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The fourth level of self-setting is “High Setting Automation”. The editor relaxes as an automated, intelligent process (AI) generates grids that are then passed to a second AI the editor has set up to reject almost everything that is not an outlier, since corner cases may be the only interesting things left to search for. When needed, the editor still acts to reject unfriendly logic before publishing.
Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Twelve Months of Sudoku? post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.
We have a few site updates for the start of July, which marks the start of our second full month in the Twelve Months of Sudoku!?! project. A playful YouTube recap of the first month of sudoku is in this video that shares the goal to see “how far we can push the limits of sudoku”:
The big news in June was starting to publish the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) puzzle here, a series we love as a great daily game and expect you already love or will come to love in the same way. Having met our soft-launch goals, in July we are making this next update: The daily GAS will be available each day here at 12 AM PT for everyone in the world to build into their routine however they choose. This is the same time as some of our other daily games that we make for LinkedIn and my own daily routine will be to spend a little time double-checking the Queens, Zip, and Tango before solving ~1 GAS puzzle to track my thinking that morning and try to come up with one new idea, even if I just leave it on paper that day.
We don’t yet have our own book/app project with the GAS team; if you want to support clover! (Patreon), Philip Newman (Patreon), and Bill Murphy (Patreon) individually you can go to the pages linked here. One thing you can get by becoming a patron is some of the more GMPuzzles-like difficulties harder than GAS, still with impressive grid construction as you’ll have seen from the regular GAS.
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The other news for July is the start of my “A Story of Self-setting Sudoku“. For a few months I’ve had an idea for a new way to share puzzles that might change the experience a bit. Some may remember the challenging mix of themes in the “Twelve Days of Sudoku” / “Ready Layer One” era (perhaps month 0 of this project?), which had a mix of puzzle types and modes and essays and conversations on mental health and a lot more. I was first pushing that creativity while in a productive, creative state and then later while in a severe hypomanic state, and without the usual team support to keep on target.
This new project aims to reach the interesting and enjoyable potential of that winter project, with more controlled construction and puzzle release. It will still be experimental, and may give off puzzle hunt or ARG vibes alongside other things, but it’s “Layer One” is just a daily puzzle with a little flavor here on the blog and is only much more if you choose to visit our Discord and watch and/or participate with the items that pop up there.
There are three things “A Story of Self-setting Sudoku” is about. First, it is a story. Each puzzle fits into some of the preceding or following puzzles, with a few sentences of text connecting some dots (no more than can fit on a puzzle PDF page). The series is launching with a theme of self-setting (while some AI may be harmed in the making of this series, it is up to you to determine if any were ever used); this may change the conversation from “How did (you/the constructor) make that?” to “Why did (you/the editor) find that important?” and other things too. It will have a daily Sudoku puzzle with difficulty and solving times behind spoiler tags. If you just want a daily Sudoku-like thing more Classic than the GAS, for now this series is my answer. Later in the year, there are other projects brewing that are not “art projects” and are meant for the mass-market that we will point you to instead if the GAS or “A Story of Self-setting Sudoku” are not what you are looking for. There are possibly Easter eggs, and Discord-specific elements (a lot of the extra story/interaction has to happen on Discord).
As always, there are lots of ways to reach me / our team, from blog comments to Discord messages to email or mail. For a little while, I am not going to be posting messages here or on Discord (except automated puzzle posts) and will leave it to mars and their AI solver to try to understand what “A Story of Self-setting Sudoku” is really about. Feel free to read that story, or try to outsmart the AI solver if you can. I’ve left some messages sealed in envelopes for when certain events happen which will be reported here or on the Discord. Enjoy the rest of July!
The third level of self-setting is “Conditional Setting Automation”. The author can now simply ask, for familiar grid patterns, for automation to generate valid Sudoku with specific characteristics. The author — now more of an editor — relaxes until there are thousands of solution paths to watch go through their steps, and looks for whatever is “interesting” to the eye. Beauty is in the eye of the editor.
Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Twelve Months of Sudoku? post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.
The second level of self-setting is “Partial Setting Automation”. The author, who has come up with a previously interesting grid pattern, finds a new starting seed, and then uses computer assistance to add all other numbers to generate lots of valid puzzles which guide the picking of a preferred “gem” from suggested characteristics including novelty, breadth of solving path, and the kind of steps.
Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Twelve Months of Sudoku? post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.
The first level of self-setting is “Setter Assistance”. The author, who has thought of an interesting idea, comes up with a grid pattern by hand, fills in a starting seed, and then adds the remaining numbers with some software to characterize the remaining solutions and get a unique Sudoku. AI is used for making postscript art, but not the AI within AI which is more than just assistance.
Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Twelve Months of Sudoku? post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.
Happy Two Pi Day to those not yet aware of other events today. We thought a combination of Thermometers and Arrows would be a great way to celebrate a natural constant!
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)
Theme: Because 2 π’s Are Better Than One
Author/Opus: This is the 583rd puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.
Rules: Standard Sudoku rules (insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region). Some thermometer shapes are in the grid; numbers must be strictly increasing from the round bulb to the flat end. Some arrow shapes are in the grid; the sum of the numbers along the path of each arrow must equal the number in the circled cell. Numbers can repeat within an arrow shape. The coloring is strictly to emphasize the theme.
Difficulty (highlight to view):5 stars
Time Standards (highlight to view):Grandmaster = 12:00, Master = 24:00, Expert = 48:00
Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Twelve Months of Sudoku? post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.
This Kropki Pairs Sudoku was inspired by a variant selection and puzzle by Philip Newman from earlier today, as Thomas explored how some new themes can be added to Consecutive Pairs by allowing multiplication on the other side of a grid.
Author/Opus: This is the 582nd puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.
Rules: Standard Sudoku rules (insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region). If a white circle is given between two adjacent cells, then the two numbers in those cells must differ by 1. If a black circle is given between two adjacent cells, then the two numbers must have a ratio of 2. Pairs of cells without circles can have any relationship.
Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Daily GAS discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.
or solve online (using SudokuPad; to access letter entry mode, go to settings (gear symbol) and at the top in tools section select “Enable Letter Tool” and then hit the 9/A button in the numberpad.)
Author/Opus: This is the 581st puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.
Rules: Place a letter from the phrase “SHINY GOAL” into each cell so that no letter repeats in any row, column, or bold region. If you are not finding one true calling, you might need to find two crossing copies of the mantra HOLY in the grid, each appearing in a straight line in some direction (like in a word search).
Note 2: More detail on this puzzle and Thomas’ Sunday are in this special section of the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.
After a week of fun content from the GAS team, I wanted to celebrate a special partner with a Classic Sudoku in a favorite pattern/theme. I’ve made puzzles called (Four-leaf) Clover a lot of times, but this is the first one I leave for Clover.
Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Twelve Months of Sudoku? post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.
Potentially to be adapted to SudokuPad, but cake is better together in person.
Author/Opus: This is the 579th puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.
Instructions:
1.) If you are a relatively new intelligence, and are not tall enough to reach most places above the ground, prove your primary education by telling us the [ENTRY].
2.) If you are now an older intelligence, have completed secondary education and solved lots of puzzles, then please take a bigger look at the image and show us [GRID]. Adjacent to any square filled wholly with a color AND with a number that rhymes with that color in English, there must be two other numbers whose product is the square of the colored square number.
3.) If you are now an advanced (perhaps artificial) intelligence, please limit your special powers to just seeing black, violet, and ultraviolet. Interpret what you see to show us [GRID].
4.) If you are an actually intelligent human who wants a good puzzle but doesn’t want to use a computer or be a [🐰🥚], skip step (3) but still consider it. Seeing the world in more than black and white but not down about the past, solve this P = NP starting with NP, as in Number Place. As NP was borrowed, another name might help find the way to [GRID].
5.) What heights you’ve reached. Look around to find P = [PLACE WE BAKED CAKE].
Author’s Note: No matter what the instructions say, I like to think of Layer 1 as basic old number placing, Layer 2 as early sudoku after being borrowed from America, Layer 3 as new tool-assisted designs for better or worse, and Layer Two plus Two and Layer Two plus Two as something blissfully blue, that makes you ask if I am crazy or brilliant. That really matters on who’s asking and who’s in charge.
Note 2: The PDF or PNG versions are the only definitive source at the moment, but future forms may be shared digitally that are appropriate for a few of the early layers once others have made progress.
Note 3: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Twelve Months of Sudoku? post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.
