#26: Castle Wall

 Standard Castle Wall rules.

Difficulty: [★⯪☆☆☆]

Solve on puzz.link

Solve on PuzSq (puzz.link)

#25: Choco Banana

Standard Choco Banana rules.

Difficulty: [★★⯨☆☆]

Solve on puzz.link

Solve on PuzSq (puzz.link)

#24: Akari vs. Koburin

The other post was my first vanilla Akari I believe, although I did make a hybrid several months ago. This one was really fun because of all the emerging unconventional logic. Enjoy!

Rules

Left grid: Standard Akari rules.
Right grid: Standard Koburin rules.

In both grids, each gray cell is a clue with a hidden number between 0 and 4 that has to be determined by the solver.
Between the two grids, clues in matching positions have the same number.

Penpa answer check: Composite/Object/Akari bulbs on the left, Green Line loop on the right.

Difficulty: [★★★⯪☆]

Solve in Penpa

#23: Akari for dailyakari.com

So there's this new puzzle website https://dailyakari.com/! It only seems to have been around for a few weeks, but has already gained quite some traction among puzzle folks, and brandishes quite a few well-known setters among contributors. The interface is very slick and friendly, on top of the website being pure eye candy. I'll personally take another good puzzle distraction any day, and hopefully with the appeal and approachability it can bring puzzling to the people not fond of the less welcoming projects.

So this got me inspired to try my hand at some Akari, and the result seems to fit the vibe quite nicely. Some (spoilered) notes: [the path starting from bottom left is easy enough, but that path only came about coincidentally after the three clues closest to the corners were added for uniqueness. Without those clues, how many deductions do you see? Hint: no lighbulbs are forced, but about a quarter of the grid can be marked as bulb-free.]

Check out Akari rules on puzz.link, or treat yourself to the cute explosition on dailyakari.com under the "How to play" button.

Difficulty: [★⯪✫☆☆]

Solve on puzz.link

#22: CtC Secret Santa 2024: MAS (part 3)

 The final three puzzles, relatively on the easier side.

21: CtC Secret Santa 2024: IST (part 2)

Three more puzzles from 2024's CtC Secret Santa. All new genres basically.

Part 1 here

#20: CtC Secret Santa 2024: CHR (Part 1)

My Santee for this year's installment of CtC Discord Secret Santa happened to be Rook, who I knew as a very good fellow pencil puzzle setter, as well as someone whose tastes aligned very well with my own. This lucky assignment gave me the inspiration to put my genre-bending hat on and go on a little mission. Let me just say that none of the three alotted weeks went to waste while preparing this gift.☺This was my first "real puzzle project", and the proudest one so far.

I'm going to post the resulting nine puzzles (alliterating CHRISTMAS) in three installments of three. The difficulty should be more or less consistent across the board, with some intended outliers on the harder side.

Huge thanks to Stef Liew and Prasanna Seshardi for immense help with testing and feedback!

#19: Norinori

Standard Norinori rules.

Difficulty: [★★★☆☆]

Solve on PuzzleSquare (puzz.link)

#18: Tally Loop

Tally Loop was published on Kudamono earlier today. I created this genre and a few puzzles in January this year. It's a bit silly and kinda hard to set, but I think it has some fun to it. Here are three puzzles I've made back then.

Rules

Draw a loop through centers of some cells that visits all given clues. Numbers on each loop segment must sum up to the segment's length.

Small example:

Solve in Penpa

#17: Clueless Shimawake

I generally don't tweak my puzzles after the first draft, but this time I tried to accomodate some of the CtC testers feedback and see how much I can improve it. There were remarks about a cryptic and unintuitive step, and it took three iterations to make the puzzle smooth enough while keeping most of the interesting logic intact. I should learn to do this with my puzzles more often.

Rules

Standard Heyawake rules. Additionally, any two regions that share a border must contain different numbers of shaded cells.

Difficulty: [★★★☆☆]

Solve in Penpa+

Solve on PuzzleSquare (Penpa+)