I need to find it first. It's what might be called an extra regions sudoku.


I put it on the discord server. I hope I get feedback and enough people like it that it will go in the archive, or get noticed by Simon or Mark.

Here is my old one. There are four coloured areas which contain each digit once. Standard sudoku rules apply.

https://f-puzzles.com/?id=ye5zdaqm

It's the subsection setter's corner. You'll need to get permission to post the puzzle in there first.

Nice and simple killers.

I've had ideas for a puzzle I want to create, but I don't think anyone has a software settings for the restriction I want to use to check for uniqueness when I try to set it up.

Restrictions are any string of marked cells must not collide. A collision occurs when a cell A in spot i, and cell B in spot j cannot have the result of A+i = B+j mod (length of string). Only thing I can confirm is that the string of cells has to be a multiple of the length of the string. So a string of 9 cells has to be a multiple of 9. This will always work for a single row cause you get:
123456789: 1+1=2, 2+2=4, 3+3=6, 4+4=8, 5+5=10=1, 6+6=12=3, 7+7=14=5, 8+8=16=7, 9+9=18=0,
This isn't restricted as you can also do for example:
231645978

Not sure how many permutations you can do for each length, I just know there exists some number of them.

I'm working on Eric's puzzle now. I like to do these in 10 minute blocks or else my brain turns to mush. I found the initial break-in and then made another jump and now I'm stuck.

I'm currently away and using my phone so I'll take another shot when I get home.

I'm fascinated by the whole process of building a puzzle at all, and making sure it has only one unique solution and that it won't break. The whole process mystifies me.

Me too. That's why I'm trying to make puzzles. In some ways, making a classic is the hardest of all, because it has the fewest constraints, and is harder to steer in an elegant solve. That's why Tattoine Sunrise is such a great puzzle.

If I understand what you are trying to do, suppose there is a string of seven cells like | 9 | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |. Since 9+1 = 3 (mod 7), the second cell cannot contain either 1 or 8, the third cell cannot contain 7, ..., and the seventh cell cannot contain 3. Is this correct? A unique constraint, to be sure. If the second cell were 6, eg, then the third cell could also not contain 5?

That was fun. took me 34 mins though.

Going back and forth between normal sudoku and the triangle requirements to eliminate candidates down to one in a cell was fun. Also, lots could be done in your head, so not as much notation required.

Correct, this was a topic studied by the mathematician Ron Graham for a while.

Also, for example if you have a 4 cell length you can't have:

8 3 1 6

As you have 8+1 = 1, 3+2 = 1, 1+3 = 4, 6+4 = 2

The 8 and 3 are considered impossible.

Probably a bit redundant to post in this thread, but bump it anyway.

New podcast!

Here is another sudoku I made.

It is an XVXV sudoku. Cells connected by a V must sum to 5. Cells connected by an X must sum to 10. Cells connected by XV must sum to 15. Not all XVXVs are shown. Given digits are not connected by X, V, or XV. Cells along the diagonal indicated by the arrow must sum to the number outside the grid.

https://f-puzzles.com/?id=yhudbrse

I'm going to run a contest. As I create sudokus, I will post them here. Whoever solves the most (send me a picture of the solved grid) will win a prize. Random draw will be used if there are ties.

The prize will be a copy of the Cracking The Cryptic book with their greatest hits, when it comes out. I am getting three copies. One is for me, one I will give to a friend, and one is for POG.

I figured I should put all my puzzles created so far in one spot. I know the first one has had lots of spoilers, but I will count that anyway, so send me solutions for all three.

I will add more puzzles as I manage to create them. Please include feedback with each solution about difficulty, solution path, and fun! I want my puzzles to get better.

Thank you for your interest.

I just finished your XVXV puzzle in 18 mins (I love XV puzzles and am pretty good at them). I'll send you some feedback later as I'm heading out now. I haven't played the others yet.

I feel like I'm the opposite with XV, but that might just be because I need colors to do them.

The miracle squares that they did today had a similar feeling (but I had to write down the pattern after I had it figured out)

got it.. sent you a PM on the keys for me to solving..

thx Eric.

I'm working on another puzzle. I just need to finish alpha testing. It may be ready by tomorrow. Actually, I'm working on two, but the other needs a bunch of work.

Here we are.

Standard sudoku rules apply.
Digits within cages must sum to the value in the top left corner of the cage, without repeating.
Digits along a diagonal indicated by an arrow must sum to the value beside the arrow. Digits may repeat along the diagonal if allowed by the other rules.



https://f-puzzles.com/?id=yjyzolm3

You can probably expect a bit of variety, as I am trying to familiarize myself with setting puzzles in a variety of formats.

If you are ever on the CtC discord server, you can find me as EPH.

That was a tough one, took me 48 mins. I tend to struggle with diagonals.

Fortunately, I have the next one ready.

Three Quarks For Muster Mark

Quarks are small things that come in three “colours”, usually called red, blue, and green. Here we will label them as 1, 2, 3. Quarks do not like to be alone. In fact they prefer to be in groups of exactly three, one of each “colour”. You also won’t find them next to their anti-quark (9, 8, 7, respectively), because they will annihilate and disappear.

So in this grid, all 1s, 2s, and 3s must be in orthogonally connected groups of exactly three cells which contains one of each. No quark may be orthogonally adjacent to its anti-quark.

In addition, in this grid, each of the main 3x3 blocks contains exactly one quark detector. The number in the cell of the detector gives the number of quarks in the (up to eight) cells which surround it.

https://f-puzzles.com/?id=yk2vcpb7



Edit: wait - I took something out by accident.

New link and picture:

https://f-puzzles.com/?id=yk53baed

Questions...

20:04. I think I recognized what you were aiming at initially which saved a lot of time when finding the first digits to put in.