Has anyone tried to make their own Sudoku puzzle? How is it done, and do you need a computer? Is there a trick to which numbers to keep on the puzzle as ‘starters’ and which not to? What about longer puzzles with more than 9 numbers… are they functionally any different or really any harder?
Personally new to Sudoku - just now getting hooked with my wife on our morning bus/Metro commute… and it IS addictive.
Yes! I have tried Sodeku - or Sudoku - however it’s spelled - and it’s quite difficult. A friend of mine said to get a legal pad and draw out a bigger grid and get a pencil to visually try out different scenarios. That’s the only hint I have thusfar unfortunately! I hope more people post - it has me really stumped.
This site has a few useful pointers. I have no idea how to make one that can be solved and has a unique solution, but I’m quite good at completing them. I wouldn’t bother trying to make your own, anyway - there are plenty out there!
I asked more or less the same question a while ago, thread is here.
The answer seems to be “with a fair degree of skill” – it’s pretty easy to SOLVE them by computer (look up “constraint programming”), but generating them seems to be something of a trade secret – at least I couldn’t find anything at the algorithmic level.
I think it’s worthy that y’all even want to take on the task of building one - after my friend was telling me all about it, I scratched that idea out. Wow could I not do it!
I thought of making up a complete grid with all the numbers in place and then deleting numbers. But then it would be time consuming to run through the grid and make sure it can be solved never mind have only one solution.
I don’t know why anyone does those puzzles more than a couple of times.
After about two times you see the pattern and they all are just fill in the blanks after that.
Have you tried the “Black Belt” level puzzles published in the newspapers? The really tough ones require diagnosis to find one or two key ‘starter’ numbers.
BTW There is a pdf file available on the www with a detailed rundown on the whole business. Sorry I don’t have a link but if you are the persistent type you can find it for
yourself.