I’ve developed an Android app for playing a 3-D version of Sudoku where each face of a virtual cube is a complete 9X9 grid. The puzzles do not utilize the interior of the cube. The edges of adjacent faces share their values. For example, the right stack of the front face has the same values as the left stack of the right face. This connection allows for some very interesting puzzles.
I call it 3Doku, and just released it on Google Play. Although now I see that the name might have been used elsewhere. I’ve been through a lot of name changes, so I’d rather not change it again.
When working on a puzzle, users can swipe up, down, left or right to switch faces. On the more difficult puzzles it is practically impossible to solve one face without garnering information from the adjacent faces.
As posted, the app includes 5 tiers of difficulty. Each tier comes with 15,000 puzzles, or a total of 15,000 * 5 * 6 = 450,000 different 9X9 grids. I hope that’s enough to keep people busy while I work on some changes. The download size is under 5MB.
The app includes progress bars, a locking mechanism to prevent accidental changes, timers so users can track their own progress, experience levels, pencil marks, an option to set the initial pencil marks using just the basic rules, and more. Progress is continually saved on the user’s device so the user doesn’t have to complete a puzzle in one setting.
Each face of the virtual cube is color-coded. Users can switch color schemes. Users can also select alternate colors for the displayed digits, and can choose whether the clues are highlighted or not. Progress bars are shown for all six faces, and check marks are shown when each face is completed correctly.
Help is available in the app. Game tokens provide additional clues or remove incorrect guesses. The app comes with 100 tokens. Additional tokens can be acquired through the play store. This is the only source of revenue for the app, and is completely optional. Users can download and play the app without ever using tokens. No ads are displayed, and the download is free.
I created the initial set of puzzles with a program I wrote that first creates a valid solution using a random technique, then removes clues until I reach the desire level of difficulty. Then I repeat until I have the number of puzzles I want. That may not be the most elegant solution, but hey, it’s a computer. Let it do the work.
The next step I want to take is to develop a sixth tier of puzzles requiring some of the more advanced solving techniques such as X-Wing, XYZ-Wing, W-Wing, Swordfish, Finned Fish, etc. So here’s a question: Which advanced techniques would you prefer to see? Which techniques would you prefer never to see?
- A Tier 1 Puzzle
- Nexus Tier 1.png (108.24 KiB) Viewed 731 times
- A Tier 5 Puzzle
- Nexus Tier 5.png (93.16 KiB) Viewed 731 times
