Sudoku Xtra 19 is now available for download as a PDF or pre-printed via Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and also the French, Italian and Spanish Amazon sites.

This issue features 144 varied hand-crafted and language-neutral logic puzzles of over 50 different types, all with a unique solution which can be found without guessing.

The page size in both the PDF and pre-printed versions is now slightly larger, but the magazine is still set up so that if you print it yourself at 100% size on either A4 or Letter paper all of the content will fit perfectly on the page. This extra space has let me fit more content into less pages, so despite having 14 more puzzles than the previous issue it has 8 less pages (or 4 less in the PDF version).

In terms of content, path-finding Ultimazum is back by popular demand, and this issue also introduces Kropki Sudoku, Sudoku XV and my own Integer Multiple Sudoku. Plus there’s a twist on an existing popular type with Non-consecutive Sudoku.

Other puzzles include Hanjie, Slitherlink, Yajilin, Heyawake, Nurikabe, Masyu, Hashi and many more. Other Sudoku variants include Samurai Sudoku (both 13- and 5-grid versions), Killer Sudoku Pro, Odd Pair Sudoku, Jigsaw Sudoku, Skyscraper Sudoku, Sudoku 16×16 and tens of other types.

Printed copies are on top-quality, 8.5×11 inch (21.6×28 cm) paper ideal for solving on.

Sudoku Xtra 19, available now.

This issue features 130 logic puzzles in a wide range of designs and sizes, from 5×5 right up to larger than 30×30.  Puzzle types include Yajilin, Heyawake, Nurikabe, Masyu and more of the Windows puzzles introduced in the previous issue, plus an enormous range of different Sudoku variants including many seen on this blog.

There’s also a packed Community Puzzles Section featuring content from the world’s best puzzle authors, such as David Millar’s awe-inspiring Knighted Samurai Shape Sudoku through to more of Vexus Puzzle’s delightful route-finding Tiktaka.

Sudoku Xtra 16 and Sudoku Xtra 17 have also been published since I last updated this blog, so head over to the Sudoku Xtra magazines page for more details.

You can also view a full list of the contents of each magazine on the Sudoku Xtra site.

The magazine can be downloaded as a PDF and printed at home, or it can be ordered pre-printed from Lulu or Amazon.com (the last of these coming in the next week or so, once their system updates and lists it).

I’m also now posting full lists of content over on the magazines page at SudokuXtra.com,so you can click the expanding links to see a list of every puzzle in both this and the previous two issues, as well as order back issues.

And talking of back issues, I didn’t post here previously but issues 13 and 14 are also available (and have been for 4 and 2 months respectively), although the Amazon.com issues of these have only just been uploaded so again these should appear in the next week or so.

Issue 10 of Sudoku Xtra magazine is now available, and it’s packed with over 60 different types of wordless logic puzzle!

With 125 separate puzzles there really should be something in there for everyone, so whether you like huge Samurai Sudoku puzzles such as the 13-grid Samurai X, or just encountering a wide range of different Japanese logic puzzles, then there’s something in it for you. And don’t be confused by the name – the puzzles include not just Sudoku and a huge range of variants, but also Hanjie, Nurikabe, Yajilin, Slitherlink and many more.

Meanwhile the Community Puzzles section just continues to get better and better thanks to the incredible skill and generosity of those contributing puzzles. New this issue is a page of Labyrinth puzzles (as seen in Beyond Sudoku) from Nathan Roberts, as well as Navigrids plus a new puzzle from the Vexus Puzzle Design stall. There’s also a page of challenging Battleships puzzles courtesy of Clarity Media, and on top of that there’s an awesome loop puzzle called Castle Wall from Palmer Mebane/MellowMelon.

The incredibly talented David Millar has crafted some special issue 10 puzzles, with some Sum Sudoku that have only “10″ clues, and a Slitherlink with only “10″ pairs in the grid! Meanwhile Grant Fikes has created three brilliant classic Nikoli-style puzzles, and there’s another visually-stunning Altair Slitherlink and more from Jim Bumgardner. Not only that but also Tom Collyer has created two more incredibly impressive Nurikabe-Sudoku cross-over puzzles, which really put all your puzzle-solving skills to the test. 

All that, and I’ve not even listed everything that’s to be found in the Community Puzzles section.

