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An Independent Games Studio

Driftwood Forge

We take things worn smooth by time and reshape them with patience. Slow-built, hand-tuned logic games. Currently at the anvil: a from-scratch Sudoku trainer bound for Steam.

See what's on the anvil Read our story
The Studio

Driftwood, forged into something that lasts

Driftwood Forge is a one-person studio: no location, no pedigree, just a piece of timber that washed up somewhere useful and got reshaped into something worth keeping. That's the whole philosophy: take something plain, work it slowly, and don't stop until it's solid.

The studio is run by a single developer with a couple of decades in production software and a lifelong sudoku habit, building every solving technique from public documentation rather than borrowing a line of code from anyone else's engine. If it ships, it was earned.

Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

Hand-forged logic

Every solving technique is implemented from first principles and public documentation, no ports, no shortcuts.

Slow-built, not rushed

One polished puzzle experience beats ten unfinished ones. Milestones ship when they're ready, not before.

Built to last

Clean architecture and documented techniques mean the game keeps working long after launch day.

In Development

On the anvil

Our first release is a from-scratch Sudoku solver, trainer and generator, built entirely from public technique documentation, with nothing borrowed from any existing codebase.

Visual concept for the studio's Sudoku game, showing a chalkboard-style grid with black given digits, blue solved digits, a blue highlighted step and a red conflicting digit, framed in a study-hall crest and wax seal motif.
Confirmed app icon
In Development · Coming to Steam

Sudoku University

A solver, trainer & generator for players who want to learn the logic, not just fill the grid

Built around a full human-technique ladder rather than a brute-force solver, so every hint teaches you something you can use on the next puzzle. The chalkboard-and-walnut look shown here is the confirmed visual direction and is now being built into the real interface. The app icon is already locked in, with the rest of the artwork in progress.

  • Novice-to-Master technique ladder: from Full Houses and Naked Singles up through X-Chains, XY-Chains and Multi-Colouring.
  • Step-by-step training mode: every hint explains the technique in plain language, not just the answer.
  • SE-compatible difficulty rating: an original rating engine benchmarked against the community-standard Sudoku Explainer scale.
  • A generator you can trust: every puzzle is checked for a single unique solution before it's served.
  • Bring your own puzzles: a full editor lets you set your own givens, or import a puzzle from anywhere else.
Givens stay ink-dark, your solved cells turn blue, solving steps glow blue, and conflicts flag in red, so the logic is always easy to read at a glance.
Read the training handbook
Earn Your Way Up

45 achievements, cast in brass

Every rung of the technique ladder has its own badge, plus separate honours for clean solves, hint-free runs, and mastering a technique unaided, without ever opening a hint for it.

Novice tier achievement badge Novice
Easy tier achievement badge Easy
Medium tier achievement badge Medium
Hard tier achievement badge Hard
Expert tier achievement badge Expert
Master tier achievement badge Master
Full House self-taught achievement badge Self-taught: Full House
XY-Wing self-taught achievement badge Self-taught: XY-Wing
Swordfish self-taught achievement badge Self-taught: Swordfish
First hint-free solve achievement badge Unaided
First clean solve achievement badge Clean Sheet
Full ladder mastery achievement badge Full Ladder

28 self-taught technique badges, 6 tier-completion badges, plus clean-solve, hint-free, and puzzle-authoring honours, 45 in all, tracked natively through Steam.

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Get the first knock at the door

Drop a line and we'll let you know the moment there's something to wishlist.