Having now been seen by a few people in the know, SLIDOKU is receiving good reviews, and there has been only one minor criticism which we shall aim to address in the first upgrade. When trying to solve the most difficult level, the human memory is in some cases being taxed in terms of memorising the positions before even beginning sliding the pieces into place. The proposal is to include a facility for adding text to the blank squares so as to be able to record or try various positions for the digits needed. Whether this is welcomed generally remains to be seen, but we'll check out this as an option and after Christmas set about adding this.
Any comments?
SLIDOKU
Slidoku - THE puzzle app
Friday 17 December 2010
Wednesday 8 December 2010
SLIDOKU Goes on sale
As promised, SLIDOKU finally went on sale today, in fact just moments ago, but on time and two hours within our deadline. We're all chuffed, and we hope you'll be too...
Plenty of time to buy for Christmas. Just go to SlideMe using the link on the right.
Happy Sliding
Plenty of time to buy for Christmas. Just go to SlideMe using the link on the right.
Happy Sliding
Ready 4 Launch
The day has finally arrived to launch our first real app. SLIDOKU is about to become live on several Android marketplaces, either tonight or sometime tomorrow. Our preview video is now on You Tube, see link on the right hand column, and from this the concept, methods of play and potential for long life are clearly shown. Most players will be content to solve basic puzzles and hone their skills of logic and memory. Those who master the 3x3 puzzle will want to add the complexity of resolving a sudoku clue grid first, and then completing the sliding puzzle. A few hardy soles will move on to the pro level and want to conquer the ultimate challenge, a sudoku grid with minimal clues that needs to be resolved before the final element of the sliding puzzle grid can be commenced.
All we can say is, GOOD LUCK!
All we can say is, GOOD LUCK!
Saturday 4 December 2010
Educational benefits
As we near the launch of SLIDOKU, it appears that the educational and mental benefits are as yet not fully recognised but our team of volunteer testers, (nearly all are programmers or in the education field), are finding that the combined elements of the logic used to solve a 3x3 sliding puzzle and a different form of logic used to solve sudoku, are both able to provide a tangible benefit to the mental agility of the player which is a huge boost to our credibility as designers of puzzles with genuine challenges.
It is recognised that playing sudoku regularly can be an aid to preventing the onset of Alzheimers, and we heartily support this discovery and hope that the addition of another logic element will make our app a popular one for all ages, but especially as an adult pastime.
As a result of these emerging discoveries, we are now hard at work developing other variants of the SLIDOKU concept that include symbols and other visually stimulating alternatives to standard alphabetic symbols. We'd welcome any input or ideas from professionals, academics and others that might assist in this quest.
Onwards and upwards
It is recognised that playing sudoku regularly can be an aid to preventing the onset of Alzheimers, and we heartily support this discovery and hope that the addition of another logic element will make our app a popular one for all ages, but especially as an adult pastime.
As a result of these emerging discoveries, we are now hard at work developing other variants of the SLIDOKU concept that include symbols and other visually stimulating alternatives to standard alphabetic symbols. We'd welcome any input or ideas from professionals, academics and others that might assist in this quest.
Onwards and upwards
Thursday 2 December 2010
SLIDOKU
After what has been a quiet year for Clueless Games, we are cock-a-hoop to be able to announce what we've been doing.
In recent months we've been forming a team, on a global scale, with programmers in China and elsewhere who have been working on a collaborative project that we call SLIDOKU.
SLIDOKU as you've probably guessed already, is a relative of Sudoku. A distant relative, as Sudoku only provides the clue format. The fun aspect of the app is that it involves a set of nine 3x3 sliding puzzles that form a grid. Each nonet (group of nine clues) is a separate puzzle and all nine must be solved to complete the whole grid.
For many of us, a sliding puzzle is something we haven't seen for years, possibly since our youth. We would find them in crackers, or buy them with our pocket money and have fun solving the number grid, in a simple 1-8 sequence, until they became too easy. Likewise Sudoku was a fantastic success, and still is, but there is a race to enhance or expand on the original puzzle concept in order to maintain the following that it has developed.
The ground breaking step that we have made is to take these two elements and make them part of one puzzle.
The player is first confronted with a simple grid to solve, by which we mean a grid in which all of the clues are provided, in the background.
