Unfortunately this doesn't feel good enough to even justify playing a full game.
- The puzzles it's serving don't look very interesting or well-constructed. Are they randomly generated or from some existing puzzle DB?
- I'd really like to navigate the grid with arrow keys, not just by pointing and clicking.
- The app doesn't allow changing an already entered number, only undoing it.
- There's no support for pencilmarks that I can see. That's an absolute requirement for a digital Sudoku implementation.
- The app doesn't allow selecting multiple squares (for modifying all of them at once, or just for visualization).
Sorry if this sounds harsh, but the problem is that by making a Sudoku app you're setting up a comparison to all the existing ones. Apps like SudokuPad have amazing ergonomics, a ton of features, and a seemingly endless number of expertly crafted puzzles. It's not a comparison you can do well at. Picking a different type of puzzle with less competition might work out better.
An empty grid is randomly filled in till it's solved, then a fixed number of cells are randomly cleared. Thus it's very possible to create an ambiguous solution.
However I don't grade it against every sudoku app in history, I grade it against other handcrafted index.html sites. And on that metric I think it's pretty good.
Lots of room to extend functionality of course, but it seems like a project whose value was in the making, not the having.
My first game had an ambiguous solution not resolvable with logic. It was one of these deals:
a.b
...
b.a
On the plus side, I like that it highlights the current number. For a mature exploration of this idea with many more features, look at https://www.sudokuslam.com/ for ideas. I've been playing that one for many years.
I will improve the puzzle generation function so there's only one possible answer. Thanks for sharing Sudoku Slam, looks great! Especially the "auto-fill in obvious numbers".
Yes autofill, which feels like cheating, along with automatically filling in marks. What this does, though, is let you focus on only the hard decisions and the auto does everything else for you.
All your points are valid, except that I'm not trying to compete with other online sudoku games. I enjoy playing sudoku and wanted to make one for fun.
Based on everyone's feedback it seems that keyboard navigation, overwriting incorrect answers and better puzzle generation are the top missing requirements, which I'll add next.
It is now harder than it was this morning (UK time). That's a shame. As someone with little idea what to do to solve it it was just perfect. Now I am at sea. Many of the comments here are from people who do Sudoku and probably won't use your site. With me you had a sector. That might be worth considering.
Also you really should store the puzzle in application storage (eg local storage) so it is persistent over page refresh, and have a "new puzzle" button.
I am making changes based on everyone's feedback here. The game is for fun and not meant to be the best Sudoku game online.
I understand that storing the puzzle is useful. I might implement it at a later time. For now, I would recommend you to refresh the page in case you get stuck on a puzzle.
This is a nice clean start. For inspiration, check out https://app.crackingthecryptic.com/94Qq6qGjh2 for the next set of features you could add. Important ones are the ability to make "pencil marks"
- The puzzles it's serving don't look very interesting or well-constructed. Are they randomly generated or from some existing puzzle DB?
- I'd really like to navigate the grid with arrow keys, not just by pointing and clicking.
- The app doesn't allow changing an already entered number, only undoing it.
- There's no support for pencilmarks that I can see. That's an absolute requirement for a digital Sudoku implementation.
- The app doesn't allow selecting multiple squares (for modifying all of them at once, or just for visualization).
Sorry if this sounds harsh, but the problem is that by making a Sudoku app you're setting up a comparison to all the existing ones. Apps like SudokuPad have amazing ergonomics, a ton of features, and a seemingly endless number of expertly crafted puzzles. It's not a comparison you can do well at. Picking a different type of puzzle with less competition might work out better.