Practicing With The Same Structure

What I tried this morning was an inverse of my first Kakruo post. I tried to make a puzzle where the high numbers lead the low numbers. In theory this kind of works. But funnily enough because I used such low numbers to keep it a unique solution, you can solve it so much easier by following the low number clues in the corners.

To get right to the puzzle design I used the same structure as last time. Last week I was trying to sketch out much more complex and larger Kakuros but it just made the task of designing for them that much more complex. Given I haven’t made many I think it’s important to start small and continue learning as I go.

Given that I wanted to create an inverse of the last puzzle with high clues leading low clues, the first one I started with was the 24. This only has 3 possible numbers of 7, 8, and 9. So to compliment these numbers I used 11 and 12 clues as the lowest possible totals for 8 and 9 cells respectively. It would have been easier to use 7 and a 10 clue on the vertical, but I wanted there to be some second guessing.

From there it’s a matter of figuring out how to constrain the rest of the 11 and 12 clues. To do this I relied on low numbered clues in the 2x2 grid portions. Using 4s in particular I thought would help the player if they were starting off from the 24 clue. But as it stands you can actually figure out the whole puzzle from both of those 4 clues pretty easily. They lead the 7 and 12 clues in the 2x2 through some pretty basic cross examination.

Once again, I’m spending the time before work to design these puzzles so there’s not a lot of scope for course correction once I see that the solution is easy or the puzzle doesn’t have a unique solution. But that’s okay! A finished puzzle is good enough. And learning these sorts of lessons is important to take forward. It certainly won’t be the last Kakuro I make!