I’m looking for beta participants for my PC client! See http://blog.sc.tri-bit.com/archives/151.

What better way to start the new year with a new game and a new store selling that game?

So, the first time I saw sudoku, I thought “wow, that looks boring.” I ignored it for several years; this has proven to be an error on my part, though possibly a serendipitous one. I finally broke down and tried the game the other day; it turns out to be wonderful fun.

The basic idea is simple. In the standard puzzle, you make a 9×9 grid of squares, subdivided into 3×3 grids of 3×3. In each row, column and subgrid will exist the numbers 1 through 9, each once, none missing. The grid starts with something on the order of 20% of the cells filled in, and is constructed in a fashion such that careful deduction will allow you to fill in the remainder; one very important characteristic of a proper Sudoku puzzle is that there is only one legal solution for each game board (something frequently failed by low-grade puzzle producers.) There are a bunch of variations, such as using non-square subgrids, different grid sizes and arrangements, using letters instead of numbers (typically spelling a word down one of the major diagonals of the board,) using greater-than/less-than borders as clues, cuing the backgrounds by color to indicate even/odd, and a bunch of other neat subtypes.

The example to the right is a larger puzzle, constructed of smaller puzzles, such that some of the corners overlap. That puzzle is particularly difficult; head over to my store for my free sudoku mailing list, which includes novice oriented puzzles, for free material on which to cut your teeth.

At any rate, I find this game fascinating. It seems like it’s going to be too simple, too easy, too boring; in my opinion it turns out, surprisingly, to be none of those things. Making the puzzles has also turned out to be a delight, which is why I created my blank sudoku puzzle books, with which for people to make their own puzzles at their convenience on the cheap (because of the cost of printing, it works out to about 1.2 cents per puzzle, shipping to the 50 states included.)

I’m also working out a software process to generate not just legal puzzles, but puzzles of high quality. There are several issues involved in generating good puzzles, such as forcing players to make choices, creating symmetric or aesthetically pleasing patterns of stable cells, and so forth. I’ve only put a few days into it, but the software already generates legal games; generating high quality games is proving to be an interesting challenge indeed. Once I have that nailed down, I’ll start creating sudoku puzzle books for sale for probably $7.50 or so. (Nikoli, Japan’s premiere puzzle gaming company, charges about the same for their books of 80 puzzles; my books will contain 500, and not all of them will be the standard size. I’ll be providing a hell of a lot better value.)

Stay tuned. My burgeoning Sudoku addiction will generate a lot of free gaming material for all of you in the (my laziness notwithstanding) very near future.