Sudoku Xtra Specials

I've been reading the post on your blog about the 'Special' magazines you are producing and see you've got the 25 x 25 sudoku magazine published. Well done! Not my cup of tea, nor are the 16 x 16 sudokus, but I know you have had many requests for them so good luck with them. You asked for suggestions so could I please put in a plea for a skyscraper special at some point, and/or consecutive sudoku. I'm finding the skyscrapers quite difficult (apart from the first example in each Sudoku Xtra issue) but fascinating at the moment as they require a slightly different logic to sudoku and makes a great change.

The new range of Nikoli puzzles which are coming out at the minute look quite interesting where two similar types of puzzle are featured e'g' slitherlink and masyu - just a thought. Whatever did with my time before puzzles!!

My suggestions - Futoshiki and Hypersudoku.

I have visions for the MathDoku thingie. Copies at amazon.com, amazon.ca, amazon.co.uk, amazon.co.il (if there is such a site. I put that in for the Israelis.)

Shalom. Jeff Loeb

Thanks for the thoughts! Skyscraper and consecutive are both great ideas, and would be unusual and novel so worth focusing on early on.

Futoshiki is interesting, in that I'm surprised there are not really many books of it around (just one or two), so that's a good idea too. Hypersudoku (Sudoku extra regions) is probably something I'd include as part of a compilation of other variants too - I'm not sure an entire book of them would be popular?

Meanwhile, I'm working on a redesign for this Sudoku Xtra site at the moment - the current site was only ever intended as a 'placeholder' whilst I got the magazine itself launched - so once complete (in the next day or two I hope) I really should be adding more content quite quickly. Creating separate download, Lulu and Amazon versions of books all makes it a little more complex though - each has a different formatting setup, and then if I finish and spot a typing error I then need to go back through and re-make all three versions.

I've also been wondering about listing content on Amazon.co.uk (as opposed to .com) - I know I shop at Amazon UK a lot, and I guess that if my stuff was available there it would be more convenient to order for UK readers. However, and it's a big however!, all the ways I can get content listed on there first of all cost more (although not necessarily prohibitively) but more important have long delays (circa 6-8 weeks) before new items are available for sale. So that's no good for a monthly magazine! But I might think about this for other book content.

Talking of which, Sudoku Xtra Specials: Sudoku 25x25 Volume 1 is now available on Amazon.com.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2010 02:02AM by gareth.

I agree with your thinking, Gareth.

The only Futoshiki book that I know of is a book from puzzler.com; the book is written by Trevor Truran. This book is at amazon.com and amazon.co.uk

Too much Hypersudoku is probably BO-RING. I did c a computer Hypersudoku game, tho.

Jeff

PS. http://whsmith.co.uk is another UK vendor.

I have to agree with Christine's view about the specials and her request for Skyscraper and Consecutive! While I am here, I may as well give a shout for Extra Regions or Samurai Star/variants, too!

It's interesting that that's another vote for Extra Regions - and of course there are many different possible arrangements for Extra Regions, so I guess I could make into an entire book.

Consecutive and Skyscraper will be books three and four, probably in that order too. The 16x16 book is essentially finished, so I'll do these very soon - in the next week, at any rate.

Book sizes are an interesting topic - I need to use large pages for the 25x25 and Samurai Star etc size puzzles, as for Sudoku Xtra magazine, but perhaps for the other puzzle types I should use a mid-size page format (as I did for my previous Killer Sudoku and Slitherlink books, if you've seen them). I need to give it some thought. The only downside of a mid-size format is how well it prints to take advantage of page size if you just print 1-up, but I suppose if you have two puzzles a page and choose to print 2-up on A4 or Letter then you end up with something like Sudoku Xtra's 4-a-page layout anyway, so it should be okay I hope - noone's complained about the size of puzzles in the magazine, so I think this would be fine.

Great news about the Consecutive and Skyscraper specials - will look forward to those!

Gareth, I can check amazon *BOTH. .om and uk) and c if they have Hypersudoku books. I can check google.com as well.

Remember that I said that Puzzler has a Futoshiki book. I think that the book is at both Amazons).

Jeff