Paper Puzzle Masterlist
This is a masterlist of Paper Puzzle Types resources, listing puzzle genre lists, paper puzzle blogs, portfolios and archives, online and paper publications, plus setting interfaces, guides and automatic solvers.
If you're unsure about what exactly is meant by paper puzzle, find the crossword page of any paper newspaper: other puzzles nearby likely fit this paper puzzle definition:
A logic puzzle primarily designed to be printed, then solved by writing or drawing on it, generally with a unique solution for the given rules and constraints, to be arrived at via a sequence of logical steps.
While word puzzles, inductive puzzles and paper-puzzle-like games fall out of scope of this masterlist, any other suggestions (even self-plugs) are always !
Throughout this masterlist, clicking an RSS symbol (
Puzzle genre lists
To help you answer questions like:
- How many paper puzzle genres are there?
- What are the rules of a genre and where to find puzzles and examples?
- Are there any variants of this genre?
… Let's start the masterlist with this list of puzzle genre lists!
| ★ | List | Tags | Commentary |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | Nikoli's Official List of Puzzles | +40 genres highlighted by Nikoli — can be considered canonical | |
| - | Roger Kohler's Puzzle Types Database | +1027 puzzle types and variants, including rules, child-parent relationships, and puzzles that appeared in competitions | |
| - | Puzzlewiki Rätselarten and taxonomy DEU | and | +846 puzzles and variants, systematically arranged, with good explanations and pictures |
| - | Yannickyao's Logic Puzzle Taxomony | +750 genres, plus many variants, arranged as a "phylogenetic tree" in the order of Type (shading, loop, region division) then Clues, Constraints and Variants | |
| - | Eric Fox's Dictionary of Rulesets | +515 genres, plus +270 variants, succinctly explained | |
| - | Nikoli's Omopa Table JPN | +456 genres and variants in the "Omopa" category, mapped to their earliest Puzzle Communication Nikoli (PCN) issue number | |
| - | Michael Vedder's Compendium of Pencil Puzzle Genres | ; and | +350 genres plus variants, concisely explained with one example puzzle (solved), alternate names, common variant rules and genre author/year |
| ★ | Otto Janko's overview of puzzle genres, as well as the Encyclopedia of Nikoli and Naoki Inaba genresDEU ENG | ; and | +333 genres, extensively explained, with example pictures plus puzzles, often interactive. The Nikoli list includes a section on Omopa genres. |
| - | Puzzler's A-Z Puzzle Guide | +524 variants and genres, however includes word puzzles in the mix | |
| - | Ryotarochiba's Spreadsheet | and | +260 base genres, +150 variants, plus +16 sudoku variants listing their author and often the year of first puzzle and a link thereto |
| - | Shading, Drawing, Object placement and Area segmentation puzzles genre spreadsheets JPN | +249 genres classified with great precision, with an eye for computer implementation | |
| - | Cross-A+ Logic Puzzles Rules | +217 genres briefly explained, with illustrated rules | |
| - | Ryotarochiba's List of WPC puzzle types, plus some of unascertained origin) | +250 genres, plus +50 of unascertained origin, with pictures — with a focus on competitive genres | |
| - | puzz.link's List of Puzzle types, extended at pzplus | ; and | +250 genres — click the small question marks to reveal the rules |
| - | Serkan Yürekli's Tapa Variations List | and | 138 tapa variants gathered by Serkan Yürekli in 2016 based on submissions to several editions (I-XVIII) of the Tapa Variations Contest |
| - | Naoki Project DEU | a collective effort to translate the rules for Naoki Inaba's original genres | |
| - | James Marshall's Rules for Nikoli Puzzles | +100 genre rules explained in plain english, often witn links to a puzzle (2014-2023) | |
| - | Puzzle Picnic's Genre list (archived copy) | ; and | +77 classic genres, explained with a small picture, linking to all puzzles in the portal |
