The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[4ivonne]

Hi,
I currently try to implement a Kakuro puzzle generator.
But I need some help from the community to decide if these computer generated puzzles are good enough. Perhaps they are too easy to solve, perhaps too hard...
Could you please take a look at the one below and tell me if it is too easy or too hard?
Thanx,
Ive

[udosuk]

I tried both this one and the other one from your site. If they're solved using pencilmarks they're very straight forward and take only a few minutes. But without pencilmarks they're quite enjoyable to solve. So I guess it makes them ideal as newspaper puzzles.

Here are the answers:

21...4312
956.19736
..495.65.
.621..841
.31.21968
79.198.79
95738.79.
849..798.
.28.264..
78691.831
2158...82

98.689..421
79.12763945
.78...8975.
.567...7863
...14.68.96
13..719.68.
561792..97.
..3284517..
.12..694852
.64.138..75
78.75.64...
3261...913.
.3721...51.
15934276.23
348..321.58

Check out this thread if you want to see what a Kakuro puzzle that's challenging with pencilmarks looks like.

[re'born]

4ivonne,

It's hard to answer the poll question because I'm not sure what your goal is. Is it too hard or too easy for a newspaper? Definitely not. I am not a kakuro professional. I mostly work the Dell magazine cross sums. With that as a guide, I would call it a medium level puzzle that was fun to work but not difficult to solve.

[4ivonne]

Hi,
the goal is to use the generator on a mobile game.
So I need to find a trade-off between a "good" puzzle and the restrictions of the device (limited CPU, memory size, ...).
Maybe puzzles which are good for newspapers will be suitable for a mobile game too. Or not? Maybe there are are different requirements to a puzzle in this area...?
What's your opinion?
Ciao,
Ivonne

[re'born]

If they are meant to be playable on a mobile, then it seems essential that the user can solve the puzzles without pencilmarks. Of course, this isn't so precisely defined since some people are more adept at solving without PM's than others. With this restriction, I think your puzzles difficulty is on the medium-hard side of things. On a mobile, I cerainly wouldn't want it to be much more difficult.

[udosuk]

I agree with re'born. It's good for a game on a mobile game without the pencilmark feature. But my mobile sudoku game does have the pencilmark feature, so it's a matter if you want to have that feature in your kakuro game.

If you want your game to be popular perhaps it's good to create puzzles for different difficulties. The ones you made so far are medium, you can try to create both easier ones and harder ones.