine Camping

Rules: Place the given fleet of ships into the grid. There is a tree for every ship. Ships may not touch each other, not even diagonally. Numbers outside indicate how many cells in the corresponding row or column are occupied by ship segments. Each ship should be placed beside its tree, such that the tree is adjacent to a dead-end segment of the ship.

Puzzle 407: Easy As ABC

If you manage to identify anything that may have been inadvertently hidden, be advised that it was probably only a coincidence, and is not supposed to be discussed outside the puzzle circuit.

Rules: Place each of the letters D,I,M,O, and T into the grid, one letter per cell, such that every row/column contains each letter once. Letters outside are the first seen in that direction.

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Puzzle 406: Fusion

This is a fresh puzzle style.

Rules: Divide the grid along the gridlines into polyominoes, so that no two polyominoes with the same area share an edge. All numbers contained in a polyomino must repeat in that polyomino, except one number, that must be equal to the area of the polyomino, and appears exactly once in that polyomino. The above rule allows a polyomino of area equal to 1. 

Puzzle 405: Fourtified Sudoku

This is a new sudoku variation.

Rules: Place a digit in each cell, such that every row, column, and every thick outlined 3x3 box contains each digit 1 to 9 exactly once. Numbers outside indicate the sum of exactly 4 digits reachable in a single path through adjacent cells, starting with the cell adjacent to the number. No two paths are allowed to overlap or intersect.