Overfilled Spaces

Overfilled Spaces, sometimes called rebus squares, are a type of grid gimmick in which multiple characters can be placed in a single cell of a grid. This can apply to both word and logic puzzles, but is more commonly found in word puzzles.

Puzzle Application
Overfilling spaces can be done with logic or word puzzles, stuffing single cells with any number of characters 2 and up.

Packing more than one character into the cells of a grid based puzzle seems like a relatively unintuitive thing to do. However, it can become clear that it's necessary if given the right clues. If a puzzle's clues are too long to fit in their spaces, it's usually an indicator that they either extend past the edges or need multiple letters within a single space to fit.

Overfilling spaces is sometimes used as the core conceit for several crossword variations, such as the 1, 2, 3 Crossword (in which cells can contain anywhere from 1-3 characters), Rebus Crosswords (in which specific squares would have to contain multiple letters with a theme, like state abbreviations or entire animals), and Double or Nothing Crosswords (in which cells contain either exactly 2 character, or none at all).

Examples

 * - A 1, 2, 3 Crossword, with the bonus of being on a flower-shaped grid.
 * - A Rebus crossword where certain across clues contain, but down clues proceed as normal. As a result, each cell will likely contain only one letter going down, but.
 * - A relatively normal Diagramless Crossword, except some cells get to have two or three letters jammed into one cell. These don't follow any particular pattern, but go towards the extraction in a special way.