The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[enxio27]

I'm compiling a list of all of the variants I can find. I am intentionally restricting this list to Sudoku (mostly 9x9 grids) and not including other (non-Sudoku) puzzle types. Obviously, these can be combined, as well (such as a Jigsaw Killer Samurai).

Can anyone add to this list? (I did not include one-off types that have popped up here and there over the years.) Corrections also welcome. I can post examples of these if needed.

9x9 Extra Constraints
- Asterisk
- Calcudoku (Mathdoku, KenKen[tm]; math operation cages)
- Center Dot
- Chess Moves
- Clover
- Consecutive/Non-consecutive
- Diagonal (Sudoku-X)
- Disjoint Groups (Compass; positional colors/groups, Sudoku-P)
- Even-Odd
- Extra Groups (miscellaneous patterns)
- Girandola
- Greater-than/Less-than
- Killer (Sumdoku, Samunamupure; addition cages)
- Meandoku (the mean of two adjacent cells marked as >5, <5, =5)
- ORC (odd rows and columns are 1-9, no repeat)
- Touchless Wrapper (Toroidal Anti-Chess)
- VX (cages with sums to 5 and 10)
- Windoku (Hyperdoku, NRC, Sudoku-W)

Gattai (multiple overlapping grids)
- Butterfly (4)
- Clueless Explosion (10)
- Clueless Special (10)
- Flower (4)
- Harakiri (8)
- Kazaguruma (5; Windmill)
- Kunoichi (5)
- Large Gattai (miscellaneous shapes and sizes)
- Ninja (9)
- Samurai (5)
- Sensei-1 (2, 1-nonet overlap)
- Sensei-2 (2, 2-nonet overlap; Double-Doku, Two-Doku)
- Sensei-4 (2, 4-nonet overlap)
- Sensei-misc (2, miscellaneous overlap; Conjoined)
- Shaolin (25)
- Shogun (11)
- Sohei (4; Ring)
- Sumo (13; Super Samurai)
- Taiken (21; Circle)
- TripleDoku-1 (3, 1-nonet overlap)
- TripleDoku-2 (3, 2-nonet overlap)
- TripleDoku-4 (3, 4-nonet overlap)
- TripleDoku-misc (3, miscellaneous overlap)
- Wing-3 (3, V-shape)
- Wing-5 (5, V-shape)

Irregular Nonets
- Jigsaw
- No Boxes
- No Boxes Disjoint Groups (Plum)
- Toroidal

Large Grid
- 12x12
- 16x16
- Miscellaneous Sizes (7x7, 8x8, 25x25, etc.)

Sequential (Relay, Twin)

Sukaku (Pencil Mark; no givens)

[SudoKai]

My list for Sudoku variants thus far:
http://www.sudokai.com/index.html#variant_list

Here are a few more to add to your list.

Sudoku SkyScraper
Outside Sudoku
Kropki

And here is a Chess Moves Table:
http://forum.enjoysudoku.com/toroidal-anti-chess-formerly-the-touchless-wrapper-t30002-45.html#p259893

Will these and other Mutant Variants make your list as they are 9x9:

Tight Fit Sudoku
Sudoku Parquet
Sudoku Weave

And what about variants where numbers are replaced with something else like words/characters, images, colour, symbols? Should they also be included in the list or rather as a variant constraint option?

[tarek]

There is a nice and extensive compilation has been done by Uwe Wiedemann (Pyrrhon)
http://www.sachsentext.de/en/
I’m not sure when was the last time it was updated nor can I confirm the validity of the puzzles

Tarek

[enxio27]

Here are a few more to add to your list.
Sudoku SkyScraper
Outside Sudoku

I would consider these mutants and not really sudoku.

Kropki

Just another type of Extra Constraint, and not common enough to be in the list, IMHO.

Will these and other Mutant Variants make your list as they are 9x9:
Tight Fit Sudoku
Sudoku Parquet
Sudoku Weave

No. There are a zillion mutant sudoku-based puzzles out there now, and I can't (and don't want to) catalog them all.

And what about variants where numbers are replaced with something else like words/characters, images, colour, symbols? Should they also be included in the list or rather as a variant constraint option?

Sudoku is about logic, not numbers. For all sudoku except the math-based puzzles, the symbols used are immaterial.