| - | PuzzleDuel's Genres | links to example puzzles in +118 genres and variants | |
| - | Puzzle fountain's Giochi ITA | +60 classic genres explained in italian, with example (some genre names translated) | |
| - | Chaoticiak's Thinky discord's logic puzzle genres, | +65 new genres (plus many variants) invented at the Thinky Puzzles server are already listed here, yet the list outdated (you can help) | |
| - | Keep it Simple Puzzles Guides, 2, 3, 4, 5 | +40 classic genres, neatly explained and illustrated, occasionally with some not-so-simple visuals and non-logic puzzles into the mix | |
| - | Arvi Teikari (Hempuli)'s Paper Puzzle Collection | and | +38 new genres — rules and puzzles neatly compiled as a single printable PDF |
| Jack Lance's rules | +25 classic genres, well explained with nice example pictures | ||
| - | Vítězslav Koudelka's types of Sudoku Puzzles | 13 sudoku variants, well explained, with pictures | |
| - | Swiss Logic Puzzle Federation overview of Logikrätsel and rules for 5 genres DEU | simple genre classification (in German) | |
| - | Vexus Puzzles' Range | 8 original genres, explained by their authors | |
| - | Takayukiyato's List of NP-Complete Pencil PuzzlesJPN | Academic notes from 2006 | |
| - | Bay's Puzzle Editor Dictionary JPN ENG | Search available editor(s) by genre name (english keywords accepted) | |
| - | Jonahostroff's Puzzle Mashups Doc | A list of notable puzzle mashups sortable by date, author, genre category, size/number of cells, topology (mostly square grid variantions) | |
| Pedro's Ported Paper Puzzle Genres | ; and | +250 genres and variants ported by Pedro with the Kudamono Documentation, including rules and a solve/edit interface |
Puzzle Setting
Shall you want to make a paper puzzle yourself, or even build your own paper puzzle program, the following interfaces and automatic solvers may be useful or at least provide some inspiration.
Interfaces
Interactive
Puzzle setting interfaces, some of which inspired Pedro's Kudamono Documentation
| ★ | Name | Extends | Modes | Lead author(s) | Commentary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | PUZ-PRE JPN — PuzzlePure (also PZV — PuzzleVan) | - | and | Daisuke Kobayashi (sabo2) | Pleasant, extremely well designed, with live incremental error checking. Short puzzlestrings for instant sharing. Comprehensive manual Best tool for classic genres. |
| - | puzz.link | PUZ-PRE | and | Robert Vollmert (robx) | An extension of PUZ-PRE, translated to english. Adds a puzzle database (no longer self-updating) and a puzzle image server (live picture previews for cross-posting). |
| - | PZPRXS — X-sheep fork | puzz.link | and | Lennard Sprong (X_Sheep) | An extension of puzz.link, adding new puzzle types, which may eventually merge back into puzz.link. |
| ★ | PZPLUS — PuzzlePlus | PZPRXS | and | Andy Tockman (tckmn) | An extension of PZPRXS, adding the ability to record the solve process, plus stats (rating, comments, etc…), the ability to pause and a dark theme, plus some extra-colourful effects. |
| - | honeyis.land, formerly Honey view JPN | - | and | わんど (wand125) | an hexagonal grid editor and solver, for the genre Honey Islands |
| - | Penpa edit JPN ENG | - | and | Tomoya Kimura (opt-pan) | The precursor of Penpa+ (less frequently updated). |
| - | Penpa+ | Penpa edit | and | Swaroop Guggilam (swaroopg) | Extension of Penpa-edit. Great for new puzzle types and variants, with instant sharing (large urls can be minified), multiple annotation options and customisations, plus (manual) answer checking and strong multi-geometry support. Plentiful options make it powerful but steepen the learning curve. In active development. |
| - | Janko.at's interface DEU | - | Otto Janko | A very complete solving interface, packed with features. | |
| - | PuzzlePicnic's Studio (archived version) | - | and | Johan de Ruiter, Maarten Löffler and Thierry de Kok | Discontinued, very versatile, with a nice buttons to switch between different ink colours, and an eraser. Login-walled. |