Sudoku Xtra is available now from www.SudokuXtra.com

Sudoku Xtra

Issue 7 of Sudoku Xtra contains even more large-page Japanese puzzle fun, with an incredible 116 varied logic and number puzzles. A special section in this issue is devoted to giant puzzles, with the 13 full-page puzzles including Hanjie, Nurikabe, Yajilin, Slitherlink, Hashi, Samurai Sudoku variants, Kakuro and more.

Sudoku Xtra offers greater variety than any other puzzle publication, with a huge range of Sudoku variants that include Jigsaw, Extra Region, Skyscraper, Consecutive and many more. Other featured puzzles include Calcudoku, Futoshiki, Hitori, Killer Sudoku and a range of variants, including Zero Killer Sudoku Inequality!

Designed to print on either A4 or Letter paper, or pre-printed on similarly large paper, Sudoku Xtra features puzzles at a range of difficulties, so is suitable for both logic puzzle fans and casual solvers alike. No matter what you like, you’re sure to find many puzzles to enjoy in Sudoku Xtra issue 7.

There’s also another great Puzzle Community section too, thanks to the generous contributors. Puzzles sent in for issue 7 include Navigrid, Mini Killer Sudoku, Knighted Sum Sudoku, Fillomino and more.

Get Sudoku Xtra 7 now.

Issue 4 of Sudoku Xtra magazine is now with us!  I really think I might be putting too many puzzles into it, because typing up the list of content just knocked me out with how much is crammed into its 52 large-format pages!  Is too much possible?  I don’t know, but look at this enormous list:

128 puzzles in total, including several seriously giant ones.  Brand new for this issue:

• Samurai Star Killer Sudoku Pro
• Number Link Samurai
• Odd Pair Sudoku
• Samurai Odd Pair Sudoku
• Sudoku Inequality Jigsaw
• Jigsaw Sudoku 6×6 Variety Pack (including toroidal, inequality, X, consecutive and killer)
• Killer Sudoku Pro Jigsaw
• Sudoku 15×15 and Sudoku 18×18
• Killer Sudoku 15×15
• Odd & Even Pair Sudoku
• Killer Sudoku Prime

Regulars from issue 3:

• Hanjie
• Masyu
• Calcudoku (three times as many as in previous issues!)
• Slitherlink
• Consecutive Sudoku
• Hitori
• Samurai Star
• Samurai Star Jigsaw
• Number Link
• Jigsaw Sudoku 8×8, 9×9 and 10×10
• Toroidal Sudoku and Toroidal Inequality
• Kakuro
• Futoshiki
• Killer Sudoku
• Skyscraper
• Skyscraper Sudoku
• Samurai Sudoku
• SSSS: Skyscraper Samurai Star Sudoku
• Sudoku Inequality
• Sudoku Extra Regions
• Jigsaw Sudoku Extra Regions
• Killer Sudoku Jigsaw
• SOS: Samurai Outside Sudoku
• Outside Sudoku
• Sudoku 8×8
• Sudoku 12×12 and 16×16
• Samurai Extra Regions
• Yajilin
• Nurikabe

Adding to that already exhausting list still further are the community puzzles: 

• Heyawake
• King’s Journey (also known as Hidato[TM], Numbrix[TM] and many other names)
• Mosaic (Minesweeper picture puzzle)
• As Easy as ABC
• Knight’s Tour
• Shapely Skyscraper
• Isolate
• Klump

And all of this for just £3.99 or $5.99 – it really is fantastic value!

If you’d like to get hold of it just pop on over to the Sudoku Xtra website!

I’ve had lots of requests for a book like this over the past couple of years, so I hope if you’re one of the people who’ve wanted something like this that the book meets your expectations!  All of the puzzles have nice symmetry, and the difficulty level is set such that you won’t need to make lots of fiddly pencil marks in the grid (or indeed any pencil marks at all, if you don’t want to).

It’s printed on large paper (A4 at Lulu, 8″x10″ at Amazon), with just one puzzle per page, so you’re getting the puzzles at a comfortable size for solving. Full solutions are included, and with 50 puzzles it’s going to take you a long time to solve them all!

Please feel free to post any comments here, or head over to Sudoku Xtra and take a browse on the discussion forums – and maybe join in!