[enxio27]

There is a nice and extensive compilation has been done by Uwe Wiedemann (Pyrrhon)
http://www.sachsentext.de/en/

I did go through that site as I was making my list. All of the puzzles there are either already in my list, or just another (unusual) variety of extra constraint, or non-sudoku puzzles. I did my best to be charitable and open-minded, especially with regard to the math-based (as contrasted with strictly logic-based) puzzles, and with grid sizes other than 9x9, but so many variants are "niche" puzzles at best, and many are outright mutants.

IMHO, there are way too many sudoku-based puzzles on sudoku sites (even the World Sudoku Competition site) that are somewhat sudoku-like, but not really sudoku. Some are decidedly NOT sudoku at all (even though they may be puzzles that are enjoyable to a number of people). I suppose that there are those who are still trying to cash in on the sudoku craze of 10-15 years ago, so they branch out with sudoku mutants and other puzzles, hoping to hit that jackpot. My sudoku time is severely limited as it is, and I honestly have no time for those other types of puzzles.

[tarek]

Your criteria are tough but I can see your point of how these sudoku variants have expanded right and left and centre.

The terms Toroidal can be used with Anti chess or non consecutive chess variants. You already mentioned jigsaw sudoku and how it can be used on a toroidal board as well. There maybe more applications for it but I can’t recall anymore at the moment

I have (with help from Smythe Dakota) also been using ways of spreading the 9x9 sudoku on a 3d format not just a toroid which can be used with the variants above when the puzzle-maker chooses so. These new 9x9 3D boards include (projective plane, Klein bottle, ...). These could also be extended into the Gattai world but with so many unfinished projects, there was no time to try them out.

The “touchless” term is another term for Anti-king. I used the term “touchless wrapper” as it sounded funny compared to the “toroidal anti king”. That thread had expanded to include more than the anti king and more than Toroidal boards and therefore was re-named.

Tarek

[StrmCkr]

A missing variation is one I called "StormDoku" before I built my solver by the same name.

So it needs a better name, its based around some properties I found in the MC grid.

Ie it has 3 sets of 3 boxes that are identical a grid can be reduced to ~6 digits as minimal to solve given the symmetry.
Sub-variations of this use only 1 set of 3 identical sectors instead of a full blown grid which is a much harder puzzle: and part of the challenge is figuring out which 3 boxes have identical mini row/col /

I'll see if I can find an example of these stupidly easy puzzles to solve.

http://forum.enjoysudoku.com/post65370.html#p65370

without knowing it then the puzzle is still solvable by regular means but more difficult.

[tarek]

A missing variation is one I called "StormDoku" before I built my solver by the same name.
So it needs a better name, its based around some properties I found in the MC grid.

I'm also pleased with some of variants creations: one is Set-do-ku (Setdoku) which was originally dukuso's idea and puzzles were posted by simon_blow_snow here: http://forum.enjoysudoku.com/setoku-t30070.html?hilit=setdoku and the other is Sudoku^2 here: http://forum.enjoysudoku.com/sudoku-2-has-anybody-attempted-done-this-before-t30310.html?hilit=setdoku

popularity was unfortunately minimal as they were created near the nadir of the sudoku craze!!!

tarek

[creint]

I found another list: http://www.funwithpuzzles.com/2013/12/t ... adies.html
My solver can support them all, when needed i build it. The liar variants will be the hardest ones to implement.

[enxio27]

I found another list: www.funwithpuzzles.com/2013/12/t ... adies.html
My solver can support them all, when needed i build it. The liar variants will be the hardest ones to implement.

Somehow your link got corrupted. After some searching, I finally found the correct link:

The League of Extraordinary Ladies & Gentlemen

I'll look through that listing, but I suspect that once again, most are what I would consider "niche" or mutant variants.

[HATMAN]

So my ORCs are Mutants -probably fitting.

[HATMAN]

and I suppose Fairy Samurai failed on obscurity

[enxio27]

So my ORCs are Mutants -probably fitting.

I wouldn't consider them mutants. In fact, they really are another type of constraint on a vanilla puzzle. You have created enough of these now that I guess we can add them to the list.

My goal is not to create an exhaustive catalogue of every variant of sudoku and sudoku-like puzzle ever published. I'm trying to stick to the most common variants of actual sudoku for the purposes of organizing my own sudoku collection. If others find it useful and want to add onto it, I have no objection. Sometimes I run across a new-to-me variant that looks interesting, but even then, if there aren't many puzzles of that variant, I may just lump it into the "miscellaneous" category.