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'mby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Whenever I publish KenKen puzzles I call them Calcudoku (since KenKen is a trademark, both in the UK and the US). There have been a couple of these, as well as some interesting samurai and other variant forms, in every issue of Sudoku Xtra to date.by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I've looked at the Conceptis Sudoku Variants book in shops a couple of times - it has a mix of samurai variants, mainly, plus some other types, but nothing really exciting. It feels a little dated now somehow, although when it came out in 2006 I guess it was right up to the minute. I think just about everything of any note that's in it has already been in Sudoku Xtra. There are some alternativby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
It's a good idea. I've thought about making them before but dismissed them as 'Killer Sudoku lite' (it is after all Killer Sudoku clues in certain squares), but I think I may have dismissed it too soon because of course the clues do overlap, unlike in Killer Sudoku. So I will add these to my virtual list, and try them at some point! I'm definitely at least aiming to have a new variant in eachby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I've seen Snowflake Sudoku in a book, but they weren't actually Sudoku but rather hexagons you had to place 1 to 6 into so that no hexagon had 1 to 6 more than once, and numbers didn't touch. Then they were arranged in different patterns. It was quite nice, but rather simple and definitely not 'Sudoku'. Is that what you mean? Quite possibly there are multiple things called Snowflake Sudoku!by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Now that's some trivia - I didn't know that! I could have posted an extra puzzle on my blog. How long has that day existed? I just tried to find out and it appears noone really knows if it even actually exists or is just an internet rumour. http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/January/puzzleday.htmby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Hi Koc, I'm really glad you like PuzzleMix - I put a lot of effort into the players, which are pure HTML without requiring Flash or any plugins. I've not been to Eastern Europe but I don't doubt that some things are much cheaper there. However in Western Europe, North America and Australia/New Zealand (where 99% of PuzzleMix/Sudoku Xtra customers are), the cost of download copies of Sudokuby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Hi Jeff, Yes, the Extra Regions ones in issues 2 and 3 are actually the same as Hypersudoku / Windoku - that is, four extra shaded 3x3 areas inside each 9x9 grid. There's a 5-grid Samurai version of this in both issues too. In general I use 'Extra Regions' to refer to any layout of extra regions - back in Sudoku Pro I used to sometimes have different layouts of extra regions, although evenby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I thought it might be intresting to run a poll to find out which types of puzzle people like best, so I thought I'd start with Sudoku variants. One of the things it's fun to do with Sudoku variants is mix them up together, but for the purposes of this vote you can only pick one type. If you had to pick one type, what would it be? (I haven't included Samurai here because all of these varietieby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
You select the text you want to link somewhere and then you click the picture of the world with a paperclip on to create a link. I just edited your post to make it a link. (It took me a while to work out how to do it too!)by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
If anyone has completed both issues (or even one issue actually) I will be very impressed! Are there too many puzzles? Perhaps 120-odd is a bit intimidating, so maybe I should go for about half that - that way I'd have a lot more variety each issue too, and it would still give you an average of 2 puzzles a day to do! Sudoku Xtra currently has far more puzzles than other comparable magazines,by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Toroidal and Inequality Sudoku can definitely take a while I agree! Toroidal isn't in theory any harder than regular Sudoku, but it's so much more difficult to spot valid moves! The Yajilin and Nurikabe I put in aren't easy, but since they're pretty small they're not that hard either. They're probably quite tricky if you've never done them before, mind. For Yajilin I nearly always incluby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Issue 3 of Sudoku Xtra is available now! As well as new variants in the main body of the magazine, such as Outside Sudoku and Inequality Toroidal, I'm excited to announce that the community puzzles section of issue 3 contains some fantastic puzzles from Vexus Puzzle Design - including not just their popular NaviGrid puzzles but also another of their original puzzles, Klump - as well as some brby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I'm glad this unusual puzzle was a success! I will have something similar in issue 3, but I will have a slightly smaller Samurai layout this time.by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
