Since 2021, we have posted some extra difficult Sunday Stumpers, about once a month. These will be quite tough puzzles, but with a logical path to be found (and solution videos to help). This fourth Sunday Stumper of 2022 is a Statue Park variation with Tapa-style clues by puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

(view directly for a larger image)

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)

Theme: 4×4 Matrix

Author/Opus: This is the 232nd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.

Rules: Standard Statue Park rules, using a double pentomino set. Number clues are equivalent to white circles and cannot be shaded. Also, number clues behave like Tapa clues and indicate the length(s) of consecutive shaded block(s) in the neighboring cells. Each question mark represents a positive integer.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 20:30, Master = 32:00, Expert = 1:04:00

Solution: PDF and solving video.

Note: Follow this link for other classic Statue Park and this link for Statue Park variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Statue Parks to get started on. More Statue Park puzzles can be found in the ebook Statue Park by Murat Can Tonta.

Our past week of Statue Park puzzles is in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. More Statue Park puzzles can be found in our store.

Our Statue Park week closes with a Sunday Stumper posting in a few minutes.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

We’ve been adding more Penpa-Edit links this weekend, and all Slitherlink and Masyu posts are now digitized (except for one irregular USA Slitherlink). We’ll be working on Skyscrapers posts next as we get much closer to having Penpa-Edit links for nearly all of our old puzzles.

The next week of puzzles will feature Cave puzzles with several classic puzzles and a few variations. We’re also about a week away from publishing our second Starter Pack, with this next issue by Serkan Yürekli focused on Tapa.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)

Theme: Octagon

Author/Opus: This is the 45th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster JinHoo Ahn.

Rules: Standard Statue Park rules, using a standard pentomino set. Number clues are equivalent to white circles and cannot be shaded. Also, number clues behave like Tapa clues and indicate the length(s) of consecutive shaded block(s) in the neighboring cells.

See also this example:

Difficulty: 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 6:45, Master = 15:00, Expert = 30:00

Solution: PDF and solving video.

Note: Follow this link for other classic Statue Park and this link for Statue Park variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Statue Parks to get started on. More Statue Park puzzles can be found in the ebook Statue Park by Murat Can Tonta.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)

Theme: Boxes

Author/Opus: This is the 8th puzzle from guest contributor Sam Cappleman-Lynes.

Rules: Standard Statue Park rules. This puzzle uses a standard pentomino set.

Difficulty: 3.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 5:15, Master = 8:30, Expert = 17:00

Solution: PDF and solving video.

Note: Follow this link for other classic Statue Park and this link for Statue Park variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Statue Parks to get started on. More Statue Park puzzles can be found in the ebook Statue Park by Murat Can Tonta.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)

Theme: Where Are the Circles?

Author/Opus: This is the 222nd puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Murat Can Tonta.

Rules: Standard Statue Park rules, using a double tetromino set. Also, there are some given cages with dashed lines. In each cage, exactly half of the total number of cells must be occupied by tetrominoes.

Difficulty: 3.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:30, Master = 6:00, Expert = 12:00

Solution: PDF and solving video.

Note: Follow this link for other classic Statue Park and this link for Statue Park variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Statue Parks to get started on. More Statue Park puzzles can be found in the ebook Statue Park by Murat Can Tonta.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)

Theme: Dotted Snake

Author/Opus: This is the 13th puzzle from guest contributor Salih Alan.

Rules: Standard Statue Park rules. This puzzle uses a standard pentomino set.

Difficulty: 2.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:30, Master = 3:30, Expert = 7:00

Solution: PDF and solving video.

Note: Follow this link for other classic Statue Park and this link for Statue Park variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Statue Parks to get started on. More Statue Park puzzles can be found in the ebook Statue Park by Murat Can Tonta.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)

Theme: Off by One

Author/Opus: This is the 8th puzzle from guest contributor David Altizio.

Rules: Standard Statue Park rules. This puzzle uses a double tetromino set.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:30, Master = 1:45, Expert = 3:30

Solution: PDF and solving video.

Note: Follow this link for other classic Statue Park and this link for Statue Park variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Statue Parks to get started on. More Statue Park puzzles can be found in the ebook Statue Park by Murat Can Tonta.

PDF

or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)

Theme: Magic Mirror

Author/Opus: This is the 370th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Grant Fikes.

Rules: Standard Statue Park rules. This puzzle uses a standard tetromino set.

Difficulty: 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:00, Master = 1:15, Expert = 2:30

Solution: PDF and solving video.

Note: Follow this link for other classic Statue Park and this link for Statue Park variations. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Statue Parks to get started on. More Statue Park puzzles can be found in the ebook Statue Park by Murat Can Tonta.

Hi all,

I wanted to share some updates and other thoughts about our solving videos.

1) We have historically released the videos one day after the puzzles are released and still think this is the most rewarding approach so the earliest solvers can’t get help right away on a tough challenge. But we have been putting the updated links on the original posts the next day which make them hard to schedule and requires daily site maintenance. We will now instead be posting the solutions on the following day’s puzzle, but with quick links to those posts for people in the future to find.

2) Also, we are starting to get some other people making these solving videos and not just me. Yes, they will need some (helpful) feedback about microphones and clarity of words and pace of speech and other things, so please be constructive in your comments and not just complain. We’re all trying to share the language of puzzles and even if the words fail to be perfect in a video, the visual images should be enough to help guide you on where to look and potentially how to think to get to the next steps. That the language of a logic puzzle does not need any “English” is what excites me so much in communicating through puzzles.

3) Finally, if you are interested yourself to eventually become a presenter of solution videos for GMPuzzles, please feel free to reach out here. One great way to officially “apply” for this kind of job is to film a video for any of our puzzles that currently don’t have one. If they are good enough, we’ll add that video to our official post and channel and may consider adding you to the GMPuzzles team to do these videos more regularly. There are a lot of others using twitch or YouTube to make solution videos so the standards already out there, people using OBS or other streaming tools to make videos, is our starting point. Not where I was at in 2014 when I made the first video with just a cell phone camera and shaky video and bad lighting. I’ve enjoyed learning how to make more compelling videos without needing an editor and expect some of you might as well so I’m here to help.

Cheers,
Thomas

First, thanks again for all your thoughts and words of love as I’ve been working through my mental health (see past post here). I continue to feel better, but have been very disconnected from work and taking long hikes and walks and talking with friends and taking medication so I should be getting better. I don’t know if I’ve stabilized, but I did begin to apply the scientific method to analyse my breakdown and share it with the world and if you are struggling with things there may be some interesting ideas in this long video.

Our past week of Kakuro puzzles is in this PDF and the solutions are in this PDF. More Kakuro puzzles can be found in these books in our store.

The daily solution videos are on the posts and linked below:

The next week of puzzles will feature Statue Park puzzles with several great classic puzzles and a few variations. There will also be a challenging Sunday Stumper a week from today.