Sumaddle

August 3, 2024

More small improvements: • When the setting “Allow combinations to be deleted individually” is turned on, the space freed up by deleting individual combinations is better used for showing the remaining combinations. This will particularly benefit players who are playing large puzzles on small devices. • When the leaderboard display style is set to “Top scores” (which is the default) and the player’s own score is outside the top 100, more scores from other players are now shown around the player’s own score. The leaderboard display style can be selected in the system settings for the Sumaddle app. • The section of the introduction that was previously called “Tips” has been renamed to “Strategy”. Version 1.59.2 also includes some small cosmetic improvements and mechanisms for investigating scoring irregularities.

July 22, 2024

More small improvements: • When the setting “Allow combinations to be deleted individually” is turned on, the space freed up by deleting individual combinations is better used for showing the remaining combinations. This will particularly benefit players who are playing large puzzles on small devices. • When the leaderboard display style is set to “Top scores” (which is the default) and the player’s own score is outside the top 100, more scores from other players are now shown around the player’s own score. The leaderboard display style can be selected in the system settings for the Sumaddle app. • The section of the introduction that was previously called “Tips” has been renamed to “Strategy”. In version 1.59.1, the way that leaderboard avatars are loaded has also been improved.

July 9, 2024

More small improvements: - When the setting “Allow combinations to be deleted individually” is turned on, the space freed up by deleting individual combinations is better used for showing the remaining combinations. This will particularly benefit players who are playing large puzzles on small devices. - When the leaderboard display style is set to “Top scores” (which is the default) and the player’s own score is outside the top 100, more scores from other players are now shown around the player’s own score. The leaderboard display style can be selected in the system settings for the Sumaddle app. - The section of the introduction that was previously called “Tips” has been renamed to “Strategy”.

June 23, 2024

More cunning added to the puzzle generator and a new setting for the size of numbers. All the changes in detail: - New logic has been added to the puzzle generator, used when generating very difficult puzzles in Expert mode. - More refinements to the way the puzzle generator estimates the difficulty of the new puzzles it generates. - A new setting in the section “Layout & Appearance” makes it possible to adjust the size of the numbers in a puzzle. This setting works independently of the text size that is set on the device. - The “dimmed” appearance for dark mode is a bit darker. - More improvements to the way the help chooses where to show a hint. Steps involving just a small change to candidate values are selected according to where there is most benefit in preparing the way for a more significant step. - Fix for an issue where an empty square would sometimes display a dotted block outline if a clue was tapped and the row or column had errors. - The arrow for the help is more animated. Version 1.58.1 also includes a fix for an issue where the help would sometimes not show a hint for certain cases of very difficult puzzles.

June 21, 2024

More cunning added to the puzzle generator and a new setting for the size of numbers. All the changes in detail: - New logic has been added to the puzzle generator, used when generating very difficult puzzles in Expert mode. - More refinements to the way the puzzle generator estimates the difficulty of the new puzzles it generates. - A new setting in the section “Layout & Appearance” makes it possible to adjust the size of the numbers in a puzzle. This setting works independently of the text size that is set on the device. - The “dimmed” appearance for dark mode is a bit darker. - More improvements to the way the help chooses where to show a hint. Steps involving just a small change to candidate values are selected according to where there is most benefit in preparing the way for a more significant step. - Fix for an issue where an empty square would sometimes display a dotted block outline if a clue was tapped and the row or column had errors. - The arrow for the help is more animated.

May 28, 2024

This update fixes an issue relating to the buttons for generating a new puzzle of a particular size. When the setting to “select skill level too” is enabled and Expert is selected as skill level, the puzzle generator was incorrectly using Normal skill level to generate the new puzzle (instead of Expert). This meant, puzzles that were generated this way were usually too easy. This problem is fixed, puzzles generated this way are now generated using Expert skill level, as they should be.

May 12, 2024

This update contains all the improvements described in the notes for version 1.57.0. In addition, it includes a fix for a problem that has occasionally been the cause of a crash during Game Center sign-in. Some sections of code have also been re-factored, to improve readiness for future iOS versions.

