I’ve developed a new kind of puzzle that I’m calling wordstream. I got the inspiration for this puzzle while looking at the solution for a nurikabe or “islands in the stream” puzzle. It looked to me like a reverse crossword puzzle. So, I decided to combine a nurikabe puzzle and a crossword puzzle. The grid in the puzzle below resembles a nurikabe grid and all of the nurikabe rules apply:
- It’s a binary determination puzzle where each cell will either be a shaded “island” cell or an empty “stream” cell.
- The “stream” cells will all be orthogonally contiguous (they will make up a single polyomino) and they will form no 2X2 squares or pools.
- The numbers each sit on an “island” composed of that number of cells which are also orthogonally contiguous.
- Each “island” has exactly one number on it.
Given these rules only, the grid below would not provide a unique solution. But for wordstream, there is one more rule.
- Each word in the word list will fit into the “stream” creating the “wordstream.” Words will cross each other, but they may not be adjacent.
So, here’s the puzzle.
I also have a pdf version of the puzzle.
I’ve started out with an easier one. I’m currently planning for this to be a weekly feature for 10 weeks. As the weeks go on, the puzzles will get larger and more difficult.
If you’re really not sure how this puzzle plays out, it might be best to look at the solution. It should help you figure out what’s going on and there are more puzzles to come to test your mind.
Tags: puzzles,wordstream
From your wordsteam “icon” I thought the islands had to be rects. Once I understood the rules and peeked just a little, it was fine. Looking forward to more.
Comment by debbie — April 17, 2006 @ 3:25 pm