Meowdoku
New
- Genre Puzzle games
- Players 1
- Session 7 min
- Price Free
- Updated
A grid, a set of irregular coloured territories and one rule: exactly one cat per row, per column and per region, and no two of them adjacent. There is no arithmetic anywhere in it. Every board has a single solution reachable by pure deduction, which means a guess is never necessary and is usually punished, because wrong placements cost hearts and running out of hearts restarts the level.
| Click | Place a cat on a square |
|---|---|
| Click again | Mark a square as impossible |
| Touch | Tap to place, tap again to cross out |
| Undo | Step back a move without losing a heart |
How to play Meowdoku
- Start with the smallest region on the board. Fewer squares means fewer possibilities, and one certain placement usually unlocks two more.
- Cross out aggressively. The crosses are not decoration; they are how a human keeps track of what has already been ruled out.
- Remember that placing a cat blocks its neighbours diagonally as well as orthogonally, which often eliminates more squares than the row and column rules do.
- Look for a region squeezed into a single row or column. When that happens, the rest of that line is settled everywhere else.
- Stop and re-read the board when nothing is obvious. There is always a next deduction; there is never a next guess.
Tips
- Regions that snake across several rows are the useful ones. Their shape constrains far more of the board than a compact block does.
- If two squares in a region are the only candidates, neither may be adjacent to a cat elsewhere. That pair often eliminates a third square outright.
- Hearts are the only pressure in the game. Spend a minute more on a placement rather than a heart on a hunch.
Questions about Meowdoku
Is this the same as sudoku?
No numbers and no arithmetic. The constraints are rows, columns, irregular colour regions and adjacency, which makes it a different kind of deduction.
Can a board be unsolvable?
No. Every level has exactly one solution, and it can always be reached without guessing.
What happens when I run out of hearts?
The level restarts. The intention is to slow you down and make certainty worth more than speed.
Is there a time limit?
None. You can leave a board on screen and come back to it.
