I noticed that the old runs aren't deleted but also aren't showing on the leaderboard. Are they still valid runs? Can they be updated to the new board?

Yeah paying to remove the ads not only removes the time loss, but also speeds up the game significantly overall. You'll drop a lot of time tossing some change at Microsoft, lol.

GG, none the less!

My takeaway: I need characters with counters to go against the hands 😂

Oh... actually tied my PB... Still like this run way better

Since it's Android, I assume we'll allow emulators?

I found where the save data is stored on the device! I will upload a tutorial some time this week when I get a chance, but would we be down with showing the deletion of this file before time starts? It can be verified that the right file was deleted if the "Last Played" indicator is gone.

UPDATE: Every time I delete, it just brings it back down from the cloud. I'm not sure how I originally got it to reset without pulling down the cloud backup. I might experiment with turning internet off and then deleting the file.

Maybe, so that the current runs aren't invalidated and we don't have to include the restart of all the difficulties during time, we require that they show each category being restarted and they may not linger on the puzzle after hitting reset. I tested out that if you hit restart, you can close the game while its on the loading screen and when you come back in it will have removed your saved puzzle.

Proposal for new rules:

Complete all the boards in "Classic". Time starts when selecting the first board or when hitting "Yes" to reset the board. Time ends when the last number is placed on the last board.

• Video is required.
• All runs need to show game reset for each board before time starts, and the game should be closed before the new puzzle is displayed.
• No solving or viewing a puzzle in any way outside of time.
• Cheats are forbidden.
• Glitches are allowed.

You do raise some good points with regards to using IGT. I'm not opposed to it, but I think it's just more fun to use real time, and frankly easier as well as a don't have to do math to figure out if you got the record or not.

The skill level is actually quite approachable. The way you play a speedrun is different than just playing Sudoku. We get to do things the developers maybe didn't intend but allow, such as exploiting the notes and highlighting to be able to quickly see where possibilities are and begin to make guesses til we find the right one. Honestly, I picked it up very quickly and got WR for the Irregulars category within my first hour of speedrunning it, and I've never tried to casually play Sudoku in grandmaster or anything, if I'm playing casually I'd do Medium or Hard. Once you stop playing Sudoku and start speedrunning Microsoft Sudoku, then it's a whole new game and boy howdy is it fun 😁. So accessibility wise, maybe some tutorials/guides would help to show how to play the game the speedrunning way. I don't think the inclusion of all the difficulties really matters, you'd be surprised how easy grandmaster actually is once you know the mechanics we employ in our runs. It's mostly guess and check, but first figuring out the safest place to make guesses.

Theoretically, a mistakeless run is already encouraged by the ruleset, as every mistake you make costs you time.

I think the main questions to ask as we try to nail down rules are "does this ruin the fun" and "do we need to make a rule around this?" We want to promote fun, but realize that this is a Speedrun of a video game. It's not just Sudoku, it's Microsoft Sudoku, so finding ways to exploit the settings a bit by turning on notes just adds to the fun. It's our way of finding glitches to exploit. But yes, some ways we could exploit the game would ruin the fun, namely the mentioned problem with loading in-progress games.

I like having the notes because it makes it to where you can see options where it can only be that number, but when under pressure it's easy to miss those things, so honestly notes kinda add to the skill required, as now you have to be able to at a glance figure out based on the notes which one to hit.

I totally agree that the moderation needs to be fixed. I uploaded a run that got approved about a month ago where I unintentionally had a puzzle partially completed per the big problem you were saying. I've now been more intentional about making sure that I finish or restart whatever puzzle I'm doing.

I disagree to using IGT, which is something that was discussed in another thread on here so I won't go into big deets, but basically there's skill involved as there are ways to skip certain animations.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Guessing is allowed but any mistake will invalidate the run in order" because that sounds contradictory. So much of the speedrun is based around figuring out where you have the best odds to make a guess. If there's just two possibilities in a single row, that's a 50-50, which is more compelling than a row with three possibilities. It's the entire core of what the run is.

Ads don't need to be in the ruleset, if you haven't paid to remove ads you add so much time because it becomes soooo laggy.

Requiring to do the Restart ("Abandon Puzzle?") for each category does make sense, as the exploits that you've mentioned are very real. I've known about them, and perhaps other runners have too, but none of us want to use those exploits. They absolutely would ruin the fun if used. This one might be needed but it's not been needed yet thankfully. (Although tbh I'm just assuming that the other players have been acting in integrity, I have no way to confirm).

If you compare Microsoft Sudoku to say Microsoft Solitare for Windows 7, this is an actually competitive and fun thing we got going. I don't think any of us would want to invalidate all of the runs that we already have up there, which some of your suggestions would end up doing.

I think having the timer be done as real world time starting when you reset and ending when you input the last number makes sense. There is technique involved in switching between the modes and places where you can get time saves. You can tap on the screen to perform animation skips, and you can memorize placement of buttons. To just use sum of IGT would drop any technique you can put into the switching of difficulties.