Eternal Life
(Published on 20. May 2021, 12:35 by Sktx)
WARNING : If you have attempted my first puzzle There is still life in my sandwich, please be aware that I have made adjustments to the rules. The meaning of circles in the grid has changed.
ADVICE :If you are unfamiliar with Conway's Game of Life, I recommend checking out those links before trying the puzzle :
Link: Wikipedia page of Conway's Game of Life
Link: online tool to try out the Game of Life
and/or check that your grid is stable (select 9x9 grid)
*** RULES ***
Normal sudoku rules apply : fill the grid with the digits 1 to 9 appearing each exactly once in every row, column or 3*3 box.
Still Life rules apply : every cell in the grid is either in state Dead or in state Alive - not both, and the grid is a stable configuration under Conway's Game of Life rules, i.e. :
Given that the "neighborhood" of a cell is made of all its orthogonally and diagonally adjacent cells inside the grid,
- Dead cells CAN NOT have exactly 3 Alive neighbors (otherwise they would come alive).
- Alive cells MUST have exactly 2 or 3 Alive neighbors (otherwise they would die)
- A CIRCLED cell's digit indicates the number of cells that are in the SAME state as its own in its neighborhood, INCLUDING its own cell.
- A SQUARED cell's digit indicates the number of cells that are in a DIFFERENT state from its own in its neighborhood (therefore not including its own cell).
- Possible squares or circles may not all be given... (no negative constraint needed)
- Clues outside the grid indicate the number of alive cells in the corresponding row/column. Not all of those are given.
***************
A big thanks to Zombie Hunter and PrimeWeasel, who spent hours on my first puzzle construction and gave me valuable feedback, to help make a new one with better setting. Of course your feedback and questions on this one (on difficulty, the rules, etc) are more than welcome ! Enjoy !
Solution code: The digits in dead cells in row 3 (from left-to-right) and then column 3 (from top-to-bottom), without spaces.
Comments
on 10. October 2023, 17:24 by Yann
Very nice puzzle, consistently challenging but so smooth, I loved solving it !
Thanks for setting it, and congrats on 100% !
on 8. September 2023, 11:30 by wullemuus
Elegant and fluent break-in. After that there are only a few tricky digits. Being familiar with these puzzles it was really enjoyable to solve it because of the straight forward logical flow. The hardest thing was the use of F-Puzzles (I like to colour cells double if it's needed and was not able to do this :((). The external digits could be helpful in another puzzle I'm dealing with- we will see XD ... .
on 28. July 2023, 21:38 by damasosos92
What a puzzle! I loved every second of it!
on 24. June 2022, 20:54 by polar
Very fascinating ruleset. Tricky but enjoyable, once I got my head around it - thanks!
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Thank you polar ! I got fascinated by the Game of Life as a CS student, and when I got into the world of Sudoku setting that became my very first goal to make a variant based on it... It's really not an easy ruleset to work with, so I'm happy to hear that it's interesting to some people in this (really awesome) puzzle community :). And well done solving those, they are indeed tricky !
on 20. March 2022, 20:07 by Crawlie
Had to do something special for my 100th solve, and lately it was as if this one, that I had failed twice before, was calling to me somehow!
Maybe I should have tackled your 3 stars after your 6x6 as it took me the whole weekend, but wow, I'm super happy I solved it!
@Crawlie : Happy 100th solve ! I am honoured that you chose my puzzle to make it special. And admiring of your perseverance ! Honestly, if I hadn't made those Still Life Sudokus, I am not sure I would be able to solve one... Well done, and I hope you had as much fun solving it as I had making it !
@Sktx I certainly did! And I used your suggested color scheme from your 6x6, that made for a really satisfying grid. Stellar work through and through!
on 15. June 2021, 17:43 by Sktx
Added (Google Translate) German translation
on 25. May 2021, 22:05 by PrimeWeasel
Took me half the time it took me to do the first!
on 25. May 2021, 16:36 by Sktx
Changed difficulty to 4 stars.
on 20. May 2021, 21:55 by Kafkapharnaum
Oh my goodness, I did it! :D I messed up a few times, but really it wasn't THAT hard, you constructed it very well such that even a noobie like me managed to do it. What made it hard really was just not being familiar with the rules and overall setting. If you make more, before long it'll feel easier and more natural. Awesome puzzle!
Sktx - Thanks a lot ! I'm glad you liked it, and your comment is really heart-warming, since I really intended to make it that way :). Indeed, because the rules are quite new I put 5 stars difficulty, but apart from the ruleset specific logic it's rather classic sudoku stuff. The Still Life ruleset is super rich in logic though. If this ruleset catches on, I bet some much harder puzzles will be made. Which is for the best ! Can't wait for someone to discover a triple swordfish in a game of life pattern, haha...