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 added a purchase mechanism to SudokuXtra.com in fact!

I’ve decided that I’m going to make a series of similar books of particular requested puzzles, all of which will be branded as “Sudoku Xtra Specials”.  In this way I can stay organised by keeping all of my download/printed content under the ‘Sudoku Xtra’ heading.  It means that you’ll always be able to find all of my new content in one place, without searching around my various sites.

This book is probably the nicest collection of 25×25 puzzles you can find, if you’re a fan of such things.  Every puzzle has really nice 8-way symmetry – having noticeable patterns in puzzles like this is pretty unusual, and it can help with the solve too.  Just as in my magazines, I’ve thought about what’s sensible in a puzzle like this so they can all be solved without needing pencilmarks.  How exactly would you go about making A-Y pencilmarks in each individual square anyway?!

If you get hold of it please do let me know any thoughts you have on it.  In the same way as for Sudoku Xtra magazine, it’s designed to be printed at home on either an all-together or a page-by-page basis.  And if you get a pre-printed version from Lulu or Amazon.com (already complete but waiting on listing now) then it’s on a large A4 (Lulu) or 8″x10″ (Amazon) page, so there’s plenty of room to write in the solutions.

If there are other books of puzzles you’d like to see, please let me know in the comments here or on the Sudoku Xtra forums – feel free to repeat any requests you’ve made before! Next up is 16×16 Sudoku but after that it’s all open. I was thinking of doing Inequality Sudoku third, but what do you think?

So if you’re in the US and fancy getting hold of a copy (they get really hard by the end!) then there’s now another way to buy it.  You even get 10% off if you’re a member.

If you’ve read issue 1 then you’ll know that I’ve proposed a ‘community’ puzzle section at the back, where people get to send in their own puzzles and I will include a selection in a special section.  The idea is to try and build up the kind of puzzle community that some of the Japanese-language publications have, but which we haven’t yet seen in an English-language magazine. Hopefully it will lead to a virtuous spiral, with on the one hand people who contribute puzzles getting a larger audience for their own work whilst similarly on the other hand encouraging more people to read the magazine for the novel puzzles – and hopefully all the while encouraging more feedback too, which will help everyone.

In time for the second issue I’m not realistically expecting very many submissions – after all, it won’t be long before I need to start finalising content for issue 2, and that doesn’t give people much time to buy the magazine, think about puzzles, draw them up and submit them.  So in order to help things get going I’ve approached a few people who regularly create top-quality puzzles of their own and asked them if they’d be happy to contribute a puzzle or two to issue 2.  Therefore I’m very pleased to announce that David Millar of  The Griddle has agreed to provide a couple of his excellent designs for issue 2.  If you take a look at his site you’ll see that he regularly posts a huge variety of different puzzle types, and it will be fantastic to have some of this content to help launch the community section of Sudoku Xtra issue 2.

The magazine is 44 pages long, each page 8 inches by 10 inches (20cm by 25cm), and with exactly 100 puzzles in. It prints really well on both A4 and Letter paper, either 1-up (one page per sheet) or 2-up (two pages per sheet) as you prefer. There is a small preview on the Lulu site if you’d like to see what you’re getting (or read back through previous posts here too!). If you order the printed Lulu version you will actually get some extra blank pages at the back to make it up to their minimum page count for an A4 publication, so ignore the page count on the Lulu description.

Click here for a printed copy of the magazine: Sudoku Xtra issue 1 on Lulu

I haven’t yet set up the subscriber ordering site (it will be at SudokuXtra.com hopefully within 24 hours), but if you want to get in right away you can click directly on the Paypal buttons below, and then I will email you a PDF version of the magazine within 24 hours. Once the website is up and running you’ll receive the magazine immediately, so this is just temporary for the next day or two.

If you’re in the US or Canada and want a printed copy you have three choices: wait for it to appear on Amazon in a week or more (you might want to do this to get free delivery as part of a larger order), order from Lulu using the link above, or (for the 8″ x 10″ Amazon.com version but without the option of free postage) order a printed copy of Sudoku Xtra from CreateSpace.com instead, who supply the printed copies for Amazon (in fact they’re owned by Amazon too).