| - | Puzzlemaker | - | Hempuli | A concise puzzle-drawing tool, with good keyboard shortcuts (e.g for board resizing) and a neat palette of symbols. | |
| - | Puzzle setting tool for sudoku | - | and | Eric Fox | Sudoku setter, supporting a wealth of variants |
| - | Sven's SudokuPad | - | Sven Neumann (svencodes) | Sudoku solver, with really nice area selection and colouring functions | |
| - | Portable Puzzle Collection | - | Simon Tatham | Portable interfaces for solving (and generating) puzzles of +40 genres (renamed). | |
| - | Krazydad interface, e.g bridges | - | Jim Bumgardner | A cute interface for solving the puzzles on Krazydad, with live error-checking | |
| - | Sudokizer JPN | - | and | A sudoku editor and solver with many options, including flipping/rotating the board and producing the list of deductions (Tesujis) used when solving the puzzle | |
| - | Suiri Editor 推理パズルエディタ JPN | - | An editor for Einstein-type puzzles | ||
| - | Sudoku Coach | - | and | Jan_feldmann | A new sudoku interface with checking and solving for variants: Diagonal, Anti-Knight, Anti-King, Nonconsecutive, Entropy, Additional Region, VX, Odd/Even, Thermometer, Renban-Line, Consecutive-Line, Sandwich, Difference, Ratio,… |
| - | Sudoku Lab | - | and | Sudokulab | Player, editor and solver for sudoku, supporting the following elements/variants: Boxes, Diagonal, Disjoint Groups, King's Move, Knight's Move, Negative Kropki, Negative XV, Nonconsecutive |
| - | PuzzleTV | - | Yuri Sitnikov | A bespoke player for rarer paper puzzles, which cannot be used for setting, but supports many unusual geometries (fractal, hyperbolic, etc…) and great options for marking. | |
| - | Continuous Engine | - | and | redstonerodent | A python interface for implementing continuous versions of logic puzzles, such as angle loop and kouchoku (plus turn-based games like go and reversi). |
| - | Sudoku maker | - | Pim Schreurs (sirxemic) | A mobile-first sudoku maker and solver with rich support for constraints (including a constraint maker), multicoloured regions, etc… Redirects to sudokupad for solving. | |
| - | One Up Puzzle interface | - | Rodolfo Marcelo Kurchan | A basic interface tailored for solving One Up Puzzles (undo, candidates, conflict checking). Interesting detail: pressing zero (0) clears the cell. | |
| Kudamono Editor | - | and | Pedro | A novel interface in active development, focused on live conflict highlighting and stacking variants |
As Java Applets no longer work in the majority of web browsers, these interfaces were not included: Pencilbox, Kanpen.
Worth mentioning Mark Langezaal (MarkTekfan)'s Sudokupad Penpa Import which converts puzzle urls from Penpa to sudokupad (even shortened).
Annotation
Some puzzle books come in image or Pdf format, requiring an annnotation interface.
| ★ | Name | Commentary |
|---|---|---|
| - | Flexil | iOS only |
| - | Adobe Pdf | ? |
| - | xournal | ? |
| - | Windows pen | Win only |
| - | Paint3D | Win only |
Automatic solvers
| Name | Lead author | Commentary |
|---|---|---|
| pzprRT ENG JPN | semiexp | a pzprjs-based automatic solution tool that shows all the places where the solution is already determined by a partial solution.See also the technical note JPN |
| sudoku solver JPN | 3892myamya | A puzzle generator with +80 types, includes the option to pre-generate multiple puzzles and speedrun them, complete with timer (see 's video using it) |
| Cross-A+ | Sergey Kutasov and Ilya Morozov | Commercial solver for +217 puzzle types |
| Noq Solver | Michael Tang and Jenna H. | suite of solvers for +54 genres of Nikoli-style logic puzzles |
| Qhex Solvers | Unknown | Under grid solvers you find Masyu, Sudoku, Lights Out, Thermometers, Kakuro, Fill-a-Pix, Minesweeper, Hitori, Nurikabe, Tapa, Hashiwokakero, Numberlink, Shikaku, Fillomino. Plus nonogram. |
| Grid Logic Puzzle Solver | Matt Gruskin | Python package containing a collection of libraries and helper functions that are useful for solving and checking Nikoli-style logic puzzles using z3. |
