Related papers: Double Choco is NP-complete
In the Nikoli pencil-and-paper game Tatamibari, a puzzle consists of an $m \times n$ grid of cells, where each cell possibly contains a clue among +, -, |. The goal is to partition the grid into disjoint rectangles, where every rectangle…
Nondango is a pencil puzzle consisting of a rectangular grid partitioned into regions, with some cells containing a white circle. The player has to color some circles black such that every region contains exactly one black circle, and there…
Sumplete is a logic puzzle famous for being developed by ChatGPT. The puzzle consists of a rectangular grid, with each cell containing a number. The player has to cross out some numbers such that the sum of uncrossed numbers in each row and…
The Parks Puzzle is a paper-and-pencil puzzle game that is classically played on a square grid with different colored regions (the parks). The player needs to place a certain number of "trees" in each row, column, and park such that none…
We study a popular puzzle game known variously as Clickomania and Same Game. Basically, a rectangular grid of blocks is initially colored with some number of colors, and the player repeatedly removes a chosen connected monochromatic group…
Kingdomino is a board game designed by Bruno Cathala and edited by Blue Orange since 2016. The goal is to place $2 \times 1$ dominoes on a grid layout, and get a better score than other players. Each $1 \times 1$ domino cell has a color…
We propose a new kind of sliding-block puzzle, called Gourds, where the objective is to rearrange 1 x 2 pieces on a hexagonal grid board of 2n + 1 cells with n pieces, using sliding, turning and pivoting moves. This puzzle has a single…
We prove NP-completeness of Yin-Yang / Shiromaru-Kuromaru pencil-and-paper puzzles. Viewed as a graph partitioning problem, we prove NP-completeness of partitioning a rectangular grid graph into two induced trees (normal Yin-Yang), or into…
Evolomino is a pencil-and-paper logic puzzle popularized by the Japanese publisher Nikoli (like Sudoku, Kakuro, Slitherlink, Masyu, and Fillomino). The puzzle's name reflects its core mechanic: the shapes of polyomino-like blocks that…
Wataridori is a pencil puzzle that involves drawing paths in a rectangular grid to connect circles into pairs while satisfying several constraints. In this paper, we prove that deciding whether a given Wataridori puzzle has a solution is…
In this paper, we consider a game played on a rectangular $m \times n$ gridded chocolate bar. Each move, a player breaks the bar along a grid line. Each move after that consists of taking any piece of chocolate and breaking it again along…
Shikaku is a pencil puzzle consisting of a rectangular grid, with some cells containing a number. The player has to partition the grid into rectangles such that each rectangle contains exactly one number equal to the area of that rectangle.…
We introduce a new -as far as we know- problem, according to which we are asked to match sequences of two digits in matrices having entries among those two digits (but others too) and prove that this problem is NP-complete
We consider the problem of coloring a grid using k colors with the restriction that in each row and each column has an specific number of cells of each color. In an already classical result, Ryser obtained a necessary and sufficient…
We prove that the 2017 puzzle game ZHED is NP-complete, even with just 1 tiles. Such a puzzle is defined by a set of unit-square 1 tiles in a square grid, and a target square of the grid. A move consists of selecting an unselected 1 tile…
Rikudo is a number-placement puzzle, where the player is asked to complete a Hamiltonian path on a hexagonal grid, given some clues (numbers already placed and edges of the path). We prove that the game is complete for NP, even if the…
Motivated by a new way of visualizing hypergraphs, we study the following problem. Consider a rectangular grid and a set of colors $\chi$. Each cell $s$ in the grid is assigned a subset of colors $\chi_s \subseteq \chi$ and should be…
Spiral Galaxies is a pencil-and-paper puzzle played on a grid of unit squares: given a set of points called centers, the goal is to partition the grid into polyominoes such that each polyomino contains exactly one center and is 180{\deg}…
Zeiger is a pencil puzzle consisting of a rectangular grid, with each cell having an arrow pointing in horizontal or vertical direction. Some cells also contain a positive integer. The objective of this puzzle is to fill a positive integer…
In this paper we show that a generalized version of the Nikoli puzzle Slant is NP-complete. We also give polynomial time algorithms for versions of the puzzle where some constraints are omitted. These problems correspond to simultaneously…