However the best option of all for me – the one where I get most money from the sale – is to order a download version and print it yourself. You can print either the whole magazine or just the pages you choose. If you’d like to do this you also have the option to subscribe for a year (12 issues) for the price of 11 issues, if you’re keen! This also insures you against any price rises that might happen in the coming year. Just click one of the four Paypal purchase buttons below.

Note that when buying on Paypal you can click the ‘Continue’ link next to “Don’t have a Paypal account?” to pay directly with a credit card – you don’t need to create a Paypal account if you don’t already have one. The checkout process will say ‘PuzzleMix.com’, which is another of my sites.

Or for a 12-issue subscription:

By Friday night I had a complete draft of the magazine, without solutions yet in it, and so I spent the weekend away checking through the proofs and re-solving many of the puzzles.

Today I made a few revisions and so now I can confirm that apart from laying out the solutions (and finishing the colour cover that will go on the Amazon version) it is fully complete.  There are exactly 100 puzzles in the first issue of the magazine, including several full page ones, and I’ve tried to include something for everyone – so there are some large grids for the people who want them, but they don’t dominate the magazine by any means for the people who don’t like them.  I’ve also included some unusual variants which you probably won’t have come across before.

Because probably the majority of readers will be printing their own copies from a download version, I’ve designed it so that each individual page can be printed alone – each sheet is a standalone ‘work sheet’ of a particular type of puzzle, including summary instructions and an example solution.  So you don’t need to waste paper printing the whole thing – you can easily skip the puzzles you are less interested in, or only print them when you’re ready for them.

I’m really very pleased at how it’s turned out, and hopefully you will be too when you see it!  Thanks very much to everyone who has posted here or emailed me directly with comments on what they’d like to see, as well as on Sudoku Pro – you’ve really helped encourage me to get it done quickly, and it’s definitely informed the puzzles I’ve put in.  (For example I was going to not include any super-large regular Sudoku but after a few requests I’ve made sure there’s some in there, including a rather unusual 20×20 Sudoku with 5×4 boxes.)

It will be out this week, certainly by first thing Friday for anyone who would like it in time for the weekend. And that’s a promise!

(Yes, that’s not Slitherlink on the right but this is a mock-up at the moment!)

I’ve been working hard on Sudoku Xtra today and hopefully my new magazine will be ready really soon. Of course the first issue of anything will be more work than subsequent issues (I hope!), since there’s so much more stuff to do – from the title to the content to the basic design to all the infrastructure around it. Right now I’m just getting to the point where I’m happy with the page layouts and basic design, thus this posting to preview it.

Any design needs to print fine on black+white printers, but I’ve used a small amount of extra colour throughout for page top/bottoms so it looks a bit nicer when previewed on screen (and a little shinier if you have a colour printer), and I can vary this colour from issue to issue.

It’s an interesting task to design a print-it-yourself magazine because you can’t use very large areas of black/colour otherwise people won’t want to print it out (it will cost too much and on some inkjets will make the paper go all wrinkly), so with essentially just black+white and not much opportunity to use large shaded areas you’re pretty restrained – however all that said I think I’ve come up with a layout that works and won’t be too much work to update with new puzzles each issue.  There’s a small sample at the top of this post.

Going forward I imagine most pages will have 4 puzzles on, which seems to work well with the 8″ x 10″ page size.  People ordering a printed copy worldwide from Amazon.com will get it at exactly that size (and will get a bonus colour cover) for $9.99 and eligible for free super saver shipping.  I’ll also make it available in printed form from Lulu.com, which should be cheaper for UK residents – this will cost £5.99, although they add postage costs to this.  Oddly this will be supplied in A4 format due to the page sizes they support, but there’s no extra puzzle content in the extra space!  It will also be available for download, and the 8″ x 10″ page fits very nicely on both A4 and Letter pages without much wasted space.  You can also print it with two pages on one A4/Letter sheet if you don’t mind smaller puzzles, and it’s still perfectly legible and usable.  (I know this – I’ve tested it!).  Download copies will be £2.99 or $4.99 respectively.

PS As mentioned above if you look closely at the Slitherlink puzzles in the sample you’ll see they look suspiciously like Consecutive Sudoku puzzles – that’s because I haven’t substituted the graphics on that page yet!

