Rated Sudoku Devlog #3 A Version Worth Buying

Hello, dear gamers, it's been a month since the last devlog. During this month, I have been working hard on the game. Today, at the event of a major new version, I'm taking some time to talk to you about the game.

Since August 2023, I have been working on Rated Sudoku full time, it's been more than 6 months now. Because of the consistent hard work, the game is now the best Sudoku game on Steam in terms of features and content.

The best Sudoku game on Steam

In the last devlog, I compared this game with other Sudoku games and came to the conclusion that it has surpassed them. This time, let's do it again. Let's see how it turns out.

Rated Sudoku v0.6 and two other popular Sudoku games on Steam are compared below:

Notes for *:

• Competitor A has only 225 puzzles, but has an infinite mode, which means that the puzzles are randomly generated
• Keyboard-only input means that only the keyboard is used during puzzle solving, not the mouse

Verdict

The previous v0.5 version of Rated Sudoku barely surpassed these other games in terms of features and content. And v0.6 of Rated Sudoku surpasses them across the board.

It is worth noting that Rated Sudoku has overcome the shortcomings present in v0.5 by supplementing the new version with number highlighting, conflict hints, and puzzle personal record features.

In conclusion, since these games are currently among the most popular Sudoku games on Steam, the v0.6 version of Rated Sudoku has fully surpassed them in terms of features and content. So, in my personal opinion, Rated Sudoku is the best Sudoku game on Steam, bar none, and deservedly so.

v0.6 Features

Let's talk about what exciting new features are in v0.6!

Number Highlighting

The game play UI has a new number highlighting, as well as a number counting feature. As you can see in the screenshot, clicking on the number 7 on the right makes it easy to see where all the 7s are, and also tells you how many 7s are left to fill in. This is very helpful in solving puzzles and can save a lot of time.

This is one of the key features that Rated Sudoku has added in this version, taking the best from other Sudoku games.

Conflict Hint

Another important feature that has been added to the game play UI is the Conflict Hint.

In the process of solving puzzles, sometimes you will fill in wrong numbers, but you don't know it. The Conflict Hint feature can tell you that the number filled in this position conflicts with numbers in the same row, column or block.

You can avoid making more mistakes after that, and you can finish the puzzle faster by correcting the mistakes in time.

As you can see in the screenshot, the 2 in the selected position conflicts with the 2 in the same row and block, and is indicated by a circle and a sound effect.

Again, this is one of the key features that Rated Sudoku has added in this version, taking the best from other Sudoku games.

Match History

The big feature in this version is Match History. As far as I know, this feature is not available in any other Sudoku game on Steam.

Why do you need this feature?

Firstly, it can be used to see which puzzles you have recently failed to solve, so that you can try them again and improve your skills.

Secondly, you can use it to see your win rate for a specific puzzle, your best time to solve it, and you can try to break your own record.

Thirdly, you can use the Share feature to show off your personal record for a puzzle with your Steam friends.

As shown in the screenshot, you can view the most recently played matches and their details:

You can also view recently played puzzles and their details:

Then, you can also send your Steam friends a message about your personal record for a specific puzzle.

Themes

It is important to have all important features, it is also important to keep the game aesthetically pleasing. In order to satisfy the tastes of different players, so, I have developed the Themes feature.

In this version, Rated Sudoku offers 3 themes. You can switch between them in the Settings screen. As shown in the screenshots, this is how the same board looks like on different themes. The first theme, is Classic.

The second theme is Ancient One.

The third theme is Zen.

If you don't like any of these, no problem, you can recommend me your favorite theme with screenshots or psd documents! If it's good I'll consider adding it to the game!

Also, more themes will be coming in future versions.

5 new languages

I've added 5 new languages in this version. It's safe to say that, in this way, the game has covered all major languages on Steam.

I don't know any of the languages except for English and Chinese, so there may be quite a few errors in the translations. If you find that the translations in any of these languages are not good enough, you can contact me and I will send you the text so that you can contribute to the translations of this game.

Why v0.6 is worth buying

First, I'd like to announce a price change. Only the USD price is mentioned here, prices in other currencies change accordingly. The previous price was $3, but now it's changed to $10, which is more expensive than most other Sudoku games (usually $5). Why is the price so high?

