This year's Puzzle Design Tournament is over, and we're still waiting to compile the results. In the meantime, I'd like to provide the puzzle I submitted, to see if anyone in the larger internet crowd can beat the submissions found during the tournament.
In each cell of a 7x7 grid, place a digit from 1 to 9 or a black square. Numbers are formed by adjacent digits, horizontally or vertically. Each digit may be used only once within a number, and the sum of the digits in each number must be unique (different from each other). Maximize the score of: (Sum of all digits) + (Every appearance of a full set of 1-9)x10.
The original puzzle, with an
example, can be seen at the PDT site:
http://www.otuzoyun.com/puzzledesign/
Here's the URL directly to the PDF file (puzzle 14):
http://www.otuzoyun.com/puzzledesign/pdt2005.pdf
Source: Original, submitted to the 2005 Puzzle Design Tournament.
1876952
9#18769
7489#96
679#978
86#9827
58973#5
3985764
sum of 286 + 20 for two sets of 1 to 9 = 306 total.
The best tournament answer was a little higher. Once it's published, I'll add it here.