There is an omission in the instructions for two of the Jigsaw Extra Regions Sudoku on page 25 of Sudoku Xtra issue 2. The instructions fail to mention that the regular 3x3 boxes are also present in these puzzles. Without this constraint the bottom-right puzzle will have two solutions. Thank you very much to forum contributor Spittledung for pointing this out! If you downloaded issue 2 thenby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! The problem here is that part of the instructions are missing... as well as the jigsaw shapes there are also the regular 3x3 boxes in the puzzle, but they're just not marked. Clearly that is a big mistake on my behalf, and one I will need to take steps to make sure I don't do again. Sorry - the puzzle is actually "correct" but it is nby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Yes, the printed copies look great don't they? The glossy colour covers are really nice, and both the Lulu and Amazon.com versions are top quality - the Amazon one is actually my favourite because there's none of the wasted space at the top and bottom of the page, nor at the back of the book. (Lulu has a minimum page count which Sudoku Xtra doesn't reach, so the end pages are padded). Howeverby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Hmm... I'll take a look at that. Doesn't sound good!by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Good luck with the house move! Funny timing, since I'm currently preparing to move too - just been boxing up lots of stuff the past few days. I'm hoping to get Sudoku Xtra issue 3 online before everything gets packed away, however!by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I'm very pleased to announce that David's fascinating mix of Slitherlink and Masyu will indeed feature in issue 3's community puzzle section, for which many thanks to him! I've also got a Mosaic puzzle from Clarity Media, which I'm pretty excited about, as well as some other fun stuff to look forward to. Meanwhile in the main section of the magazine I've added some Outside Sudoku variants fby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I will aim to add difficulty indicators at some point, but it's feedback like this that's necessary to calibrate the difficulty scale in the first place! Also it's somewhat a debatable point whether a puzzle that takes a long time to solve is actually difficult or simply time-consuming! In general, I'd say that all of the Samurai puzzle variants are going to be quite time-consuming to solveby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
That's right - in Labyrinth puzzles you need to create a valid maze on a square grid. You're given a set of Hanjie clues which give you the length of the various wall segments in the square maze. It's a long time since I solved one and I don't have a copy handy, but I seem to remember that you need to find a maze with a single path solution that covers every square of the grid. (So not reallyby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Beyond Sudoku has a reasonable mix of puzzles - there are quite a few picture puzzles, like Hanjie and other Conceptis picture puzzles, and it certainly isn't all Sudoku or variants. It doesn't have a huge puzzle count, but it's quite nice because it has some puzzles you don't see elsewhere such as Labyrinth. Oddly, one problem I've spotted from time to time is puzzles with multiple solutions - tby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Happy Christmas to everyone! I haven't done any logic puzzles yet but I have played a lot of quizzes! (Many games of Buzz on the PlayStation!). I also haven't watched Dr Who yet, but my family tell me it was self-indulgent and boring, like the previous Waters of Mars episode. But I will form my own opinion soon(ish). Amazon.com have played their part too, for US/Canadian Sudoku Xtra readers -by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
There are three Navigrid and three Modula, but no Isolates I'm afraid.by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I have the Nikoli Masyu and Sudoku book which I also bought just for the Masyu, and weirdly I found myself doing mainly the Sudoku instead! They're printed nice and large, which I really like, and many of them are really elegant, as you'd expect from Nikoli. I didn't think the Masyu in that book got quite hard enough, but perhaps that's from doing the really tough ones they post on their puzzleby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Issue 2 is now available! You can download it now from the home page, or order it in printed form from Lulu.com or Amazon.com. Thanks ever so much to the contributors who've volunteered their puzzles for the community section, including The Griddle, Vexus Puzzle Design (with some of their incredibly original logic puzzles), Clarity Media (who've sent King's Journey aka Hidato and more), and nby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
A while back I promised to post some of the email requests I've had for issue 2 here. Well here are two of them I just reviewed - Sue would like some Extra Regions Sudoku (a great idea!), and Danielle asked for more Hanjie (a popular request on puzzlemix, incidentally!). I can't promise more Hanjie for issue 2 since they take so long to make (but it's definitely a possibility for future issuesby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Well I have now made a Samurai Star Inequality Calcudoku, and even if I do say so myself it looks pretty stunning! Adding the inequality means I can stick to 'easy' Calcudoku logic without having any singleton boxes left over, whilst having some great symmetry to the Calcudoku regions. It turns out you need surprisingly few inequality signs to tip the balance from unsolvable to a finished puzzleby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Interesting idea, Dave! I am just posting some inequality puzzles on my blog right now, so I will try a sum sudoku plus inequality hybrid shortly! I've seen Killer-type puzzles where there are inequalities between the region totals (so you know region 'a' is greater than region 'b', but not either exact total), but they're just a bit too complicated and require too much "book-keeping&quby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
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