Chisai Sudoku (puzzle generator, game, and solver) - Windows

claytonrumley · Last edited by claytonrumley on Wed Feb 08, 2006 1:45 pm; edited 1 time in total

Hello everyone,

I'm an avid programmer and enjoy sudoku so naturally I've decided to try and write a sudoku game for Windows. My two weeks of effort (not counting the time wasted on gradually writing the help file) is Chisai Sudoku, available at http://www.claytopia.net/sudoku.php. It was written in Visual Basic.NET. The game engine uses the "Game Number" to seed the random number generator and produces complete boards using a genetic algorithm (there are over 2 billion possible boards using this method). It then uses logic to reverse the puzzle (ensuring that each time it removes a cell it verifies that there is only one possible solution for that cell).

The game is completely free because I think games should be. There's no ads, spyware, etc. and there's no limitations (sorry to the blokes who are charging $$$ for their Windows sudoku games). I'm just a nice guy.

The application boasts an automated tutorial, puzzle-solving (you can enter your own puzzles from a blank game board), game saving, visual cross hatching, and various other features.

I didn't do much research into sudoku before I wrote the game (I'm sure my strategy for producing game boards isn't as efficient as it could be), but I like to dive into things to get a real feel for the problem.

Anyhow, please feel free to check it out. I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions to improve the game and I would be more than happy to discuss the algorithms I used (which, by the way, I did write from scratch).

Once again, that address is http://www.claytopia.net/sudoku.php.

Enjoy!

Clayton Rumley, B.Sc.
http://www.claytopia.net

Ruud · Site Admin

Hi Clayton.

A message from a fellow freeware sudoku program developer.

First: The second link in your post is not correct. You missed the .php extension.

I downloaded the program. If you made it such a short time, you are not only avid, but very fast indeed. Not much sleep last 2 weeks, huh?

The program looks nice, and I very much like the way you built that interactive tutorial.

Downsides:

1. No way to import/export, except a proprietary binary file format. I like to copy puzzles from a forum and paste them into your program, and vise versa. Most programs save puzzles in ASCII text, so you can copy from/to there as well.

2. Strange behaviour: File/Blank Board, enter a digit anywhere in the grid, then delete it. See what happens.

Check Sudo Cue for another Dot-Net Sudoku program. (took me a little longer than 2 weeks to get all of this built into the program, though)

Ruud.
_________________
Meet me at sudocue.net

claytonrumley · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 5:36 pm Post subject:

Hi Ruud,

Thanks for checking out the game. I appreciate it.

1. I'll try to find some examples of the ASCII text format so I can add that functionality. It shouldn't be hard to add .txt files to my Open/Save and a Copy/Paste to ASCII feature.

2. I'll resolve that problem for the next release (hopefully before or on this weekend). Thanks for letting me know.

Clayton

claytonrumley · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 1:26 am Post subject:

Hello everyone!

I've released a new update to Chisai Sudoku; version 1.1.0.

Here are the new features:

- Added Print and Print Preview functionality
- Added ability to copy and paste ASCII gameboards from the clipboard
- Added ability to save and load ASCII text files
- Added automatic and on-demand check for updates of the game
- Corrected a minor display bug with the gameboard

Please visit http://www.claytopia.net/sudoku.php to download the latest version. Future releases will automatically be detected by the software.

Enjoy!

Clayton Rumley
http://www.claytopia.net

claytonrumley · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:31 pm Post subject:

Greetings!

I've provided a small release to Chisai Sudoku to include an unlimited undo/redo buffer, and allow you to control whether or not Chisai Sudoku automatically checks for software updates.

Regards,

Clayton Rumley
http://www.claytopia.net

claytonrumley · Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 4:22 pm Post subject:

Hello everyone,

Version 1.2.0 of Chisai Sudoku is now available for download (or by getting the application to update itself automatically).

New features include animated backgrounds, a choice between Arabic numerals, Japanese numerals or coloured circles, high score tracking and some other little niceties.

Enjoy!
Clayton Rumley

Henk · Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 8:38 pm Post subject:

Your program has great potential. Nice clean graphics and intuitive UI. If you want to make it more suitable for more serious sudoku players you should improve the hint system and the level of the puzzles you generate. But then again, your program is a "Game" not a "tool" like mine.. Razz

Another draw-back of your program is that the .Net platform should be installed. This took me a few hours... Sad

Nice simple and small Sudoku program for a quick Sudoku game. Good job!
_________________
Generate and solve Sudoku puzzles with Into Sudoku!

claytonrumley · Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 5:52 am Post subject:

Henk,

Thanks for the kind words. When I first started writing my own Sudoku engine I had no formal knowledge of how the game is solved (other than my own experience of playing the game), and my first try didn't work out too well. When I restarted with Chisai Sudoku I had actually read some articles regarding genetic algorithms and how they could be applied to generating gameboards. Once I wrote my own genetic algorithm to create a solved board I worked the board backwards using cross-hatching and possibility-based elimination to arrive at the actual "New Game". I realize that I'm unfamiliar with some of the more esoteric methods of solving the puzzles (e.g. I keep seeing something called x-wing getting mentionned that I should probably look into when I have more time). Certainly more advanced logic-solving algorithms would allow me to create harder games.

There's a few small bugs I want to fix with Chisai Sudoku 1.x, but from what I've learned in doing this I think it's time to look at writing a new version 2. Since I'm more interested in the "game" aspect for fun than the mathematical intricacies of the game I'm looking to develop an engine that can generate gameboards for a variety of sizes (9x9, 16x16, etc.), different types of games, as well as a skinnable interface so users can customize and share their skins with others.

In the meantime, please enjoy the program and I'll keep everyone aprised of updates.

Clayton

Henk · Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 11:41 am Post subject: