Indie Quickies #3: Nonograms Galore!

Check out a bevy of nonogram puzzlers!

I'm a fiend for nonogram games, particularly the various Picross titles developed by Jupiter Corporation. I've played a lot of these numerical puzzlers on the 3DS and Switch, but to my pleasant surprise, there are several solid (and mercifully cheap) nonogram games on Steam, including a recent one released by none other than the Picross masters themselves: Jupiter! In this installment of Indie Quickies, I'll start by briefly introducing the world of nonogram games before diving into my picks. 

According to Wikipedia, nonograms get their name from their creator, one Non Ishida, who invented this style of numerical grid puzzle in 1987. Few people use the term nonogram these days, though, thanks to Jupiter Corporation and Nintendo. Their Picross series of games spans over forty different titles released since 1995, and the popularity of the first few Picross games ensured that the name would become a catch-all term for all nonogram games whether or not those companies were actually involved. 

Mario's Picross, released in 1995

So what are nonograms anyhow? Essentially, players are presented with a grid with two axes. Along each side are series of numbers which tell players how many consecutive squares will be filled somewhere in each row or column. If multiple numbers are listed, that means that those groupings will appear separated by at least one blank space between them. For example, take a look at the first column in the example above. The 5 2 means that there will be a group of five filled squares followed group of two filled squares somewhere in that row or column, separated by at least one blank space. The x's mark "blank" spaces which will not be filled in. The final product will...somewhat resemble a picture, albeit a heavily pixelated low-res image. Higher difficulty puzzles (15x15 and up) have a bit more clarity and resolution to them due to the increased number of squares, but the more basic puzzles will definitely have you scratching your head. Oh well—nonograms are more about the journey, after all!

The fun—and difficulty—comes from deducing which squares to fill in based on the information provided. After a while, players will learn different tricks based on common patterns. The Wikipedia entry contains some examples of common techniques.

As hinted above, Jupiter Corporation has become the undisputed king of nonogram games, but their best titles are unfortunately stuck on the DS and 3DS. The touch screen on those consoles made for perfect nonogram gameplay, far better than slogging your way through earlier titles using the directional pad and buttons. The issue is that the DS and 3DS eShops are closed, and the only legal ways to obtain and play those games today are through second-hand sales or piracy. Sure, Jupiter has released over a dozen Picross games on the Nintendo Switch, but not all of these support the touchscreen, and if I'm being honest, the Switch's capacitive touchscreen (the kind you'd find on a smartphone or tablet) ironically lacks the tactile feedback of its predecessors primitive resistive screens (the kind you'd find on an older ATM, card reader, or Palm Pilot). 

So what's the next best thing? A mouse! It's just as easy and efficient as a touchscreen, with the downside being that you need to play on a computer as opposed to a handheld console. This brings us to the following games, all available for under $20 on Steam, which each offer a wealth of nonogram puzzles for new players and veterans alike. I'll start with the most beginner friendly options before moving on to more advanced titles further in the list.

First up is Pictopix, a solid and inexpensive introduction to the genre. It's pretty barebones in terms of presentation—the soundtrack only has a single track, and all the menus have same sterile blue and white color scheme—but its tutorials introduce the major concepts well, starting with the basics and then moving on to more advanced techniques. 

The puzzles themselves have a nice, steady progression from 5x5s all the way to insane 40x40s. There are three difficulties that can be switched on the fly, with the main difference being whether or not the game will show you basic hints such as which rows currently have solvable information. Regardless of your ability, the game requires you to start with the simple 5x5s and then unlock the more difficult puzzles as you go. Veterans of the genre may chafe at this, but this is why Pictopix is a great starting point for those who want to dip their toe in to the genre.

Other than the basic nonograms, Pictopix features a mosaic mode similar to the "micross" found in Jupiter's games, in which each puzzle is a piece of a larger image. This is a fun way to burn through a number of puzzles in a sequence and literally contribute to the big picture! There's also a time trial mode for the speed freaks out there (i.e. not me). When you have exhausted all of the available puzzles or hit a wall, you can make your own original puzzles or play any of the 3800 user-made puzzles via the Steam Workshop, which add a lot of bang for your seven bucks.

Once you have the basics under your belt, you can move on to Nonogram - The Greatest Painter, another cheap, no-frills puzzler with level creation and Steam Workshop. The art direction is a bit nicer on this one, with nice paint and brush effects when you finish a puzzle as well as a smooth, jazzy soundtrack. There's no tutorial, but there are even more hint options available than in Pictopix, which still makes The Greatest Painter fairly beginner-friendly provided that you already know your fundamentals. 

Up next is Logiart Grimoire, developed by none other than Jupiter Corporation. This is technically an official Picross game, but only on Switch, as Nintendo owns the trademark for the Picross name. In any case, Logiart Grimoire is a slick puzzle game with a terrible title, and while the difficulty is a bit all over the place, I've been enjoying my time with it. The gimmick here—aside from the whole magic/alchemy theme—is that each new puzzle needs to be unlocked using clues found in earlier puzzles. For example, before one can play the puzzle depicting Mud, they must first unlock it using the puzzles depicting Water and Soil. This mechanic doesn't add much to the actual nonogram gameplay, but it's an extra wrinkle that makes you use your head in a way that extends beyond just numbers. At $20, this is the most expensive title on this list, but you can't really go wrong with a Jupiter nonogram game, even with the extra layer of puzzle-solving required.

Finally, we end our nonogram journey with Voxelgram, which is heavily inspired by Picross 3D on the DS. Like that classic, Voxelgram puts a twist on the standard formula with puzzles that are—you guessed it—three dimensional. The rules are slightly different as a result. A puzzle is considered solved when all of the extraneous blocks are chipped away, which would be like solving a classic nonogram purely by marking all of the X's. Think of it like carving a statue out of marble or unearthing an ancient artifact in stone. Then, to make things more interesting, clues sometimes have an extra number, which denotes how many gaps exist in that row. For example, 5 still means that there are five contiguous blocks that can be kept in a row or column, but 5¹ means that there are a total of five blocks to save with one gap between them, meaning that there could be 4/1 or 2/3 split (5² would mean that there are two gaps, making the possible breakdowns variations of 3/1/1 or 2/2/1). 

Voxelgram is largely successful in following Picross 3D, though I do have some complaints concerning the controls. Rotating puzzles and viewing cross sections to mark blocks on the inside feels clunky in Voxelgram, especially compared to its DS counterpart. Nonetheless, it's the only 3D nonogram game I could find on Steam other than the upcoming Nonogram 3D, a port of an Android game which appears to take inspiration from Picross 3D: Round 2 on the 3DS. There's a demo available, but it crashed partway through the tutorial. I'll leave that one alone for now!

That wraps up this edition of Indie Quickies! I didn't set out to make an entire post about a single genre, but then again, I also didn't intend to buy a bunch of nonogram games on Steam before going on vacation this past summer. Hopefully newcomers and veterans can find something new to try (or, if you're like me, a new addiction).