At any time, the player can hit the REVEAL button and see all of the clues before returning to the sliding puzzle grids to manually move the play pieces into the correct pattern.
There is a feeling of achievement when the player completes a nonet, with this causing the ninth tile to magically appear and so prevent further accidental movement. This challenge is truly engaging and the desire to carry on and solve the remaining nonets is almost addictive.
Once the player finds this element of play coming naturally, the real challenge can begin. By selecting the tricky level, the player suddenly finds the number of clues reduced, as the clue grid reverts to a sudoku clue format. In this guise, the puzzle becomes much trickier as the player now needs all the skill of sudoku solving before they can move the sliding pieces into the correct place.
Of course, for some players even this challenge will eventually feel relatively straight forward, so for the really skilled we have added a third layer of difficulty. The Pro level has minimal clues and requires a very high level of memory as well as the logic skills required for solving the sliding piece element.
For the future, we have several derivative versions in development, and welcome approaches from any manufacturer or retailer wishing to pre-load the Slidoku app in new phones. At present we are launching on the Android platform, and in future we shall be launching the app for iphone/ipad and windows 7 formats. If you have a specific requirement for another platform, we are happy to consider this also.
One other option available, we can customise the app as a branding or marketing tool, changing the numeric grid for one containing either symbols or a product name. The only restriction, or rather preference, is that the name to be used has no repeating letters and comprises nine letters, or eight letters and a symbol or logo.
We welcome feedback, suggestions and requests.
Please note, SLIDOKU is a trademark of Clueless games, and the rules of Slidoku have been lodged with the UKCS and is copyright Clueless Games. A patent for the physical rendition of the puzzle was filed in 2007 and design rights have been applied for.
In recent months we've been forming a team, on a global scale, with programmers in China and elsewhere who have been working on a collaborative project that we call SLIDOKU.
SLIDOKU as you've probably guessed already, is a relative of Sudoku. A distant relative, as Sudoku only provides the clue format. The fun aspect of the app is that it involves a set of nine 3x3 sliding puzzles that form a grid. Each nonet (group of nine clues) is a separate puzzle and all nine must be solved to complete the whole grid.
For many of us, a sliding puzzle is something we haven't seen for years, possibly since our youth. We would find them in crackers, or buy them with our pocket money and have fun solving the number grid, in a simple 1-8 sequence, until they became too easy. Likewise Sudoku was a fantastic success, and still is, but there is a race to enhance or expand on the original puzzle concept in order to maintain the following that it has developed.
The ground breaking step that we have made is to take these two elements and make them part of one puzzle.
The player is first confronted with a simple grid to solve, by which we mean a grid in which all of the clues are provided, in the background.
At any time, the player can hit the REVEAL button and see all of the clues before returning to the sliding puzzle grids to manually move the play pieces into the correct pattern.
There is a feeling of achievement when the player completes a nonet, with this causing the ninth tile to magically appear and so prevent further accidental movement. This challenge is truly engaging and the desire to carry on and solve the remaining nonets is almost addictive.
Once the player finds this element of play coming naturally, the real challenge can begin. By selecting the tricky level, the player suddenly finds the number of clues reduced, as the clue grid reverts to a sudoku clue format. In this guise, the puzzle becomes much trickier as the player now needs all the skill of sudoku solving before they can move the sliding pieces into the correct place.
Of course, for some players even this challenge will eventually feel relatively straight forward, so for the really skilled we have added a third layer of difficulty. The Pro level has minimal clues and requires a very high level of memory as well as the logic skills required for solving the sliding piece element.
For the future, we have several derivative versions in development, and welcome approaches from any manufacturer or retailer wishing to pre-load the Slidoku app in new phones. At present we are launching on the Android platform, and in future we shall be launching the app for iphone/ipad and windows 7 formats. If you have a specific requirement for another platform, we are happy to consider this also.
One other option available, we can customise the app as a branding or marketing tool, changing the numeric grid for one containing either symbols or a product name. The only restriction, or rather preference, is that the name to be used has no repeating letters and comprises nine letters, or eight letters and a symbol or logo.
We welcome feedback, suggestions and requests.
Please note, SLIDOKU is a trademark of Clueless games, and the rules of Slidoku have been lodged with the UKCS and is copyright Clueless Games. A patent for the physical rendition of the puzzle was filed in 2007 and design rights have been applied for.
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