| pencil puzzle solver JPN | 3892myamya | check the answers to +120 puzz.link genre urls |
| KYC's Nikoli Puzzle Solver | Kevinychen | An interface allowing solving/unique-checking of +60 Nikoli puzzles. An combination of the Z3 solver, gridlops and Penpa+ |
| foxy sudoku solver | KrisOfRage | A step-by-step automatic sudoku solver, with a very pedagogic interface, but the sudoku needs to be formatted as a string for input. |
| cspuz-solver2 ENG JPN | semiexp | A puzzle solver and uniqueness checker taking puzz.link and Kudamono URLs, including genres such as Crosswall, Parrot Loop, Double Choco, Slalom… |
| toichika Solver JPN | Tesuji and ウド (Udo P.) | automatic answering tool for toichika, which displays the answering process |
| Honey Island real-time solver JPN | wand125 | Honey Island — search for confirmed locations |
| Sudoku Solver | Andrew Stuart | Sudoku solver, iterative deductive (see list of strategies on the page) |
| Tim's Sudoku Solver | Timdown | An old sudoku solver |
| HoDoKu Sudoku Helper ENG DE | Bernhard Hobiger | Sudoku generator/solver/trainer/analyzer with a focus on learning: supports human-style solving techniques (singles, subsets, LCs, fish, wings, uniqueness, etc…) by highlighting them on the grid and includes a "Training Mode" to practice them. Java-based (2009-2012) but open-source. |
| Polyomino Tiling Solver JPN | こんちゃん (kontotto591) | This tool will let you specify a base grid and set of polyominos, and then output all possible tilings (without repetitions, unless you draw the same polyomino again) |
| Kakuro Online's family or solvers, e.g. Hashi | Thomas Reinke | For hashi, use the format 4x4:3--3-----1-22-1- to input a puzzle. For other solvers you'll need to find out: Kakuro (login-walled), Slitherlink, Fillomino, Nurikabe and Masyu |
| dCode's Number Games Solvers ENG FRA | Unknown | Kakuro and Sudoku are a few among the immensity of tools listed under "Number games" |
| Fathom It Battleships solver and player | Moshe Rubin | Commercial software © Mountain Vista Software, listing features such as computing the number of solutions for a displayed board and a puzzle data base for board sizes 6x6 to 10x10 |
| Polyforms Solver | Jaap Scherphuis | A Java application to make and solve puzzles/problems involving polyforms (polyominos, polyiamonds, polyhexes, polytans, polydrafters, etc…) in a rich set of geometric grids. This tool was instrumental in discovering the first aperiodic monotile (2023). |
| Logiklöser (Logical Solver) | Johannes Singler | A solver for Einstein-style puzzles (aka logical, logigram or logiquiz), with a handy manual |
Guides
All Setting and Solving guides focus on a particular genre, used for alphabetical sorting.
Setting guides
The following pages and videos will guide you through the process of setting a paper puzzle, illustrating the method of forward design.
puzzle setting guides
| ★ | Description | Guide | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | 30 Puzzle Design Lessons - Part 3 (see also parts 1 and 2) | Elyot Grant | Akari |
| - | Let's make a Chained Block! チェンブロ(パズル)をつくろう JPN | ふーなんとかさん (Fuwa Lica Chan) | Chained Block |
| - | Let's make it! Heyawake へやわけ JPN | Pencil Puzzle ペンシルパズル Wiki | Heyawake |
| - | A Numberlink solving primer | Palmer Mebane (Mellow Mellon) | Numberlink |
| - | Wei-Hwa Huang creates a Nurikabe puzzle | 黃煒華 (Wei-Hwa Huang) | Nurikabe |
| - | Let's make it! Spiral Galaxies 天体ショー JPN | Pencil Puzzle ペンシルパズル Wiki | Spiral Galaxies |
| - | On Spiral Galaxies 天体ショーについて JPN | pzdc | Spiral Galaxies |
| Let's make a star battle! | Jack Lance | Star battle | |
| - | Answer to How does one go about creating a new grid-deduction puzzle | Deusovi | Tapa |
| - | I Tried to make a Yajilin ヤジリンを作ってみた+α JPN | AtomicNeoN | Yajilin |
| - | Let's make it! Yajilin ヤジリン JPN | Pencil Puzzle ペンシルパズル Wiki | Yajilin |
Solving guides
Tutorials, tactics and theory on particular genres. These will help you solve better, thus also construct better.