This is because Rated Sudoku v0.6 has most features that popular Sudoku games have, and also features that popular Sudoku games don't have, and these unique features are valuable to players, which is why it is more expensive than other Sudoku games.

v0.6 is a good enough for people who only need the Single Player experience, as Single Player is feature complete. Here is a highlight of why this version is worth getting.

Uniqueness 1: Custom Game

Other popular Sudoku games on Steam, in general, only allow you to play puzzles provided by the developer, as well as generated puzzles, and not input your own puzzles.

If you see an interesting puzzle in a book, article, or video, you can't play it in those games. In Rated Sudoku, you just need to enter the puzzle and go.

Uniqueness 2: Rating and Leaderboard

With other popular Sudoku games on Steam, there is no way for you to know how well you're playing and whether you're good or not relative to other players.

For many Sudoku fans, it is important to know if you are outperforming other players.

Rated Sudoku gives Sudoku puzzles a rating according to difficulty. Then, depending on whether you can successfully solve the puzzle or not, your rating increase or decrease accordingly.

This way, you'll have a rating that represents your skill, and in the Leaderboard, you'll be able to compare yourself to other players and learn how well you're playing.

Uniqueness 3: 2699 puzzles

Compared to hundreds of puzzles in other Sudoku games on Steam, Rated Sudoku features a whopping 2,699 puzzles.

And not just any puzzle will be included, either. Those 2,699 puzzles have an even distribution of difficulty, as well as a even distribution of clue count. There are plenty of puzzles to choose from for whatever difficulty and clue count you want to play (within a reasonable range).

And, this game has quite a few 17 clue and 18 clue puzzles, which, as of now, are not included in other popular Sudoku games on Steam.

These puzzles are challenging and, I think, are of interest to any hardcore Sudoku fans. Here is one of the 17 clue puzzles, doesn't it look difficult?

Unique Feature #4: Match History Feature

This is a feature that no other Sudoku game on Steam has, as far as I know.

See your recent victories and defeats as well as the personal record of recently played puzzles. It's handy for solving puzzles you couldn't solve before, or beating your previous personal record. You can also share your personal records with your Steam friends.

Uniqueness 5: Themes

Some Sudoku games also feature different themes, but they generally just change the color of the numbers and the background. Themes in Rated Sudoku are completely different.

Changelog

New Features

• Number Counting
• Number Highlighting
• Conflict Hint
• Match History Screen
• Match Details screen
• Puzzles screen
• Puzzle Details screen
• Share game results with Steam friends
• Themes

New puzzles

• 284 new puzzles

New Themes

• Ancient One
• Zen

New Languages

• French
• German
• Spanish - Spain
• Portuguese - Brazil
• Korean

Bug Fixes

• Fixed Leaderboard screen not displaying game count and win rate correctly

About Me

Hello everyone, I am Ace Zhu. Ace Zhu is my game development name, not my real name. I'll keep my real name a secret for now, but I'll announce it after I've had success with a few games. Because if none of my games are successful, it's too embarrassing to say I made them, right?

I've been involved in indie game development full-time since 2017, so I've been doing indie game development for a full 7 years now, and the specialty I've been responsible for has always been programming. Basically, I didn't have a "real job" in those years, I've been making games with like-minded people. Although I think my programming skills are quite good, from the beginning, and even more so now, but, in terms of the outcome, the projects I have participated in have not been successful.

There are a total of 4 indie game projects that I've been involved in before, and they were all different teams, and since none of those games were successful, I won't mention their names, and in any case, most of them are still on Steam.

The previous failures, I don't know, were because they were bad ideas, or I was a bad programmer, in any case, there hasn't been a single successful game yet.

I don't want this to continue any more, after all it's been 7 years, I needed a change. So, I started Rated Sudoku, an attempt to make a breakthrough. Because I don't know if the previous failures were because I was a bad programmer, or if the games were bad ideas. So, why not, just do it solo with a good idea this time, so that if the game fails, I'll know that it was me all along. If that turns out to be the case, maybe I should just go home and work for my dad. Hahahahaha ːsteamhappyː

Honestly though, even though it's been 2 months since the Early Access release of Rated Sudoku and it hasn't even sold 50 copies, the quality of the game in it's current version is something I'm proud of. With another year of improvements and refinements, it might reach the level of quality of a classic game. Even if it doesn't sell 1000 copies in the end, I'll still be proud of myself.

GL HF