It is going to be a great day for Syndicated Puzzles the moment Str8ts hits the news stands in the am. 1.1 million potential readers will be able to try their luck at solving the puzzle. Sueddeutsche Zeitung in Munich will carry the puzzle daily. Str8ts is right beside Sudoku for a head on show down. We are hoping that Str8ts will have the same success Sudoku has enjoyed. It will be really interesting to see the effect this will have on our app sales. It is even hard to imagine buying this type of exposure. Sorry for blowing my own trumpet but this forum can use some great news and success stories once and a while! Totally pumped and ready to see what happens!
I would like to know as well. Also, Germany isn't the hottest country you should be focusing on IMO. I think a newspaper ad in America with half that many readers would've gotten you more sales.
I don't think he is advertising in the German paper, I think his puzzles are actually featured in the daily paper. Which should cost him nothing at all- I usually get paid when things appear in newspapers (comics, illustrations, etc.). This will be interesting to see how it affects your sales with Str8ts, at least in the German market.
Hmm… I wonder. If it became a successful paper puzzle format, would papers pay you a license fee? Does the creator of sudoku and crossword puzzles get paid a license fee? Hmm!
We are actually being paid a small daily fee and some add space for the submission of Str8ts. Typically syndicated products get a fee for their product. This market is very tough to crack partially due to the fact that the newspapers are having such a hard time competing with all the other forms of media. Sudoku was a big help to papers increasing readership and daily sales. People were buying the paper to get their daily fix. The success of Sudoku in the papers stunned everyone. It spread like wildfire throughout the world in under a year. The money made off this phenomena was also staggering. I found one estimate quoting the sales for Sudoku related products in 2008 was 250 million US in the United States alone. The real appeal of Sudoku was the fact that it had no language component (except for the rules). Really grabbing the other side of the spectrum, readers with the inability and willingness to fill out a crossword puzzle.
what is the difference between Sudoku and Str8ts? i've seen a lot of suduko variants around; makes me wonder what is so unique about Str8ts.
mobile1up A black and white puzzle has a huge problem. The problem is the fact that you have no where to hide. Either your puzzle is able to grab an audience or it doesn't. This makes it really tough to succeed. Str8ts has a good chance at making it essentially, since it is quite different from Sudoku, relying on the sequencing of numbers in predetermined compartments. The fluff of Sudoku and Str8ts are very much the same, one solution, no math skills required, looks good in a newspaper, simple rules ..... etc. Most importantly the hype surrounding Sudoku is slowing down, creating the need for the next puzzle. The timing might be perfect for Str8ts right now. A trained audience is waiting for a new challenge.
You can play one here: http://www.str8ts.com/ The difference is that each line is a "straight" (as in Poker) and has to contain a run of consecutive numbers, but they don't have to be in order. You have to fill in the white cells, the numbers in the black cells provide clues as to which numbers you won't be using. So for example in today's puzzle, if you look at the lower-right, there's a 2 in a two-cell straight horizontally , so the other number has to be a 1 or a 3. But there's a black 1 in the same column, so that number has to be a 3. Now that 3 is in a vertical two-number straight, and the other number has to be a 2 or a 4 - there's already a 4 in that row, so it's a 2. That leaves that horizontal row of four cells with a 2 and a 4 in it. The straight could be 2-3-4-5 or 1-2-3-4, so all you know is that one of the cells has to be a 3. The web page has a nifty solver if you want to watch one of these puzzles all the way through. Definitely try your hand at the online puzzles and see if it's your thing or not.
I have to say, it's not immediately obvious what you have to do. I'll check out an SZ and see whether it makes sense on paper. Edit: Ok, now I get it. The word "compartment" in the instructions threw me off!
I think there's a problem with the website If I want to look at yesterday's solution it calls me a cheater Something to do with the timezone difference?
By the way, maybe I'm just alone here, but it took me about 20 minutes to figure out how the puzzles worked. I read through the instructions on the website several times and the example drelbs provided several times, but still couldn't figure it out. …but then I read the "rules" in the 'sample pack' and understood it right away: ^ That explained it so much easier for me than the rules on the website. Maybe consider using those? Unless I'm the only one who had this problem, of course!
Essential Paradox, It is almost unanimous, anyone trying to understand Str8ts for the first time struggles. We have tried everything to present "foolproof " rules, that are quickly understood. I really do think it has to do with understanding the concept more than it has to do with the written rules. We have spent endless hours trying to get the rules just right, no matter what we do players get hung up on something. The black cells and black cells with white numbers are usually the biggest problem players have. It seems to me that players quickly try to apply their own set of rules when trying to grasp the logic of Str8ts and that is our biggest problem. I guess Str8ts is too simple. Players constantly are trying to see deeper into the puzzle.
Scanned fresh for you this morning.... http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/584/str8ts.jpg Page 9 of the main section, between the crossword and sudoku. That should get seen by a *lot* of eyes. Nice one.
I finished my first puzzle last night. It's like Sudoku but has more variety due to the board being different each time. I think people will find it more fun than Sudoku, as soon as you get them to understand the rules! Looking at the scan Nijo made, I like how the paper is using more images to convey the instructions, whereas it's almost only text on the website. I think what you need is a more visual way to walk the person through, and to visually show the rules: an image that shows exactly what a 'compartment' is, which boxes a black number affects, and what a straight looks like. If I were to write the rules in conjunction with images, I would use those ones from the sample pack, as they seem to be easier to understand. It seems that's what they've done in the newspaper, but I can't quite tell as I don't understand german.
Essential Paradox, I used pictures in puzzle dice trying to explain the game. I really liked the end result. I will do the same for Str8ts. Thanks for being persistent with pointing the weak element of Str8ts. We have spent a lot of time on the rules I would really like to wrap them up once and for all.
the rules as how they are explained in the SZ are not easy to understand. i tried to figure out how it works for 10 minutes-the only thing I did understand was that it is about straight number followings and that the black are not the ssame as the white fields so i did not get it also, i dont really think the publishing in SZ helped- i recognized the game only because of this thread and i always read some parts of the paper. my father always plays sudoku-gonna ask him what he thinks bout it
ejjib, It really is a mystery that players struggle with the rules for Str8ts. Again I think players are looking for something more. They are using their own experiences and knowledge to understand the puzzle. The Rules in the SZ are very detailed and well written, but people will still struggle with the concept until the light bulb goes off. Sudoku did have the exact same problem when people first started to play. Simplicity is a tough sell. Please Pm me your Dads impression of the puzzle. Just remember the first puzzles in the paper are very simple. Would love to know his experience with the puzzle.
Good luck with it! I genuinely hope it will become a successful newspaper puzzle. Also, one last comment: I just went to buy the iPhone game from the website and found the page quickly, but couldn't find the link to the App store! I eventually found the "buy" button at the bottom of the page, but I think you should put that at the top.
