I'm not aware of any other Wordle-family game that has a theme designer, so this is already in a league of its own.
In the unlikely event of actually making a good theme, can we share it to other users / our other browsers? Some kind of text dump of the settings displayed?
Another idea: HTML5 colour chooser input elements.
They are shared already, so everyone can see your Finland and Gold Mine.
Only you can edit or delete those two though - and only on the same device/browser you created them on. And maybe not even then if the session expires. If you or others decide to edit, say, Finland on a different device, then when you save it will automatically create Finland(1) or (2) or whatever. If you decide the new one is better and you no longer have permission to delete the original, let me know and I can delete and/or rename themes.
I didn't know about the colour chooser thing. I'll look at building that in now.
Good idea. I plan to add some better stats, more like the other -dle games.
When you complete a game, it will show you some stats like number of games played, streak (number of consecutive days) and such, with the option to copy results to the clipboard for sharing, maybe the current format and plain text (for that ancient forum that can't handle unicode).
If you go back later, it will know that you've already done the one for that day, tell you as much, with your results available again, and offer to generate a fresh one for you (and you will be able to choose from different difficulty levels). There will also be a 'hamburger icon' menu for skipping straight to a custom puzzle without doing the one of the day, and for choosing your theme. Also a question mark icon taking you to a brief explanation of how to play.
I could make it with a user id to log in, so you could share your settings and stats across all your devices - but I think that would put people off (?) so I was just going to stick with a cookie for now. That means if you play on your phone and your PC, then it will treat you like two separate users.
I've changed the colour picker now from text to the HTML5 one you suggested. Shame it doesn't optionally show the text colours in hex format superimposed on the 'buttons'. I started looking at JavaScript colourpicker libraries, but they all seem huge and over-complicated to me.
I'll put the link to the designer here again, now that we're on a fresh page. Sudoffle theme designer
Good idea. I'll make it an option to display the timer - option switch on the same menu page where you can select your theme, turn on the 'pencil marks' etc. It will be a few days before I'm ready to upload the new extra-features version.
I'm thinking of removing the hide/show squares marked incorrect button. I don't think it's very useful. A player who is determined to hide the 'opening yellows' can still do so by selecting each of those squares in turn and marking them blank (even though that will usually make the puzzle no longer have a unique solution).
I think having the button confuses players into thinking that the 'opening yellow' information isn't actually necessary to properly solve the puzzle.
I'm thinking of removing the hide/show squares marked incorrect button. I don't think it's very useful. A player who is determined to hide the 'opening yellows' can still do so by selecting each of those squares in turn and marking them blank (even though that will usually make the puzzle no longer have a unique solution).
I think having the button confuses players into thinking that the 'opening yellow' information isn't actually necessary to properly solve the puzzle.
I can see what you mean for new players. I use it a lot. When I get stuck I put them on again to see if that info helps me or not. I find them distracting when I'm not actively using them. But I think I would get used to it pretty quickly and it makes more sense to have them in, as that is a major reason why it's not just normal sudoku.
So basically; I will miss the button, but I'll get used to it quickly enough
The new version I'm working on has the option of 'pencil marks'. If you switch it on, it shows in any unfilled squares what numbers can be entered without causing a conflict. It makes the game easier and less time-consuming. I could also use that option to indicate for each square what numbers, if any, have been revealed or marked yellow.
Do you think you'll use that option, once it's available? It conflicts with the hide/show yellows button, which is another reason I was thinking of getting rid of the button. I could still retain the button though (maybe make displaying the button an option) for those players who don't like the pencil marks.
I also need to consider the 'results' thing once the pencil mark option is rolled out. It does make the game easier, so its use should be indicated in the results somehow - or perhaps there should be a time penalty for those who choose to use it?
The new version I'm working on has the option of 'pencil marks'. If you switch it on, it shows in any unfilled squares what numbers can be entered without causing a conflict. It makes the game easier and less time-consuming. I could also use that option to indicate for each square what numbers, if any, have been revealed or marked yellow.
Do you think you'll use that option, once it's available? It conflicts with the hide/show yellows button, which is another reason I was thinking of getting rid of the button. I could still retain the button though (maybe make displaying the button an option) for those players who don't like the pencil marks.
I also need to consider the 'results' thing once the pencil mark option is rolled out. It does make the game easier, so its use should be indicated in the results somehow - or perhaps there should be a time penalty for those who choose to use it?
I'm not sure I would use the pencil marks feature much, but I would definitely try it. I like the idea of having the button as an option to display.
I also agree that in the results it should somehow note whether you were using the easier mode, but not sure of the best way of doing that.
Would the pencil marks be automatically filled in? I'm all for automation - but I was assuming you were thinking of allowing the user to make a "pencil mark", one number in one square at a time ... like in the old world of paper.
The way it's working right now (only on my local machine, not available on the internet yet), it's automatic. For each square, it indicates which numbers you can enter without causing them to 'go grey', and it also shows a little yellow background around any numbers that you could enter, but have already found out were wrong (or were told from the start that they were wrong).
Sometimes it's a great time saver, like when it shows me two squares in the same row where only 3 and 5 are available: then I know that none of the other squares in that row can be 3 or 5. Without the pencil marks, it can take me ages to spot something like that.
I get your point about the manual making of pencil marks. The problem is how to implement it with a simple intuitive user interface: I suppose you'd need some sort of 'toggle switch' to change between making/erasing pencil marks, and making/erasing actual guesses.
Sometimes it's a great time saver, like when it shows me two squares in the same row where only 3 and 5 are available: then I know that none of the other squares in that row can be 3 or 5. Without the pencil marks, it can take me ages to spot something like that.
.
That's the strategy I was talking about! Doing that by hand is a lot of work.
I did Sudoffle Beta #20 in bed on my tablet last night and completed it all but 4 squares pretty quickly and without any mistakes. The last four squares were arranged at the corners of a rectangle that spanned two blocks and could either be
2 3
3 2
or
3 2
2 3
...and I'd already erased whatever yellow clue must have specified which one was wrong, thinking it was no longer needed.
Rather than just guess, I thought I'd fire up a fresh instance of the browser and so I could peek at the opening yellow clues again. But in doing that, I somehow lost my almost-completed Sudoffle. Doing it over having already almost solved it seemed like cheating, so I just gave up.
By the way, when you paste your score here, if you "Preview Post", (and to be safe, Preview again) before posting, then the Forum doesn't mess up the formatting. Not sure why.
Re: Sudokle
Doing it over having already almost solved it seemed like cheating, so I just gave up. 
Linear Mode
