Can you help us test our new Sudoku game?

Hi everyone, sorry for the spam-like nature of this post, but we just launched a Sudoku game here:

http://www.makaimedia.com/sudoku_slam/

It's a multiplayer version that lets people play versus their friends (as well as a single player version). It's free and there are no annoying ads on the game. I'd just love to hear feedback from you guys about it and especially to know if you find any bugs or hinky game play.

Thanks!

I gave it a try. It seems to be mostly annoying. Is there a way to make "pencil marks" or any other kind of notes to keep track of partial deductions while you're solving? And is there a way to turn off the "crumpled paper" effect? I certainly don't crumple sudoku I'm solving ordinarily on paper!

Also, I can't move the cursor around with arrow keys, only the mouse. I can't enter numbers with my number pad. And, can you erase after you've entered a digit?

Sorry, but I agree with Joshua.

I really dislike the crumpled look of it. The inability to put in "possibles" makes the hard ones virtually impossible on screen, particularly as there appears to be no erase facility. There are a lot of far superior suduko games available and this offers less than most. I had a much better version than this years ago when sudoku first arrived in the UK. The background music was irritating too but at least I could switch it off.

Sorry to be so negative. I didn't discover any bugs but that was possibly because I didn't play it for long. I prefer paper and pencil anyway.

Finally, most of the puzzlers on this site, I suspect, have moved on from basic sudoku to all the more interesting, challenging variants offered in Xtra. We may not be the best people to ask as probably most of us would not consider buying or playing such a basic sudoku game even against competition. I might be wrong tho.

I didn't like it that much either, sorry, although to be fair I only played it single player, maybe it's kinda fun with other people. The muzak was pretty annoying, and I would have thought that the one thing no-one needs when trying to concentrate on a puzzle is loud background chitter-chatter...?

I've never seen a digital sudoku that came anywhere close to the ease of doing it on paper, it's one of those things where I think we all have our own custom notations for marking in clues, between lines, in cell corners, around the edges, etc.. as well as all the extra little marks and symbols one adds to denote some other salient bit of info... and not being able to do these on a computer makes it somewhat annoying and unplayable, no matter how good the interface may be.

I did find one very serious bug though, and a pretty hilariously bad one at that. Once you have the correct number in an empty cell, it becomes UNAVAILABLE for selection and editing. This means you can simply input any random guess in an empty slot and keep guessing until it's correct and becomes "locked" (just like a pre-filled clue cell). I think this needs addressing asap.

:nathaN

My thoughts about the puzzles I played (two @ normal level, single player).
1. AUDIO = Music content OK, Crowds, people speaking - Almost like sitting in a public bar, and pulling out your copy of Sudoku extra, just isn’t done. I found the background noise, very distracting.
2. SUB NOTES = Some online Sudoku puzzles offer the option of adding possible answers in a smaller font to each box in the grid, this is helpful when playing the more difficult puzzles( which in turn makes the game faster ).
3. CORRECT ANSWERS = As I noticed different possibilities for some squares, I added numbers regardless (which ties in my comment above), When It then came to me opting for the correct number, I noticed some were all ready set without the option to alter it. Thus making the puzzle fool proof, making the "initial working out process" almost pointless. If this is also the case with multi-player mode, would make it really easy for players to cheat, relying on this glitch instead of mental skill.
4. GRAPHICS = the overall look of the puzzle is O.K. Pretty much standard for a traditional Sudoku puzzle, the creased paper look, didn’t bother me.
5. OVERALL = I personally prefer puzzles more challenging, after a few years of playing Sudoku and other number puzzles, generally prefer puzzles with a little more going on, standard 9x9 Sudoku puzzles tend to bore me, when I could be getting my head into a much larger 16x16 grid, hashi,Futoshiki, slitherlink or many others. So would much look forward to up and coming puzzles of a wider variety

~Nats~