puzzle solving guides
| Description | Guide | Genre |
|---|---|---|
| Akari Solving guide 美術館を解こう Part 1 and 2 JPN | nyoroppyi | Akari |
| My favourite Castle wall | Stef | Castle Wall |
| Commentary on Mini Coral JPN | Pronter | Coral (mini) |
| How to solve a Curve Data Puzzle? | Ashish Kumar | Curve Data |
| How to solve: Dosun Fuwari 解き方(ドッスンフワリ) JPN | Pencil Puzzle ペンシルパズル Wiki | Dosun Fuwari |
| How to solve: Double choco 解き方(ダブルチョコ) JPN | Pencil Puzzle ペンシルパズル Wiki | Double choco |
| How to solve: Gokigen Naname 解き方(ごきげんななめ) JPN | Pencil Puzzle ペンシルパズル Wiki | Gokigen Naname |
| How to solve: Hashiwokakero 手筋集(橋をかけろ) JPN | Pencil Puzzle ペンシルパズル Wiki | Hashiwokakero |
| Penalty theory for dynasty genres | Chaoticiak | Heyawake |
| Dynasty cycle counting (penalty theory) the easy way | One plus Omega | Heyawake |
| Penalty Theory in dynasty puzzles | tckmn | Heyawake |
| Teal’s (In)Comprehens(ive/ible) Heyawake Guide | Teal | Heyawake |
| Heyawake Tesuji Collection へやわけ考え方・手筋集 JPN | 謎垢 (NAZOac) | Heyawake |
| How to solve: Heyawake 解き方(へやわけ) with Terminology JPN | Pencil Puzzle ペンシルパズル Wiki | Heyawake |
| Heyawake: how to cross the river Part 1 + Part 2 JPN | SP1 | Heyawake |
| How to solve Honey Island (subsection) ハニーアイランドを愛でる会 JPN | Saki | Honey Island |
| The story of Hotaru Beam and Parity ホタルビームとパリティの話 JPN | lilva | Hotaru Beam |
| How to solve: LITS 解き方 JPN | Pencil Puzzle ペンシルパズル Wiki | LITS |
| How to solve: Nurikabe 解き方(ぬりかべ) JPN | Pencil Puzzle ペンシルパズル Wiki | Nurikabe |
| How to solve: Nurimisaki 解き方(ぬりみさき) JPN | Pencil Puzzle ペンシルパズル Wiki | Nurimisaki |
| How to solve: Sashigane 解き方(さしがね) JPN | Pencil Puzzle ペンシルパズル Wiki | Sashigane |
| How to solve: Shakashaka 解き方(シャカシャカ) with Tactics JPN | Pencil Puzzle ペンシルパズル Wiki | Shakashaka |
| Japan Simple Loop Society 日本シンプルループ学会 JPN | NAZOac | Simple Loop |
| Simple loop Tesujis JPN (includes other genres where all cells must be visited) | NAZOac | Simple Loop |
| Daily Simple Loop Returns (included uniqueness deductions) | scor | Simple Loop |
| Slitherlink Tesuji Collection 理論に基づくスリザーリンク手筋集 JPN | fff | Slitherlink |
| Slitherlink Patterns | Bram de Laat | Slitherlink |
| Sudoku Sledgehammer, explaining how Naked Singles, Pointing Pairs, X-Wings, Hidden Pairs, Naked Pairs and Naked Triples deductions are all related | Wei-Hwa Huang | Sudoku |
| Compendium of Sudoku Techniques, listing techniques by similarity (not difficulty), with pictures | Thetearex15 | Sudoku |
| How to solve: Spiral Galaxies 解き方(天体ショー) with Tesuji JPN | Pencil Puzzle ペンシルパズル Wiki | Spiral Galaxies |
| Puzzle composition log #3 作問記録：第３回 Tectonic Squares JPN | pzdc | Tectonic Squares |
| A story and collection of tricks that made a Toichika solver JPN | Udo P. | Toichika |
| Yajilin is interesting, let's solve it! ヤジリンが面白いから、解こう JPN | 盥 (Tarai puzzle) | Yajilin |
| How to solve: Yajilin 解き方(ヤジリン) with Tesuji JPN | Pencil Puzzle ペンシルパズル Wiki | Yajilin |
See also the Global Tesuji Summary JPN by SP1, listing strategies for many different genres; and an article + playthrough videos JPN of most Arvi Teikari (Hempuli)'s genres by Kuchiwo Tsugumi (Competor).
Paper Puzzle Publications
Regular sources of new paper puzzles (and genres) by author teams and companies. Includes online publications, paper magazines, and even Aggregators and generated puzzle sites.
