Skyscraper Puzzles
Skyscraper 7×7 puzzle
Skyscraper 5×5 puzzle
It occurs to me that I haven’t yet posted a regular, vanilla Skyscraper puzzle, so I decided that today was the day to rectify that! The 5×5 puzzle attached is pretty easy – it can be solved in under a minute if you’re on your toes! The 7×7 is nowhere near as hard as many of the puzzles I’ve posted recently, but it will certainly take longer than that.
The rules are simple: place 1 to 5 (or 1 to 7) into each row and column whilst obeying the skyscraper constraints. In Skyscraper puzzles each number in the completed grid represents a building of that many storeys, so the aim is to place the buildings in such a way that each given number outside the grid represents the number of buildings that can be seen from that point, looking along the adjacent row/column. A building with a higher value always obscures a building with a lower value, and a building with a lower value never obscures a building with a higher value. (Click back and look at some of my older posts for more details and examples)
Also, I want to say thanks very much for all of the fantastic comments that have been posted in response to my other puzzles – I’ve read them all and taken note and am working on suitable puzzles to follow up! 
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about 15 years ago
These skyscraper puzzles are great fun. I didn’t quite manage the small one in the minute, but it didn’t take very long! The 7 x 7 one however certainly took some thinking about. Really enjoyed it.
about 15 years ago
I really like these! I was wary of the first few skyscraper puzzles you posted a couple days back because the rules seemed confusing, but now that I’ve done the smaller ones, I’ll most likely go back and try the variations out. The skyscraper idea is really neat. It makes for some different approaches to solving than other puzzles that you’ve posted, so it was a really enjoyable change. I hope you post more later! (maybe some larger ones?)
about 15 years ago
I’m glad you enjoyed them. I’ll post more soon(ish) – well, once I’ve stopped playing with Killer Sudoku-esque puzzles at any rate!
I think (and could be wrong!) that 7×7 is the maximum size of Skyscraper you can make without putting clues into the grid, but that is just a guess based on experience – I’ve never seen a larger puzzle! Of course, if you make Samurai Skyscrapers then you can get around that (by essentially deleting some of the extra squares).
about 15 years ago
I have seen a few 9 x 9 ‘Skyscraper sudoku’ puzzles on another site, but as you say there were several ‘givens’ within the grid. These didn’t detract from the enjoyment though! As Andrew said, it makes a nice change to use different solving techniques.
about 15 years ago
Yea.
I like Skyscrapers/Towers more than Futoshiki even though they require similar deductions.