Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

I was playing around with some outside clues and I thought that this 'staircases' constraint could be quite interesting. I made a puzzle to see how it would work, and I think it turned out quite well. The rules are new (as far as I know) so I also made a 6x6 example puzzle, which you can try, and the example and solution are shown below. I think the difficulty varies between 3* and 4* according to the testers. Please enjoy.

The Rules:

• Normal Sudoku rules apply.
• Staircases: A clue X outside the grid indicates that there exists a staircase of length exactly X in the respective row or column. A staircase consists of a run of 2 or more consecutive digits, ascending in the direction from the clue. If a row or column has a 0 clue, there are no valid staircases in that row or column, in that direction. For example, if there were a 3 clue on the LHS of row 1, then row 1 could contain at least one ascending run of exactly 3 consecutive digits from left to right, e.g. 123, 345 etc. A run of 4 such digits (e.g. 3456) does not count. If a cell contains a square, it cannot be part of more than one clued run. Not all squares are necessarily given.
  
  
  Staircases by Chilly

  
  Link for solving 9x9 on SudokuPad

Staircases - playable example and solution

Link for solving 6x6 example on SudokuPad