about 1 week ago - 1 comment
I wrote quite a lot yesterday about whether you “needed” the X in some Sudoku-X puzzles. I promised that I’d follow up with the result of analysing a stack of Killer Sudoku-X puzzles, and so here is that result.
I picked 64 Killer Sudoku-X puzzles (52 for the daily puzzlemix section plus 12 for the weekly More >
about 1 week ago - 1 comment
One of the perennial comments on PuzzleMix is that the diagonal ‘X’ regions aren’t needed in a particular Sudoku-X puzzle, or more commonly in Killer Sudoku X. Well, when I say “perennial” I mean to say that of the more than 400,000 puzzle plays that that comment has been made about 10 times. But an More >
about 1 week ago - 1 comment
Killer Sudoku Jigsaw puzzle
I’ve recently been working on refreshing the content for PuzzleMix.com, my play-online puzzle site, and one of the puzzle types I’ve been making is Killer Jigsaw Sudoku, where you not only have the jigsaw-shaped Killer regions but also jigsaw shapes instead of the regular 3×3 Sudoku boxes.
So I thought it would be a More >
about 1 week ago - 1 comment
Samurai-2 Odd Pair Sudoku puzzle
One of the brand new puzzles in Sudoku Xtra issue 4 is Odd-Pair Sudoku, which I wrote about last week here on my puzzle blog. As well as some regular 9×9 puzzles I also included a large 5-grid Odd-Pair Samurai puzzle, and to illustrate how the puzzle worked I included a More >
about 2 weeks ago - 2 comments
Samurai 8-grid Calcudoku puzzle
Here’s probably the largest Calcudoku puzzle you’ve ever seen! It’s made up of 8 underlying 9×9 grids, each of which must have 1 to 9 placed into each row and column, and then on top of this I’ve added the familiar Calcudoku regions.
For each Calcudoku region just place numbers such that the More >
about 2 weeks ago - 3 comments
Sudoku Odd Pairs puzzle
Now here’s something I can guarantee you won’t have seen before, because I just invented it! Well, I suppose with a world of people creating Sudoku variants it’s possible there’s been something similar before, but I’ve bought a lot of puzzle magazines and books and never come across it, so More >
about 2 weeks ago - No comments
Sudoku 36×36 puzzle
Giant Sudoku puzzles are one of those things that divide people. With 25×25 puzzles some love them, whilst others simply can’t understand why anyone could ever have the patience to do them. But whatever your personal opinion, they remain popular – even Nikoli (the people who named Sudoku ‘Sudoku’) make them regularly, More >
about 2 weeks ago - No comments
Sudoku 15×15 puzzle
Something plain but unusual – a Sudoku 15×15. I’m sure these must exist, but it occurred to me I’d never actually seen one. So I made one.
The rules are as you’d expect: place 1 to 9 and A to F into each row, column and 5×3 bold-lined box.
There’s no need to make More >
about 1 month ago - 1 comment
I’ve had many, many, many requests over the past years for a book of giant 25×25 Sudoku puzzles, so I have now finally made just such a book available!
Right at the moment it’s only available in printed form, but I’ll have download copies available in the next couple of days – as soon as I’ve More >
about 1 month ago - 2 comments
Samurai Killer Calcudoku puzzle
I haven’t posted much here recently because I’ve been spending my time on Sudoku Xtra, so here’s a large puzzle to fill the void a bit.
This is a five-grid Samurai Killer Calcudoku:
Place 1 to 9 into each row, column and 3×3 box of the five underlying 9×9 Sudoku grids
Place numbers into the Calcudoku dashed-line More >
about 10 months ago
Hi Gareth
I am really enjoying these consecutive puzzles. I have completed them all now and of the star, the skyscraper and the two grid samurai, found the latter to be much more difficult than the others – a real challenge, but manageable in the end! (I’ve never looked into some of the complex solving strategies you mentioned, so was glad they weren’t needed!
Have you considered adding a pdf file of consecutive sudoku puzzles to those you can buy on your puzzlemix site? I certainly wouldn’t mind paying for some more.
Thanks for providing these puzzles. It’s good to get away from the more standard puzzles.
about 10 months ago
I’m really glad you’re enjoying the consecutive puzzles – as I wrote a few days ago I’ve always wanted to make them but have just never got round to it! I tried one from a World Sudoku Championships a couple of years ago and thought it was fun.
I think the great thing about consecutive sudoku – compared to non-consecutive sudoku (where all of the digits are non-consecutive) is that the consecutive constraint eliminates all except two (or one) other digit, which makes the puzzle much more tightly constrained, and therefore entertaining to solve (for me at least!).
Now I know for sure they really are fun (and it wasn’t just a fluke) a book of them sounds like a great idea. I could add them to puzzlemix.com as an online puzzle, but a downloadable/printable PDF is a great idea. I will look at doing that this coming week.
about 10 months ago
I really enjoyed this puzzle with the flower design and all of the other elements. I also like that you start with only 4 givens and explode from the center outwards.
about 10 months ago
Thanks for all your comments, Spittledung, on this and other posts. Yes, I think that the way Consecutive puzzles ‘flow’ from the start point is really attractive, and it makes the puzzle feel pleasantly ‘manageable’ as you solve. Of course, getting started can be a different matter!