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Yesterday (saturday Sept 5th 20) a very nice stream islands puzzle by anurag.sahay. I love these types of puzzles but it intrigues me how to develop these puzzles. Would it be a suggestion to exchange the professional skills on developing puzzles in general? Of course also by this means inviting PP-enthusiasts to develop their own?

My tip for you if you want to develop new puzzles is to first try to solve a lot of these types of puzzles that you want to develop. The more you solve, the more you will get the feel of how to create one yourself.

Once you get a feel, start with a small grid first and try to scatter clues and see if those clues will solve the puzzle (uniquely). If not, you might have to tinker a little bit with the clues. This might include changing the given clues or adding more clues. Eventually, all things will work out with patience.

By the way, "Stream Islands" is also known as "Nurikabe". Nintendo and Nikoli has published these puzzles. You might want to look at the Nintendo site and try to search for "Nurikabe".

Good luck to you!

What you say is probably true, but it's not very helpful. I think the "start small and fiddle around" approach is where everyone starts, but I think Jama was wondering if there are any more specific approaches that can be taken to construct this type of puzzle.

Personally, I'm not able to offer any specific advice myself - I've never really progressed beyond the "drawing in some shapes and tinkering until it fits" level, but perhaps some of the more experienced authors have some tips that they could offer (for this or any other genre - it's all helpful!).

For example, is it easier to start at the edges and work in, or start in the middle and work outwards? Or does it not really make a difference?

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