Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > News > Mac News > Hands On: Sue Doku 2.0.0 (iOS)

Hands On: Sue Doku 2.0.0 (iOS)
Thread Tools
NewsPoster
MacNN Staff
Join Date: Jul 2012
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Apr 17, 2015, 05:20 PM
 
Bad news for fellow addicts of the iPad game Sue Doku: it's been updated, and is now a universal app. You do hear that term a lot, and it often isn't explained, so let us clear that up now: a universal app means Sue Doku is now available on both your iPad and iPhone. Translation: distraction. It's just a sudoku app, we can stop playing any time, but it is a particularly well done one on the iPad, and enough so that we sidled back to our desk to quietly pick up our phones and download it immediately.

That was fun, actually. Usually you know about new apps or big updates because you've read it on MacNN, you've come across it in the App Store, or someone's told you about it. We stood there by the coffee machine and thought hello, that distinctive white icon has become a distinctive black one. Courtesy of iOS 8's automatic updating option, the new version of Sue Doku slipped onto our iPads, and actually the only new feature for the iPad one is the changed icon. It's still enough to warrant a version number upgrade from 1.1.2 to 2.0.0, because of the universality.



You've gathered we like this game, and if you're not sure that you're reading this between the lines correctly, you can still hear the cheering from the review we did of the original iPad one back in February. We had one boo and hiss in a sea of praise, which was that there wasn't an iPhone version. Consequently, we're very happy with this new release.

Just not quite as happy as we might be or as we might expect. Not quite.

On iPhones, the new Sue Doku has the same minimalist look that appeals to us in the iPad version, but it does feel a little more bare, somehow. It's hard to fathom why that could be so, when the screen is smaller yet has the same text on it but somehow the centered text on the iPad looks better.

Our only real issue -- and this is small -- is how the way you enter numbers into the sudoku grid has been changed. On the iPad, you tap in the square you want, and a pop up mini-grid appears with the numbers 1-9. Tap the number, and it's entered into the square and the pop up closes. On the iPhone, there's no pop up: the numbers 1-9 are permanently displayed in a row at the foot of the screen. To enter one into the game, you tap the square you're so sure must have the number 7 in it, then you go down to the bottom of the screen and tap that digit.

Doubtlessly, we will get used to this tiny difference, and doubtlessly the new design is just fighting hundreds of hours of our fingers' muscle memory. Yet it has thrown us visually too: we lost more time than we want to admit because we kept thinking that the number 1 in this footer row was actually in the game.



Just anecdotally, we're finding the game harder on iPhone than on iPad, but there is one fact from our original review that quite literally goes double now. We shook our heads at how this game was only a dollar, and it still is. Despite being on two devices, it's still a single dollar on the App Store. That meant we got the new version for free, as existing owners of the iPad version, and we really owe this developer a lot more than a dollar for all the fun we've had from this app. Mind you, the developer also owes us a lot more money for the hundreds of hours they've cost us in productivity.

Sue Doku 2.0.0 requires iOS 8.0 or later, and costs $1 on the App Store.

Who is Sue Doku 2.0.0 for:
If you have the iPad version, get this. If you haven't got the iPad version, get the iPad version, and you've got this. It's not exactly an action shoot'em up kind of game, but it's an elegantly arresting version of sudoku, and our easy favourite of the ones we've tried so far.

Who is Sue Doku 2.0.0 not for:
Anyone with a job, or a boss, or just a general wish to ever get anything done ever again.

-- William Gallagher (@WGallagher)
     
Frederic W. Goudy
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Apr 2013
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Apr 17, 2015, 06:43 PM
 
I don't see mentioned here or in your original review (or on a glance at its App Store page), but does Sue Doku stick to puzzles that can be solved with the process of elimination or does it require techniques like X-wing, swordfish, etc?
     
William Gallagher
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Dec 2014
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Apr 18, 2015, 03:36 PM
 
Originally Posted by Frederic W. Goudy View Post
I don't see mentioned here or in your original review (or on a glance at its App Store page), but does Sue Doku stick to puzzles that can be solved with the process of elimination or does it require techniques like X-wing, swordfish, etc?
I wrote that Sue Doku review and I've not even heard of X-Wing or swordfsh before – I just went off to read about them and that's so interesting, thank you – but I've always solved Sue Doku games through solid thought. I refuse to make notes, though you can, and I don't deliberately try numbers out until they work. I just think. A lot.

But that means I don't know whether I've answered your question. Could you let me know?

Thanks,
William
     
just a poster
Forum Regular
Join Date: Jun 2004
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Apr 18, 2015, 05:01 PM
 
Nice writeup on a nice app.

The difference in number input is an interesting usability experiment. On one hand, the infinitely tall menubar in the MacOS (vs Windows) makes it easier to navigate and target menus because of muscle memory, but on the iPad I have a preference for the numbers showing up next to the selected square because there is less finger travel across a bigger screen.
     
Frederic W. Goudy
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Apr 2013
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Apr 18, 2015, 09:49 PM
 
You might check out " Sudoku +" which is not much to look at but describes and coaches these advanced techniques. I was amazed when I saw how intricate it could get.
     
mmcwatters
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Apr 2015
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Apr 20, 2015, 09:04 AM
 
This is Michael, one of the co-creators of Sue Doku. I wanted to answer the question regarding the need for advanced strategies in Sue Doku. While all levels of Sue Doku are challenging — for example, you'll find our first level to be more challenging than the first level of some other apps — more challenging levels may require the use of advanced strategies like x-wing and/or swordfish. However, many sudoku players come to know these strategies without ever studying them, but by sheer mental will (I realized at a certain point I was doing something I later learned to be the x-wing strategy).

For more information on these strategies and more, I'd suggest a visit to Andrew Stuart's wonderful Sudoku Wiki. Here, for example, his his write-up of the X-wing strategy: SudokuWiki.org - X-Wing Strategy

Andrew was kind (and generous) enough to help us develop the thousands of games you'll find in Sue Doku, and his site is a treasure trove of great sudoku insights.

Thank you for playing Sue Doku! We hope you enjoy it, and will share it with others.
     
mmcwatters
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Apr 2015
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Apr 20, 2015, 09:05 AM
 
Sorry, I didn't get the link above into my comment. Here it is: http://www.sudokuwiki.org/X_Wing_Strategy
     
   
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 04:01 AM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,