The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[rbroyles]

I've made some sudoku variant puzzles that I'm sure must have been done before, although I've never seen them. (I like creating customized variants instead of regular sudoku because there are any number of automatic sudoku generators out there.) One of them I am calling "Sequence Sudoku," which is what it sounds like. It''s a regular sudoku grid with linear outlined areas. Each outlined area contains a series of numbers in sequence, with no numbers skipped. I've seen the similar "worm sudoku," but those puzzles allow numbers to be skipped. Not all cells are outlined (don't know if it's possible to make one with all the areas outlined; maybe it is) and all the clues are in the non-outlined areas. Very few clues are actually necessary because of the logical constraints of the sequences. I don't make these symmetrical because a lot more can be done with asymmetrical puzzles.

Another is Mountain Peak Sudoku. It's like greater-than/less-than sudoku, but more like a hybrid between that and regular sudoku. Circled cells are "peaks" whose numbers are greater than those of adjacent cells (not counting diagonals, and including cells in other regions). The peaks are placed reverse-symmetrically on the board, as are the clues.

I have some half-a-dozen variations, all with standard 9x9 grids. I haven't branched into different grid types except for Sudo-Kurve, which I have seen in the book Sudoku Masterpieces by Wei-Hwa Huang and Thomas Snyder. Has anyone gotten this book?

What unusual or bizarre variants do you like? (I mean besides the usual killer, diagonal, jigsaw, and samurai variants.)

[enxio27]

Can you show some examples of the puzzles you mentioned? I didn't find any on your Web site.

Personally, I prefer to stick to straight logic sudoku (no math involved, other than possibly comparisons such as odd-even or greater-than/less-than). I prefer the traditional 9x9 (or occasionally 16x16, preferably with all letters instead of numbers) square grids and their multi-grid extensions (including jigsaw and Ruud's "clueless" varieties). I also like the various types of extra constraints (diagonal, windoku, etc.) for variety.

[rbroyles]

Here is a direct link to the page with the link to download Exploding Sudoku: http://www.mypuzzlefix.com/2012/04/30/o ... -sudoku-1/ It has the additional constraint of the numbers in the circles (1–8 with no repeats), plus a little trickiness caused by no numbers in the center—so in the boxes on the sides, you can't use row/column elimination. Currently that's the only sudoku variant published on the website. Have you ever seen Outside Sudoku? I first encountered these in a puzzle book by, I believe, Nishio Takeda. All the clues are outside the puzzle, next to the 3-cell row or column where they belong. (Obviously there are no clues for the center box.) There are four of those in my book and four more in the upcoming book. If you are interested, I'll make this the next free puzzle I put on the website. All my puzzles are original and hand-constructed, of course.

[Pat]

Exploding Sudoku has the additional constraint of the numbers in the circles (1–8 with no repeats),
plus a little trickiness caused by no numbers in the center

the lack of b5 is very tricky

in your example,
r1c1 can only be {2,9} by the rules of plain SuDoku;
you additionally require not-9, solving this cell as 2

the same puzzle as plain SuDoku would solve r1c1 = 9 !
( would have 3 answers, but all with r1c1 = 9 )

.847.1.......4....51..32...6.7...1.8.9.....7.3.2...9.4...17..93....9.......2.465.

Code: Select all


 _ 8 4 | 7 . 1 | . . .
 . . . | _ 4 . | . . .
 5 1 . | . 3 2 | _ . .
-------+-------+------
 6 _ 7 |       | 1 . 8
 . 9 . |       | . 7 .
 3 . 2 |       | 9 _ 4
-------+-------+------
 . . _ | 1 7 . | . 9 3
 . . . | . 9 _ | . . .
 . . . | 2 . 4 | 6 5 _