Tents (PuzzleMadness)

About Tents (PuzzleMadness)

A Tents puzzle starts with a grid of trees and a number at the start of every row and column. Each tree needs exactly one tent of its own, placed directly beside it horizontally or vertically, so there are as many tents as trees. Tents may never touch each other, not even at the corners. The edge numbers say how many tents each row and column contains, and they turn green when the count is met.

Rows and columns marked 0 can be crossed out at once, and so can any cell with no tree beside it. Every tent you place also rules out the eight cells around it, which quickly settles the rows nearby. The site's rules page solves a full example step by step. Today's Medium puzzle, for example, is a 10x10 grid with 19 trees.

PuzzleMadness is a free puzzle website run by Dewi, a software developer who started out making games for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii and DS and now builds the site as a hobby. It carries dozens of puzzle types, from classic sudoku to newer logic grids, and each one gets its own dated puzzle every day at each difficulty. Tents comes in Easy, Medium and Hard versions plus a Mixed page, and the same day's Tents puzzle is shared by everyone who opens it.

The site checks your grid as you go and tells you when it is finished; it does not publish solutions. Each completed puzzle earns a score, and scores feed a monthly and an all-time Tents leaderboard, where only your best attempt at a puzzle counts. Older days stay in the archive, so a missed puzzle can still be played later and still counts toward the current month. Playing needs no account; a free registration gives you a username on the leaderboards and a cloud save. The pages carry adverts.

How to play Tents (PuzzleMadness)

1. Open today's Tents page on PuzzleMadness and choose a difficulty from the menu above the grid.
2. Click a cell to place a tent; mark cells you know are empty with an X.
3. Give every tree exactly one tent directly above, below, left or right of it.
4. Match the tent count for every row and column, and never let two tents touch, diagonals included.
5. The site tells you when the grid is complete and adds your score; registered players appear on the leaderboards.

Screenshots

Tips

• Cross out every row and column with a 0, and every cell that has no tree next to it.
• After placing a tent, mark the eight cells around it as empty.
• A tree with only one free neighbour left must have its tent there.
• Missed a day? Earlier puzzles are in the archive, and finishing one still counts toward this month's leaderboard.

Questions