Villodoku
Fill a 3x3 grid with French towns that fit both clues.
Every day: A new 3x3 grid of French towns every day, the same for everyone: name a commune that fits each row and column. New puzzle: Midnight Paris time.
Villodoku is a French daily grid game about the towns of France. Each cell sits at the meeting of a row clue and a column clue, such as being a prefecture or starting with B, and you name a commune that fits both. Smaller towns score more, and you can make five mistakes.
About Villodoku
Villodoku calls itself the sudoku of French towns. The game is in French, uses the official list of French communes and OpenStreetMap as sources, and states that it is not linked to INSEE or any local authority. The site shows the date of the day's grid and keeps earlier grids to play.
Each grid has three row clues and three column clues, for example being a department prefecture, lying within 200 km of Nice, being in Brittany, having a cathedral, ending in R or having a name of 11 letters or more. In every cell you name a commune that satisfies both its row and its column. The game draws on the roughly 5,500 French communes of more than 2,000 inhabitants, with autocomplete to help, and each commune can be used only once.
Scoring rewards small places. Everyone starts at the bottom level, Lieu-dit, and the less populated your answer is among the valid ones, the more points it gives, up to 100. Play small towns rather than big ones and you can rise to Métropole or Capitale. You can make up to five mistakes; after that the game ends. A hint button is there when you are stuck.
It suits players who know France well, fans of sports grids such as Immaculate Grid who want the same format with geography, and anyone learning French place names.
How to play Villodoku
- Read the three row clues and three column clues.
- Pick a cell and type a French commune that fits both its row and its column.
- Choose smaller towns when you can: they score more.
- Fill all nine cells, using each commune once and making no more than five mistakes.
- Share your result and come back the next day, or play earlier grids.
Tips
- Think beyond big cities: small towns of just over 2,000 people give the most points.
- Clues about letters and name length are easier to check than distance clues; start with those cells.
- Save the obvious answers for cells where you have no alternative.
Questions
Which towns count?
French communes with more than 2,000 inhabitants, about 5,500 in all.
How many mistakes can I make?
Five. After that the game stops.
Games like Villodoku
Immaculate Grid
The baseball grid with the same row and column format
Métrodoku
The same 3x3 format with Paris metro stations
GeoGrid
A daily grid of countries that fit two clues at once
Le Bon Rang
A daily game about French cities and their statistics
Statele
A daily geography puzzle about one country's regions
Movie Grid
The same nine-cell grid of two-clue answers, with films instead of towns
Daily Star Battle
Place four stars in every row, column and region of one large grid a day, with no two stars touching.
Wirespan
Route power to every house with the least wire.