Lua Sudoku (alpha 2)

dkla · Post by **dkla** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 6:12 pm

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Lua Sudoku

by Dave Kalin
dkalin @ gmail . com
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Here is my first semi-functional release of a Sudoku program written in Lua. I just noticed a few Homebrew and commercial Sudoku releases recently, so I thought I'd let this out into the community in the hopes it may grow into a group Opensource project.

Anyway, this is a PSP version of those simple yet addictive Sudoku puzzles. Written in LUA, LuaPlayer is required to play this game (version 0.15 or higher). LuaPlayer can be downloaded for free at http://www.luaplayer.org

I welcome any questions/comments/suggestions/programming help from the Lua development community. Please contact me at dkalin@ gmail . com

The file can be downloaded at http://www.dkdigital.com/sudoku/LuaSudoku.zip

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Gameplay
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The aim of the Sudoku puzzle is to enter a number from 1 through 9 into each cell of a 9×9 grid made up of 3×3 subgrids (called "regions"). Each row, column, and region must contain only one instance of each numeral. No math is involved, but completing the puzzle requires patience and logical ability. More information on Sudoku can be found at http://www.dailysudoku.co.uk/sudoku/index.shtml

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Controls
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Up/Down/Left/Right - Moves the cursor around the 9x9 grid

Left Trigger / Right Trigger - Changes the number in the hilighted cell

Select - brings up the Options Dialog.

Triangle - brings up the New Puzzle Dialog. (this feature is not working as of this version)

X - check Puzzle

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History
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Version 0.1 (alpha)
7 Dec 2005

Here's what I have so far:

* Nice graphics IMHO :-)
* Basic playability with cursor movement (including transparancy in the hilighted square) and number entry (with the trigger buttons)
* Transparent Helper Guides to highlight the cursor's row, column, and box.
* Check Puzzle feature to see which entries are right/wrong
* Option Select dialog
* New Puzzle dialog
* Timer feature (fixed for version 0.15)

What's not here yet:

* New puzzles -- basically it's the same puzzle every time. I'm still looking for the code to generate new puzzles-- if anyone out there can help me with this functionality, please let me know.
* Fonts are not final yet. That includes dynamic and bitmapped fonts.
* Minor graphic tweaks
* Sound / background music
* Check a square-- the "real way" of checking to see if the current square is valid. Right now I just compare the current square with the final solution (which is okay I guess) instead of checking it "by rule" (i.e., no matching numbers in row/column/box). I'll probably implement this after version 1.0
* Pencil marks -- don't know if I'm going to implement this because I don't know where it would go in such a small screen.
* Possible number choices -- don't know if I'm going to implement this because I don't know where it would go in such a small screen.

If anyone wants to help me out with some Lua programming, please let me know. Enjoy! :-)

Persa · Post by **Persa** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 1:27 pm

Brilliant game!

I like it alot, but there was one thing I didn't like and it was the skin. So I decided to make my own which is inspired by the commercial game Go! Sudoku. If you want it, you can grab it with the link below.

http://hem.bredband.net/pholam/filer/lu ... m-skin.zip

dkla · Post by **dkla** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 4:32 pm

Persa wrote:Brilliant game!

I like it alot, but there was one thing I didn't like and it was the skin. So I decided to make my own which is inspired by the commercial game Go! Sudoku. If you want it, you can grab it with the link below.

http://hem.bredband.net/pholam/filer/lu ... m-skin.zip

Thanks, I'm glad you like it so far. Still a long way to go though, so if anyone wants to help out, please let me know...

Nice skin, although I still kinda prefer the "wood grain" finish-- gives it a real old-school feel to it... :-) Oh well, to each his/her own; either way, thanks for the input!!!!

By the way, I'm glad you kept that extra box down below on the right, as that's where the "possible candidate" numbers (and other status info) are going to go (in the next version of course).

dkla · Post by **dkla** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 6:35 pm

Version 0.2 is now here, and thanks to the people who helped contribute Lua code -- this is rapidly becoming a cool OpenSource Lua project!!! :-)

Anyway, here's the update info:

Version 0.2 (alpha)
14 December 2005

The file can be downloaded at http://www.dkdigital.com/sudoku/LuaSudoku.zip

New stuff added:

* "New Puzzle" now picks a grid from over 200 valid puzzles (all generated from gnome_soduku). Thanks to Benoit Favre for submitting the "New Puzzle" code!
* A new selectable "Show Candidates" option shows the possible choices for the current cell in a fun and irreverent manner...
* Fonts are still bitmapped, but the code is in there for TT fonts. Uncomment the code and see for yourself. :)
* Graphic tweaks and cleanup

Not yet:

* Need to add more puzzles, and add difficulty choice
* The new puzzles unfortunately "broke" the old 'Check Puzzle' functionality. Right now it does a "bozo check" by just comparing uniqueness in all rows and colums. I may change the X key to "Check CELL" instead.
* Sound / background music
* Pencil marks -- don't know if I'm going to implement this because I don't know where it would go in such a small screen.

Arwin · Post by **Arwin** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:02 am

Check the other free Sudoku game for the PSP for some inspiration. I think that one is just really complete - you can even pencil in 4 possibles, and I really like the way it shows you completed a line or block correctly. It also has a nice highscore/time list.