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Wordoku & Picdoku

Objective

Learn about Wordoku & Picdoku— variants of the sudoku game

What are Wordokus & Picdokus?​

Wordoku and Picdoku are variants of the sudoku game, where the character set is modified. In Wordoku, characters can be any set of symbols or words (including emojis). In Picdoku, each character is an image.

Wordokus and Picdokus can be created in a few different ways:

  1. Using the PuzzleMe dashboard to create a Wordoku/Picdoku
  2. By creating a sudoku and changing the style
  3. By editing an existing sudoku and changing the style.
Editing an existing sudoku

You can edit an existing sudoku and change its style to make a Wordoku/Picdoku. However, be mindful that the grid size and contents have already been fixed. You can simply change the character set with this method.

(1): Creating a Wordoku/Picdoku
(2): Creating a sudoku and changing the style to make a Wordoku
(3): Editing an existing sudoku and changing the style
(4): Converting a mini sudoku puzzle to a Picdoku

Wordoku​

Wordoku is a sudoku variant where you can replace the standard alphanumeric character set with a set of words. You can see an example of a Wordoku at the top of this page, where the standard character set has been replaced by a set of currency symbols.

There is no strict restriction on using words in a Wordoku. You can use special symbols, such as @ or $, or even emojis, such as 😃 and 😎. Feel free to get creative!

Game editor: creating a Wordoku using Greek letters
You will see the Size and Sudoku X fields only if you're creating a game. If you're editing an existing sudoku variant, then you can only change the style.
Steps to create a Wordoku
  1. Create a new sudoku/Wordoku game, or edit an existing sudoku using the "Edit Game" action button on the PuzzleMe dashboard.
  2. Inside the PuzzleMe game editor, scroll down to find the Sudoku Style panel.
  3. Switch the style to Wordoku. A box of entries would appear right below the style, labeled 1, 2, and so on.
  4. In each of the numbered entries, enter a unique character.
  5. Click the "Create Game" button on the bottom right (if you've been editing an existing game, this would be the "Update Game" button).

Picdoku​

Picdoku is a sudoku variant where you can replace the standard alphanumeric character set with a set of images.

Game editor: creating a Picdoku
A preview of the resulting Picdoku

Steps to create a Picdoku
  1. Create a new sudoku/Picdoku game, or edit an existing sudoku using the "Edit Game" action button on the PuzzleMe dashboard.
  2. Inside the PuzzleMe game editor, scroll down to find the Sudoku Style panel.
  3. Switch the style to Picdoku. A box of entries would appear right below the style, labeled 1, 2, and so on.
  4. In each of the numbered entries, enter an image URL to a unique image. If you entered a valid URL, then the image preview icon next to the URL input field will update to reflect your image.
  5. Click the "Create Game" button on the bottom right (if you've been editing an existing game, this would be the "Update Game" button).
Managing Puzzle Media

The PuzzleMe platform allows you to use your media in several places. Some examples include using a puzzle backdrop image, images or audio inside crossword clues, or images for a Picdoku game.

Image recommendations:​

  • The images in a Picdoku would be displayed in a relatively small sized box. Thus, please choose smaller size images, ideally not larger than 100px by 100px.
  • The images would be shown in square boxes. Thus, keep the aspect ratio of the images as close to square (1:1) as possible. Using very tall or very wide images would lead to whitespace displaying around the images.
  • Use images that would be identifiable at a small size as well. Illustrations, icons and face photos work well in these cases.
  • For icons, Illustrations and cartoons, transparent PNGs are preferred.
  • IMPORTANT - Please ensure that you have the rights to use the images in your puzzles. If you are unsure about the image license, you can search for Creative Commons or Public Domain images, or use a site like Pexels.

Image hosting guidelines​

  • You can host the images with any image provider that allows you to use directly link to the images.
  • Please ensure you use secure image URLs that start with HTTPS:// .
  • Ensure that the link you paste into PuzzleMe editor ends with an image extension (eg. PNG, JPN, JPEG, GIF etc). For example https://i.ibb.co/18NqXVN/bell-pepper.png
  • Please ensure that wherever you host the images allows direct linking (hotlinking) to the images. Some image hosts might not allow direct linking to the images. Here is a list of free image hosting services that allow hotlinking.
  • If you copy image URL from Google image search results, you may sometimes get an image URL like this :

    data:image/jpeg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/2wCEAAoHCBUWFRgWFRYYGRgZGRg

This kind of URL is not compatible with PuzzleMe. Please get the link to the original image that starts with https:// and ends in a suitable file extension.

  • On the web, you can often right click an image and copy its address.
Copying image URL

Image credits

Credits for picdoku icons: Food-and-restaurant icons created by Freepik - Flaticon