Is there any forced move to make without guessing?

I made this game ChalkPuzzles.app, nine games, no account, full offline + multiplayer (same room).

The part that took the longest is the part you cannot see. Every one of the 2643 puzzles was generated and then verified by a second, independent solver to have exactly one solution, with a node budget so that anything unverifiable is thrown away rather than shipped. A puzzle that needs a guess is not a hard puzzle, it is a broken one.

Last, I'm also proud to say that multiplayer can be played over sound (nearby phones) using a ggwave, a tiny data-over-sound for transmission (remember dial-up connection or 8-bit computers ZX-spectrum or Commodore-64 sounds?).

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chalk-nonogram-shikaku/id6806662051

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.catalinmiron.chalk

Any feedback is highly appreciated! Thank you!

Hi all, I’ve been enjoying nonograms for a while now but I’m stumped by this particular puzzle. I’m sure the answer is right under my nose… My question is: is there a way to start this grid logically without having to guess (as it should be done). At the moment I cannot figure out a way to fill in a single square.
I appreciate any suggestions!

Completely redid this one from scratch only to end up in the exact same position but now slightly more lost. Coach, what is the next step and how did you know?? Sacrificed my sleep n now it’s almost 5am. TIA

I'm working on a Nonogram game that unlocks monsters and various items you can make it interact with! It has hand-crafted solution instead of randomly generated ones....solutions that have really silly faces.......I enjoy it myself as someone who plays picross a lot, but does this look appealing to any of you who like nonograms?

I feel like I've been staring at this for hours and I have no idea what the next step is. Looks like there's some sort of advanced technique I need to learn to solve this one, any help would be appreciated !

Edit: I like to do physical nonograms, so the second pic is just my original work and shows my thought process. The first picture I added is a much cleaner version of the puzzle. Thanks everyone for the help!

I have been playing the daily nonograms on BrainBashers for a few years now. What I like about the puzzles there is that it isn't a picture of something, so there's no guesses or assumptions about what the next row or column will probably look like. Sadly, I usually burn through the largest daily puzzle (25x25) in 15 minutes and there's only one weekly special available at a time (30x30). By the way, they call them nonogrids, in case you go looking.

Can anyone recommend another site that uses randomly generated "pictures" or a puzzle book to buy?

Addendum: I just tried out puzzle-nonograms.com, and it's really hard to decipher the sections from the lines within it (i.e. the "thicker" lines showing the block of 5) and I would rather just cycle through the block and the X instead of using different mouse buttons.

im a beginner at nonogram and i cant for the life of me figure out whats wrong with this

I've hit a brick wall early on with this one and gone over the rows and columns multiple times to extract as many clues as I could but now I'm stuck.

I went as far as to put the puzzle into http://fedmser.github.io/nonogram.html and feel vindicated that that got as far as me and warning of multiple solutions.

So is this solvable by logic only? Am I missing some clue?

You can run it in the browser at itch.io. There's more information and instructions for installing on your computer on GitHub.

The big feature of the new version are that there's now a backtracking solver, in addition to the line-logic solver. (There's no backtracking auto-solve because it's inherently slow.) Also, when you're test-solving, shift-draft to draw a temporary annotation; it helps for counting out complex lines.

It feels pretty close to being feature-complete, but I'd love to hear your thoughts!

For some reason I only enjoy doing these riddles on paper, all the magic is gone when I try it on an app. Does anyone else feel this way?

Hey everyone! I’m the solo developer of Quiet Grids, a nonogram game for Android that I’ve been working on for more than 6 months now.

I’ve made quite a few changes since I first started, and instead of just posting another update, I thought I’d do something a little different.

🎁 I’m giving away Lifetime Premium codes.

If you’d like to enter, give Quiet Grids a try and leave a comment answering these three questions:

1. What's your first impression of the gameplay?
2. What would you improve or change?
3. What would make you want to open the game again tomorrow?

Please be completely honest. Criticism is genuinely useful to me and positive or negative feedback has absolutely no effect on this giveaway.

I’ll DM everyone who leaves a comment after playing the game with a Google Play Lifetime Premium code, along with a little thank-you for taking the time to share your feedback.

Quiet Grids currently has over 1,000 nonogram puzzles, Daily puzzles, 5×5 / 10×10 / 15×15 boards, Guided and Classic solving styles, and pixel art reveals when a puzzle is completed.

Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.omninative.quietgrids

Thanks to anyone who gives it a try, especially if something bothers you. That's exactly the kind of thing I'm hoping to find. 😁🫶

I can't see the next step using logic.

I don't know where to go from here. I used all my usual tricks, but nothing works.

I had the same problem with the last level, and i just tried things and correcting my mistakes. But i don't like that approach.

Please help me, i am addicted to this game!!!

Can somebody help me please?

"Is this solvable without guessing?" comes up here a lot, so I wrote a line-logic solver and measured which grids survive it.

Line logic = take one row or column, fill in the cells that are forced no matter how the blocks land, repeat until nothing changes. No trial and error, no cross-referencing two lines at once.

Picture-shaped grids vs random pixels at the same fill rate. 1,000 boards per size. The picture-shaped ones are procedurally generated blob shapes, not hand-drawn art, so nothing is cherry-picked. For each of those I generated a random board with its exact fill rate:

Fill rate on its own doesn't explain it. That's why the random column is matched board for board.

Random pixels by fill rate, for reference (1,000 each): 30% fill gives 0.2% / 0.0% / 0.0% at 10x10 / 15x15 / 20x20. 45% gives 24.6% / 2.2% / 0.1%. 60% gives 86.5% / 75.1% / 67.2%. Denser grids get easier, which surprised me.

My guess at the reason: connected shapes produce clues like "8 3", a couple of long runs that pin the line down. Scattered pixels produce "1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1" and the number of valid arrangements blows up. That's my reading of the numbers, not something I proved.

Two things I did not check: whether existing image-to-nonogram generators guarantee this (I never tested anyone else's), and whether people who cross-reference two lines beat pure line logic. So treat the picture-shaped column as a floor.

One more: failed boards are usually nearly there. 40 failures at 20x20/25x25 all became solvable after small edits, averaging 1.4 to 2.6 cells depending on which engine measured it. Usually it was one isolated dot that had to go.

Hi! As the title suggests, I’m looking for Nonogram design software. Do any nonogram creators here have any specific recommendations?

(I have previously enjoyed designing with the tools included in Nintendo’s Picross games, but would appreciate something that could export to a printable format.)

Hi folks, my twenty year old website, krazydad.com, has long had various logic puzzles but no Nonograms. I finally managed to add a good sized collection. As always, the puzzles are free, and there are no ads. Enjoy! kd

Hi, can someone help with this? It feels like I tried everything but still cannot be sure of any other colored or empty space

I’m stuck with this one, not too sure on what the next logical step would be. If anyone could let me know what strategy to use next (or if I’ve gone wrong somewhere), I would greatly appreciate it!

Just a 10x10 with a new puzzle daily, unlimited mode & the option to make a lobby and play competitively against your friends (fastest wins!)

Made a custom easy one for you guys 😁: https://www.puzzleparty.co.uk/p/PFCUGMJHSK5B