What is hanjie and how do you play it?

Hanjie puzzles have been around for a long time, but they are still unknown to many puzzle players.

You may have played hanjie under a range of names - it has been known variously as tsunami, hanjie, nonogram, griddler and probably more besides.

The aim is to work out which cells in each row and column of the grid-based puzzle must be filled in. To help decide this, at the edge of each row and column are a series of numbers that tell you how many cells are filled in that region.

For instance, it could say ‘5,2′ - this means there are five filled cells and another region of two filled cels that are consecutive. A comma denotes a gap of at least one cell between filled regions (otherwise it would be 7 if there was no gap!), but the gap can be many more than one cell.

The puzzle is solved through cross-referencing, and making gradual progress each time through with the harder puzzles.

Some things are easy to work out - for instance if all or none of the cells in a row are to be filled then you can fill them in straight off. If more than half of the cells are to be filled, then you can fill the middle cell(s).

For instance, if the row is five cells in length and you know that 3 cells are filled, then in any combination the middle cell must be filled in, therefore you can fill it in.

Likewise, you can also make progress by working out cells that are not filled too, as this can further constrain options for the various regions and columns. To mark a cell that cannot be filled may hanjie players like to put a dot in the cell.

At the end of the puzzle you will reveal a simple black and white image, and a clue to this is often given at the start of the puzzle. Depending on how good the puzzle artwork is, the image may be more or less easy to recognise at the end!

Fillomino Puzzles

Fillomino is a rarely seen Japanese puzzle variant. The grid contains a range of numbers that indicate groups of cells that must be adjacent to each other. For instance a ‘3′ means there are 3 cells that form a group together, such that you can move from one cell to any other by moving just horizotally or vertically from one member to another.

Groups of the same number cannot touch either horizontally or vertically (otherwise they would not be groups of that number if you think about it), but the most interesting rule is that you often have to add new groups and work out the number(s) in these. For instance you might have to quite often add groups of size 1 - 4, but on occasion you need to go larger and sometimes surprisingly high numbers are forced uniquely through the constraint that groups containing the same number cannot touch.

Hashi Puzzle

Hashi is a puzzle that requires you to connect a series of islands with a set of bridges.

It is a fun and relatively simple (in most cases) Japanese puzzle that also goes by the name of bridges, funnily enough.

Each island contains a number and you simply need to connect the islands to each other with the stated number of bridges on each island, but no more than two bridges may connect any two islands to each other, and bridges must be horizontal or vertical and cannot cross. Finally, no island can be isolated: it must be possible to walk from any island to any other island using the bridges alone.

To play a sample bridges puzzle and get printable Hashi PDF puzzles you can play Bridges Puzzles at the Puzzle Club

By the way, there is also a fun but unrelated game with the same name on Funzola games - Hashi

Cloud Control – Online Puzzle Game

Cloud Control is a Sokoban type of puzzle game by NewsGround.

This is a precision on-line puzzle game you have to touch each blue cloud to assimilate them, then move together until the sky is yours. Don’t try to leave the screen and avoid to touch storm clouds.

You van move your cloud mass with the arrow keys, and click the arrow in the top-left to return to the level select screen. There are 15 challenging levels to complete. Happy Puzzling!

Solving Puzzles Could Lead To Dementia

Bad news for real puzzle lovers?

Thinking too hard may actually damage the brains of some older people, it is claimed.

Engaging in activities such as doing crossword puzzles, reading and listening to the radio has long been thought to delay mental decline.

But new research shows that while at first they slow the decline of thinking skills, brain work-outs actually speed up the progress of dementia once it set in.

Study author Robert Wilson, of Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago said mentally stimulating activities may enhance the brain’s ability to function relatively normally despite the build-up of lesions associated with dementia. However, once diagnosed with dementia, people with a mentally active life are likely to have more negative brain changes than others.

Dr Wilson said, as a result, those with more mentally active lifestyles may experience a faster rate of decline once dementia begins.

He added: “This reduces the overall amount of time a person may suffer from dementia.”

They found the rate of mental decline in those without dementia was heavily reduced the more mentally-active they kept. But for those with Alzheimer’s, the rate of decline was heavily increased the more mentally-active they tried to be.