Sudoku Xtra – The Magazine for Japanese Puzzle Fans

Today someone commented on my blog here about how Sudoku Pro subscribers who get in touch about their magazines are being told that Accolade Puzzles Ltd, the publisher, is no more, so I thought I should comment.

As a freelance puzzle author I get commissioned by a wide range of different publishers, and I don’t work (and never have worked) for Accolade Puzzles, the publishers of Sudoku Pro magazine, so I don’t know any of the gory details. What I do know is that sadly Accolade Puzzles have ceased trading and entered formal insolvency. I also see today that all mention of them is gone from their parent site, Accolade Publishing, and that the Total Puzzles brand site which covered all of their magazines now redirects visitors to the appointed insolvency practitioners

This is very sad news for me, because I always thought of Sudoku Pro as ‘my’ magazine – I wrote literally all of the content for it, from the front cover to the back cover, and not just that but all the little things too such as the puzzles instructions, hints and tips for the puzzle of the month and so on.  Every 4 weeks I sent all of the content off to the publisher and I always enjoyed receiving the magazine in the post, and trying out many of my puzzles anew.

It wasn’t marketing hype when the magazine claimed that the puzzles were hand-made – every single puzzle in the magazine was either entirely hand-made or had a significant manual component. None of it was churned out of an off-the-shelf Sudoku generator, unlike (it will hardly surprise you to know) just about every other Sudoku magazine you can buy. (My top tip for Sudoku puzzles is only to buy content with a named author on it!)  If you’re going to play puzzles created with a free generator someone found on the internet, you may as well print them yourself rather than pay someone else for the privilege. Sudoku Pro was never like that, and indeed the final issues had very few regular Sudoku puzzles in them at all – the majority were variants or other Japanese puzzles.

The final issue, number 50, was available digitally online, so for those who didn’t receive a printed copy you could try checking at the digital version site, if you had it bookmarked (I didn’t, so I can’t tell you what the URL was).  I’m afraid I’ve no idea if any printed copies were ever sent out, but I have a PDF I downloaded from the subscriber’s website just last week so I have a copy of issue 50 myself at least. I’d also sent all of the content for issue 51.

I suppose if the magazine was to end then issue 50 was a good number to reach. Of course I suppose it’s always possible that someone will buy up the assets and continue publishing the magazines, but I have literally no idea how likely that is. I thought their titles were way above the average puzzle mush on the market, and they certainly didn’t deserve to go under.

But this now leaves me with a big magazine gap in my life, and so on to my new project: Sudoku Xtra.

I’ve decided to start publishing a monthly puzzle magazine myself, initially along the lines of Sudoku Pro but then hopefully branching out to a wider range of logic and number puzzle content, and with even more variety.  I’m also hoping to encourage other puzzle authors to contribute.  The magazine won’t be essentially just a UK publication like Sudoku Pro but will be available worldwide for download from a website which  I’m in the process of setting up, and also in a printed version from Amazon.com. The printed version will cost $9.99, to cover the on-demand printing cost, but the download version will most likely be just $4.99. In UK pounds that’s about £2.99, which is pretty much what Sudoku Pro cost. It will be formatted in large page format, at 8″ x 10″, so Amazon-delivered copies will be much larger than book size, and it will  nicely fill the page size for both worldwide (A4) and US (Letter) printers.  If it is successful enough then I will also make it available for order in printed form from Amazon.co.uk and many other sites (an up-front cost I am avoiding until I know I can cover it!). At least to start with it will be entirely black and white, so anyone can print it without trouble.

If you’re a puzzle author and would like to contribute, please get in touch. Initially any money made will go to cover costs so I can’t offer any payment for content other than a free PDF copy, but hopefully I’ll be able to grow the magazine both in terms of readership and content and it will be a worthwhile thing to contribute to and indeed receive. And then going forward, who knows?

Also if this is something you’d be interested in buying then please post here too with any comments, including what sort of puzzles you’d like to see and how many puzzles you’d expect in the magazine (Sudoku Pro had 67 puzzles, plus the four brain workouts on the back page). I am assuming that a monthly (12 issues/year) format would be best, although without any distributor schedule to keep to this could be flexible and shift around slightly.

Perhaps the (probable) end of one magazine can also signal the beginning of something new?