How I Set Sudoku: Tallcat

*** BONUS VIDEO ***
We're delighted to share this bonus video with you in which the fantastic setter tallcat talks through his setting ideas and, in particular, how he set the puzzle Critical Mass (which appeared on the channel a couple of weeks ago).

You can play that puzzle at the link below or watch the originally solving video at the youtube link:

Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits along grey lines between two circles must have values strictly between those in the circles. Pink lines must contain a set of consecutive, non-repeating digits. These digits can appear in any order.

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[mollberg]

After watching this I started thinking about what a beautiful place this is (the CtC channel). It's one of the few corners of Youtube, or indeed of the whole web, where I feel civility still holds true. Not only does the comment's section stay relatively clean, but there's a real sense of an online community where people unselfishly offer their help, advise and encourangement, not to mention all the setters who offer all these astonishing creations. I don't know...it just made me a little emotional, realizing that there still is room in this world for such place, and that profitability is not the force driving the development. Thank you, Mark and Simon, for bringing almost half a million people together and shining a light on some of these creations.

[PaulRoub]

It says *so much* about someone when they are happy (even eager) to start off praising the work of others.

[sjm]

So generous of TallCat to take the time to share what he's learnt setting puzzles, presenting it with great order and humbleness

I thought all these geniuses must have been setting puzzles for years and years, it gives me motivation to try it myself

[b-you-tube]

Thanks for using this opportunity to mention some of the other sudoku YouTube channels. I didn’t realise zetamath was on YouTube - I just watched a few of his videos and found them both helpful and enjoyable, and I look forward to checking out the other channels you mentioned soon

[pouletbelette]

Thank you Tallcat for this great video and for the time and work you put in it. Thanks also to all the setters who commented here, who made their own setting video and/or who constantly provide help and inspiration particularly on the Discord server.

[thoughtbyte]

This is yet another excellent, inspiring setting video. Tallcat and all the other setters have made this one of my cherished hobbies. Solving, setting, and watching. Many thanks to them and to Simon and Mark.

[niverio]

Tallcat is a blessed genius. Whenever I solve a puzzle by him, it really sticks out as a unique construction, and especially his amazing usage of between lines. I cannot wait to watch this and learn some of his secrets!

[longwaytotipperary]

I find these videos very enjoyable even though I'm not a setter, and only a moderate solver. It's intriguing to me to see other people's processing as they create these fantastic puzzles. Thank you Tallcat and CTC for putting it on your channel.

[SmartHobbies]

Amazing explanation and insight into your setting process, Tallcat. I learn so much from listening to you.

[jadeskyewalker]

This is really interesting! I’ve always wondered and marvelled at how puzzles are set and what must go through setters minds when making a puzzle so I appreciate seeing and hearing about the process, it’s much more complex than I realised and makes me appreciate puzzles even more!

Thankyou Tallcat for walking us through your process and for taking the time to set awesome puzzles for us to solve.

And thankyou Simon and Mark and the whole cracking the cryptic community, this is the best community out there especially on YouTube in my opinion.

I used to watch so many different types of videos on YouTube from all different types of communities but I often found there was always some sort of silly drama and negativity and it got so draining, eventually I stopped watching alot of things because the negativity within the communities of other people engaging with the same content really ruined it for me. So to come to this community and have it always be so positive and full of wonderful, kind, genuine and just all round awesome people is just so refreshing! And it brings me such comfort to know that when I’m in need of some positivity and good vibes, if I come to cracking the cryptic, the community will always deliver on that!

So thankful for this community and every person who’s apart of it!

[Swisswavey]

The first thing that strikes me is the time it must take to set these wonderful puzzles. Sometimes, as solvers, we take for granted the gems we are gifted. I thank all the setters for their patience and innovation.

[davidrattner]

Absolutely such a treat from you tallcat to provide this to us!! Huge, huge thank you!!

[spelldaddy]

As someone who fairly recently started constructing myself, I am fascinated by the amount of time you take for this kind of puzzle. The first two puzzles that I set were fairly straightforward, in that I knew what I was aiming for, I put some constraints in the puzzle, and they took form pretty quickly. The last one, I had come up with a break in, and couldn't find a way to finish the puzzle. I toyed with it for what felt like a long time (about two weeks), and finally asked for someone to collab in order to get it done. Now I see that some of the masters take way longer than that routinely, and it gives me some new perspective. Thanks, Tallcat!

[emilywilliams]

Fascinating and inspiring. I enjoyed this video very much - thank you for making it. So many things I liked about it, the great visuals, both the clear images of your screen as you showed the steps of your solve, but also the screen captures that showed Simon, Mark, and our wider world of sudoku on YouTube. I'm so glad to have seen this video; this is encouraging me toward more and more solving and maybe even a bit of setting. Thank you, Tailcat!

[wooferzfg]

thanks for the awesome video Tallcat! nice to see that we share a lot of the same principles when setting 😃

[showingthelinks]

Thank you for showing this. It is awesome to see the other side of sodoku

[tyrgannusgaming]

Lovely video Tallcat. Setting is such a wonderful craft and your explanation was thorough and helpful for novice and experienced alike

[SSGranor]

I find it interesting that the cascade-style logic was how both Tallcat and Simon thought about the opening; because, it very much was not how I was thinking about it while solving the puzzle. The way I saw it was that, because the ends of the renban have to repeat on the between line and the middle of the renban sees the endpoints of the between line in the column, all five digits on the renban must have values between the endpoints of the between line (if this weren't the case, the renban would have to cross over the value of one of the endpoints, which means it would have to appear on the renban); and, that immediately rules 1 and 9 off the renban.

[DirkieB]

Nice stuff! This has definitely encouraged me to just go ahead and play with the f puzzles tools to make some pretty shapes and see if a puzzle emerges

[notthatseanbean]

Thanks so much for this insight and sharing your talent with us!