April 25, 2024

Various improvements to some nitty-gritty details: - Improvements to the way the difficulty is estimated for new puzzles generated by the puzzle generator. - Improvements to the way the built-in help chooses the hint to show, so that easier steps are identified before more difficult steps. - The built-in help now identifies a square with a pencilled block outline as being incorrect if the square will ultimately contain a number when the puzzle is completed. - Added more auto-complete functionality for when a clue value is tapped and the associated row or column already has two blocks, or when the number of missing blocks exactly matches the number of empty squares. - If a row or column with a hidden clue has two blocks, the squares between the blocks now get selected when the space is tapped where the clue would normally be shown. A second tap inverts the selection. If any number combinations were already showing, they remain showing and are no longer cleared. - Enhancements to full dark appearance when dark mode is in operation. The panel showing the number combinations is less bright, the spotlight feature is shown with more contrast. - Some cosmetic improvements to the number buttons (the round buttons for number values). - Fix for an issue where number combinations were sometimes being filtered out incorrectly when the setting “only show combinations with the right numbers of values” is turned on. - The level controls in the puzzle generator settings are less fiddly to adjust.

February 19, 2024

This version contains a number of enhancements that have been requested by players (via the contact form and quick survey): - A swipe action can be used to select any group of squares that does not contain a block. Actions can then be performed on these squares together, such as number elimination. - Pencil mode includes the possibility to set temporary blocks. This can be useful for trying out possible block positions. - Pencil mode stays on when squares are selected by tapping a hint. Updates to multi-selected squares are also possible with pencil mode still active. - When the last pencilled candidate has been eliminated from a square, the square shows the outline of a block, instead of appearing empty. This is to indicate that the square might be ready to receive a block, because no candidate values are left. - The difficulty weighting for the puzzle generator can be configured in more diverse ways. Players can now mix and match the weights for the different categories of difficulty. - When the difficulty weighting is set exclusively to either "harder puzzles" or "easier puzzles", the generator is more likely to generate puzzles that have maximum or minimum difficulty. - Fix for a rare issue where the sum combinations were occasionally not being displayed correctly after being inverted. Version 1.56.2 includes some additional fixes: - Fix for a problem where candidate values were not always being applied correctly to the selected squares when the selection consisted of a group of squares together. - Resolved an issue which was causing high battery usage when the top leaderboard scores were being viewed. - Regression issue corrected: when a single square is selected and the square has only one candidate value, the value should be set automatically.

February 9, 2024

This version contains a number of enhancements that have been requested by players (via the contact form and quick survey): - A swipe action can be used to select any group of squares that does not contain a block. Actions can then be performed on these squares together, such as number elimination. - Pencil mode includes the possibility to set temporary blocks. This can be useful for trying out possible block positions. - Pencil mode stays on when squares are selected by tapping a hint. Updates to multi-selected squares are also possible with pencil mode still active. - When the last pencilled candidate has been eliminated from a square, the square shows the outline of a block, instead of appearing empty. This is to indicate that the square might be ready to receive a block, because no candidate values are left. - The difficulty weighting for the puzzle generator can be configured in more diverse ways. Players can now mix and match the weights for the different categories of difficulty. - When the difficulty weighting is set exclusively to either "harder puzzles" or "easier puzzles", the generator is more likely to generate puzzles that have maximum or minimum difficulty. - Fix for a rare issue where the sum combinations were occasionally not being displayed correctly after being inverted. Version 1.56.1 also includes a fix for the cause of a crash that was sometimes happening when the squares in a row or column were being selected.

QUIRKY Pack 1

50 out-of-the-ordinary puzzles

Sneaky, Pack 3

50 new puzzles from QUITE EASY to DIFFICULT

Tricky, Pack 2

50 new DIFFICULT and VERY DIFFICULT puzzles

Crafty, Pack 3

50 new EASY and QUITE EASY puzzles

Crafty, Pack 1

50 new EASY and QUITE EASY puzzles

Tricky, Pack 3

50 new DIFFICULT and VERY DIFFICULT puzzles

Crafty, Pack 2

50 new EASY and QUITE EASY puzzles

Sneaky, Pack 1

50 new puzzles from QUITE EASY to DIFFICULT

Sneaky, Pack 2

50 new puzzles from QUITE EASY to DIFFICULT

Tricky, Pack 1

50 new DIFFICULT and VERY DIFFICULT puzzles

Assorted Puzzles

50 new puzzles for skilled players

Puzzle Generator

Unlimited new puzzles - just go on playing