Online magazines
Handcrafted puzzles, shared regularly online.
| ★ | Name | Since |
|---|---|---|
| ★ | Grandmaster Puzzles' The Art of Puzzles | 2012 |
| - | Perplexible | 2012 —2020 |
| - | World Class Puzzles | 2014 |
| - | Puzzle Duel ENG RUS (competitive) | 2020 |
| - | Tambox Bulletin | 2022 |
| - | Missing deck (sudokus) | 2021 |
| - | Nobuzaemon パズル部へようこそ JPN gallery page | ??? |
| - | fff's Puzzle Journey | 2023 |
| - | CTC discord's Mind the GAPP compiled by jovi_al | 2021 |
Paper magazines or publishers
Paper paper puzzle magazines, or online publications with a strong emphasis on printing physical copies.
| ★ | Name | Commentary |
|---|---|---|
| ★ | Nikoli Communication and book shop | Nikoli was founded by Maki Kaji, the grandfather of sudoku. The most popular paper puzzle genres were invented by the community fostered by this company . |
| ★ | Toketa JPN | Japanese self-publishing magazine with contributions from Serkan Yürekli. Since 2013 |
| - | Games Magazine | Erich Friedman sent many puzzles here for publishing |
| - | Pulze Magazine by Tambox | A recent (2022) puzzle magazine |
| - | Conceptis Puzzles book store | A huge selection of publications where on nonograms and sudoku prevail, but there are other genres in the mix |
| - | Forsmarts Puzzle Books | Puzzles that appeared at various contests, a project by Vladimir Portugalov |
| - | PUZZLERS Club | Another recent (2022?) puzzle magazine |
| - | Internet Puzzler JPN | by Sekai Bunka Publishing Inc., a japanese company |
| - | Puzlova JPN | by JPPuzzles |
The magazine akıl oyunları TUR (possibly also Meraklisina Akil Oyunlari) seems to have stopped.
Aggregators
| Name | Commentary |
|---|---|
| Puzzle Square JPN, ENG | aggregates +30000 puzzles in +600 genres; using interfaces such as penpa, pzv, kudamono… |
| puzz.link Database | aggregates most puzzles shared on twitter that were made with puzz.link, filterable by genre and difficulty. Hover over the genre name to reveal solve count and difficulty. |
| PZPlus Database | puzz.link database with some visual changes and conveniences, such as direct links to the puzzles |
| Puzzle Picnic Database (partial archived copy) | discontinued platform with +6000 puzzles by diverse contributors. Allowed mass puzzle printing (up to 64 puzzles) |
| Logic Masters Deutschland's Advanced search DEU ENG | the tag cloud on the right-hand side leads to appropriate puzzles |
| LMI Puzzle Expo | new in-development puzzle publishing, solving and reacting platform, tightly integrated with Penpa+; with a focus on timed/ranked solving and strict publishing guidelines |
Generated
These pages contain algorithmically generated puzzles, generally updated daily or on-demand.
| Name | Lead programmer(s) | Commentary |
|---|---|---|
| Krazydad | Jim Bumgardner | Both online puzzles and printable booklets, with many genres. Jim has been supplying Star Battle puzzles, also known as Two-not-touch, to the New York Times, since 2020. |
| PuzzlePhil's daily puzzles | Philipp Hübner | Daily puzzles of most classic genres |
| puzzle-loop, puzzle-dominosa, etc… | Atanas Georgiev | Family of websites, one per genre (scroll down for links). Includes puzzles of different sizes, timed solves, hall of fame and mass printing ability, plus a community discord. |
| Web sudoku, with variations | Gideon Greenspan and Rachel Lee | Printable sudokus of varying difficulties. Other daily sudoku sites: Fed, str8ts, Live, Printable, Killer, 2, E-, Mania, Cup, fans and Foxy |
| str8ts | Andrew Stuart and Jeff Widderich | Daily Str8ts and sudokus |
| Logic Games Online | Josh Metzler | Nurikabe, LightsOut, TenPair, Netwalk and of course Sudoku. 2005—2016 |
| Brain Bashers | Kevin Stone | 24 genres, all re-generated daily |
| Puzzlemix | Dr. Gareth Moore | 16 genres, 8 of which are sudoku variants |
| Puzzle University | Dr. Amy Galitzer | old-school (1993) website with hitoris of different difficulties, sudoku, and several word-based puzzles plus Einstein (logic) problems, all dailies. |
| Kakuro online | Thomas Reinke | Daily kakuro puzzle, with generators for a few other genres. |
