Play more puzzles? (The Number Place : Daily puzzle archives)
The Number Place
The Number Place is a simple sudoku-style number placing puzzle game designed for Microsoft® Silverlight®.
The functionally-rich user-interface of this game allows you to easily enjoy solving puzzles in various challenging levels.
* Microsoft and Silverlight are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
How-to-Play Instructions
After a while with preloading process of application, the game starts and partially occupied 9x9 puzzle-grid appears on the screen.
In accordance with the rules of traditional number-place game (or sudoku game; see the section below for details of rules), fill all squares with correct set of digits.
Placing numbers:
You can put a number on a square by two mouse-clicks. —
Click one of numbers in draft (circularly displayed in small fonts on an empty square) to mark it as prospective one.
And click again in the center of the square to settle it.
Consistency of placement is automatically checked. And when the newly placed digit conflicts with another existing digit, X mark is displayed immediately to notify you of the wrong placement.
*This game also supports number placing by mouse-wheeling actions. A digit switches its state among "Draft", "Marked" and "Settled" by wheeling up/down over it.
Automated enumerations:
A helper-function of automated-number-collection is available, that helps you enumerate possible numbers in squares.
By clicking collection button on bottom left corner of each square, possible digits in draft are automatically marked by referencing to other settled numbers in the row, column and sub-block in which the square is positioned.
By clicking a row/column collection button placed in right/bottom edge of the grid (triangular buttons displaying row/column labels), you can apply the number-collection to all squares in the row/column at once.
Progress, history and undo: The progress of gameplay is statistically measured and is displayed in percentage/progress-bar and on the chart of number-appearance-counters.
And each and every your action in a gameplay is recorded and stored in the History list-box.
You can rollback gameplay steps anytime either by clicking UNDO button or by selecting a past point in the list directly.
Rules of Number Place
Number place is a kind of logic-based puzzle game played by a single player to fill a 9x9 grid with digits from 1 to 9 so that
every subregional unit of the grid — row (9x1) / column (1x9) and sub-grid (3x3) — can contain complete set of digits from 1 to 9 without duplication or conflict.
Player starts with partially filled grid with given initial hints of numbers, and fills the entire grid with the restriction for number placements as the only clues for solution — the same single number may not be put multiple times in a unit —.
Frequently Asked Questions
*If you have questions to be put here, please write an email to the contact address through "feedback" link in the footer of this web-page.
Appendix: ABC's of how to solve Number Place/Sudoku puzzle
The most basic step to find where you can put a digit is eliminations of squares by checking interference originated from other existing digits. Let's learn how to do that.
1
Because of exclusiveness of number occupations*, a digit "1" placed somewhere on the grid, prohibits other "1"s' occupations of squares in the same block, in the same row and in the same column.
*The same digit cannot appear twice or more in a block, a row or a column.
1
1
1
And when there are multiple "1"s on the grid, the number of prohibited squares get increased.
8
2
1
7
6
2
7
3
7
2
5
8
2
3
7
5
4
3
1
7
9
4
2
3
8
9
7
9
6
5
8
1
3
4
In an actual puzzle, not only "1"s but also other digits occupy some squares and prevent you to put a digit in their positions.
8
2
1
7
6
2
7
3
7
2
5
8
2
3
7
5
4
3
1
7
9
4
2
3
8
9
7
9
6
5
8
1
1
3
4
Then check each block, row and column one by one and find a unit (block, row or column) that has not yet contained "1".
If the only one vacant square that is not prohibited for "1" is found left in such a unit, put "1" there.
When there remain two or more valid vacant squares in a unit, leave it anyway and check it again later.
*The bottom-center block have only a single valid vacant square for "1" occupation on its bottom right corner.
A newly put digit introduces additional prohibited squares. By iterating these steps for all digits, you can fill the grid gradually. If the puzzle is a rather easy one, you'll be able to solve it completely with this method only.
