Brand new players, this one’s for you. Augmental Puzzles now has a full interactive tutorial that walks you through Sudoku step by step — from placing your first number all the way to tackling a complete board.
The tutorial introduces concepts gradually across multiple stages: single cells, pencil marks, columns, boxes, and how to work through a dead end. Each stage uses a custom mini-board so you’re never overwhelmed.
Already know your stuff? A skip button lets you bail out after the first stage — tap it twice to confirm and you’re straight into the action. You can always replay the tutorial from the How To Play menu if you fancy a refresher.
Smart Hints — Now Even Smarter
We have given the hint system a proper overhaul under the bonnet. The hint panel now bounces in instead of sliding, and should not longer block the board. It will disappear cleanly when you crack on with the puzzle.
Hints now highlight the specific cell being solved so it stands out from the rest of the related group — no more squinting at a sea of yellow. Stale hint colours are also cleared automatically before each new hint, so you’ll never see leftover highlights from a previous request.
London Games Festival Demo
We brought Augmental Puzzles to the London Games Festival 2026! If you tried the game at LGF — welcome, and thanks for stopping by.
The demo build features a curated set of puzzles and the new tutorial, so festival-goers could jump straight in without any faff. If you’re here because you played at the festival, the full game has loads more waiting for you.
Visual & UI Improvements
* New ink/pencil toggle slider on the keypad — a chunky 3D toggle that makes it dead obvious whether you’re placing values or pencil marks.
* Pencil and value buttons now flash green when adding and red when removing — instant feedback so you always know what’s happening.
* Mixed Reality Toggle: Shutoff the world or enable passthrough mode, on supported hardware.
Settings menu rebuilt with new ball-based sliders and toggles — feels much more tactile and in keeping with the rest of the game.
Bug Fix Highlights
* Puzzle progress now counts pencil marks as partial completion, so your progress balls actually reflect the work you’ve put in.
* Fixed hints sometimes repeating the same suggestion.
* Fixed pencil marks occasionally landing on the wrong bits (keypad bitmask issue).
Full Patch Notes: https://flammablepenguins.com/augmental_puzzles/patch_2026_smart_hint.html