| Kwon-Tom Loop's daily slitherlink | Foilman | An assortment of slitherlinks (here kwon-tom loops) of varying sizes and difficulties, one per day. See also the leaderboard and archives. |
| Kwon-Tom Loop's slitherlink variations | Foilman | An extremely varied colection of geometric grids with slitherlink puzzles on them, daily. See also the archives. |
| TwistNTurn generator (masyu) | Tilps | An online tool with the ability to generate Masyu on square and octogonal grids. |
| LoopDeLoop generator (slitherlink) | Tilps | A similar tool containing a wealth of geometric grids (triangular, hexagonal, pentagonal, etc…) on which to generate slitherlink puzzles. |
| HIDATO.com | Doo-Bee Toys & Games | Daily hidatos of varying difficulties, by Gyorabenedek's company |
| Portable Puzzle Collection | Simon Tatham | For each of the paper puzzle genres in-scope (e.g. light up, slither link, nonograms, sudoku, masyu, tentaisho), a page refresh generates a new (random) puzzle (seed). Size and other parameters are tunable. |
| Circle9 family of sites | James Dewar | Daily generated puzzles in some unique genres, e.g. Circle9, Blueberry Block, Blueberry Trio. |
Competition Archives
These are puzzle archives of contests or competitions, and contain links to past puzzle booklets.
| Archive | Maintainer | Year of earliest available puzzle |
|---|---|---|
| WPF Archive (paid access) | World Puzzle Federation | 1999 |
| Liste der Wettbewerbe DEU | Logic Masters Deutschland | 2009 |
| LMI Tests | Logic Masters India | 2009 (probably) |
| LMI Contest search | Logic Masters India | ??? |
| 24 Hours Puzzle Championship Archive mirror | 2010 | |
| Logic Mashups spreadsheet | SoftFro | 2011 (probably) |
| University of Tokyo Puzzle Championship JPN | University of Tokyo | 2012, then 2015 |
| Japan Puzzle Championship Archive JPN (use top bar) | JPPuzzles | 2013 |
| Grand Prix Puzzle Archive | World Puzzle Federation | 2014 |
| Grand Prix Sudoku Archive | World Puzzle Federation | 2014 |
| Online Contests Archive | UK Puzzle Association | 2010 |
| Logical Contests Puzzles ENG SRP | Jovan.N | 2017 |
| Competition Links (login required) | WPC Team USA | 2018 |
| Puzzle Race Test list | Korea and China Association | 2020 |
| Puzcon Contest list JPN | Puzcon | 2021 |
The Instructionless grid an online-contest in 2021, falling in the inductive category.
Paper Puzzle Authors
Blogs
These are active puzzle blogs by individual puzzle creators, sorted by date of first post containing a paper puzzle, oldest first. All those listed here received at least one new puzzle since , otherwise they were moved into the archives.
active paper puzzle blogs
Portfolios
Akin to broader porfolios, these puzzle pages are not primarily arranged in a chronological, blog-like fashion.
paper puzzle portfolios and sites of various authors
| ★ | Portfolio | Author | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| ★ | Puzzle Palace (published puzzles) | Erich Friedman | 1999 (probably) |
| ★ | Puzzle Laboratory (PDFs) JPN | Naoki Inaba | 2001 |
| - | Croco Puzzle (except Fridays for Future) DEU | Bernhard Seckinger | 2006 |
| - | Puzzles of Leonid Mochalov ENG RUS (use the top menu to find paper puzzles) | Leonid Mochalov | ??? |
| - | Vorhandensein JPN (puzzle links broken) | izkdic | ??? |
| - | My logic puzzles | Chaoticiak | 2011 |
| - | OCTO Puzzles | Doug Gardner | 2011 |
| - | Deusovi's Logic Puzzles, (profile) | Deusovi | 2015 |
| - | Jonah Ostroff's Logic Puzzles (search for "Logic puzzles") | Jonah Ostroff (softfro) | 2015 |
| - | ludicrous loop (see profile for more puzzles) | William Hu (TheGreatEscaper) | 2016 |
| - | Mindwielders Sudoku | Lucy Audrin | ??? |
| - | Taishi Higashida's Puzzle Museum | Taichi Higashida | 2019 |
| - | Kersnap | Bram Cohen | 2020 |
| - | Rodolfo Kurchan's Puzzle Fun (includes puzzle books) | Rodolfo Kurchan | 2020 |
| - | Joseph Mansfield's Puzzles section | Joseph Mansfield (sftrabbit) | 2020 |
| - | Blaž Urban Gracar's Games | Blaž Urban Gracar | 2021 |
| - | Genres by Zachary Talis | Zachary Talis | 2022 |
Twitters
Twitter is no longer twitter. In any case, there's a separate page with twitter handles.
A few authors share their puzzles only via video channels — Swaroop Guggilam (swaroopg)'s comprehensive masterlist started tracking those. Sooner or later, those puzzles tend also to appear in the Aggregators.
Archives
These are puzzle archives of individual authors, i.e. rarely updated portfolio pages or no longer active blogs. They are sorted by year of latest puzzle posted. Some archives listed here are continued and/or superseded by an active blog.
author puzzle archives
Sam Loyd's Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles, Tricks, and Conundrums could probably be listed alongside these archives (1914).
More lists
Forums
| Name | Format |
|---|---|
| Puzzling Stack Exchange | QA |
| Logic Masters India | Forum |
| UK Puzzle Association | Forum |
| Sfinks forum POL | Forum |
| Kwon-Tom Loop, with variations | Forum |
| UK Puzzle Federation | Forum |
| WPC World Puzzle Federation /(inactive) | Forum |
| Argio Logic ITA ENG | Forum |
| Fred Stalder's Sudoku Variante FRA | Forum |
| Cracking the Cryptic Discord | Discord |
| Thinky Puzzle's Discord — Paper Puzzle Zone | Discord |
Some forums seem no longer active: Puzzle Picnic, Sudoku Fans.
Inspiration
While not strictly paper puzzles, these pages have served as sources of inspiration for many paper puzzle makers.
| Site | Lead authors | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Age of Puzzles | Serhiy Grabarchuk | often |
| Ken's Puzzle of the Week | Ken Duisenberg | weekly |
| PuzzleUp archives | Emrehan Halici | weekly |
| Puzzle Prime Deduction | Artur Kirkoryan | often |
| MathPuzzle | Ed Pegg | until 2020 |
| Cut the knot Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles | Alexander Bogomolny | until 2018 |
| Tilings Encyclopedia | Dirk Frettlöh, Edmund Harriss | ??? |
| Livio Zucca Pages (mirror) | Livio Zucca | |
| Hedra Web | David Smith | monthly |
Other reads
| Title | Author | Year | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5472730538 essentially different Sudoku grids | Ed Russell and Frazer Jarvis | 2005 | Divides the 5472730538 essentially different Sudoku grids, using symmetry groups |
| Nikoli Round Table | Nikoli | 2015 | Interviews with several Nikoli Authors (up to 2015) |
Do you need more game lists? See also the Induction to Inductive Games (2024) by the same author.
Credits
This masterlist was compiled by gathering the wisdom shared at the Thinky Puzzles server, then following links until information stopped being relevant. Towards the end, Swaroop Guggilam (swaroopg)'s list was also consulted, e.g to check for missing entries or uncertain information. Further important inputs were received at the Puzzlers Club (private server).
Finally, many thanks to Martin Ender (Menderbug), William Hu (TheGreatEscaper), Deusovi, Jack Lance, , dohz, Sophie (Edderiofer), Andy Tockman (tckmn), Ammar Fathin Sabili (athin), Steven Hao (sevenkplus), Qqwref and Muhorka for feedback and identifying many missing entries (and even whole sections)!
Changes
Paper Puzzle Masterlist
Puzzle genre lists
Puzzle Setting
Interfaces
Interactive
Annotation
Automatic solvers
Guides
Setting guides
Solving guides
Paper Puzzle Publications
Online magazines
Paper magazines or publishers
Aggregators
Generated
Competition Archives
Paper Puzzle Authors
Blogs
Portfolios
Twitters
Archives
More lists
Forums
Inspiration
Other reads
Credits
Changes