Nonogram

fingsaint

Hi @jim @david currently with nonogram you have to double click each background square to create the white background. Is it possible to have the background grid white at the start so that the squares only have to be clicked once to turn them into a black design? Thanks 🙏

fingsaint

PS @jim the Runner’s back foot is wrong, it needs to move down a square to attach to the leg 🏃🏽‍♂️

dbwoerner

I didn't think anyone else played Nonogram! The last two ("Trick?" and "Bulldog") are a challenging way to kill an hour... The version of this game I played years ago used a left click for black and a right click for white, I think. You need a way to clear to gray when you are trying to fix something, but I don't remember how that was accomplished. I have come to terms with clicking through the three states myself.

If we are suggesting improvements (other than a bunch of new hard puzzles), I want to add:

• if your cursor is near the bottom or the right edge, it is easy to lose sight of which column or row you are on when looking at the clues (at least on the big puzzles). You should highlight the row or column as the cursor moves to make it clear where you are.
• after clicking to turn a square black or white (empty for that matter), I would like to be able to drag my mouse in a straight line all the way across and not lose the line. I'm constantly having to clean up around the lines where I have wavered. Perhaps holding the control key to keep on the line you start.
• it would be nice to highlight the clues that are satisfied from either end (though not necessarily correctly satisfied so you don't give anything away prematurely). If the clues are, say, 3 2 4 5, if you have a 3 on the left and a 5 on the right, they would be highlighted and the 2 and 4 would not. On the really big puzzles that would be very helpful.

Jim and Dave, I'm pretty sure Nonogram is not a top priority, but if you ever wanted to improve it, I would greatly appreciate these features. Also, I don't know where the puzzles came from, but it would be nice to have some more big ones. Even though I've done Bulldog many times, it's still a chore to get through it. However, it would be nice to have some new pictures when I find myself on hold for an hour....

Thanks,
Dave

fingsaint

Hi @dbwoerner I’ve only just started playing Nonogram. I’ve worked my way down the list and I’m currently trying my luck with “Trick?”. Haven’t tried “Bulldog” yet but it could be sometime before I finish “Trick?” The other ones seemed quite straightforward in comparison. Although the ‘Apple’ turned out to be some sort of Cross which was an unexpected surprise 🙂

dbwoerner

Yeah, "trick?" is tricky, but "Bulldog" is another level altogether. It took me a bunch of tries to finally solve it. Now that you are doing the big ones, do you agree with the improvements I suggested above?

Boy, I'm not seeing a "Cross" with "Apple" - I barely see an apple when I squint at it B^)

david

Nonogram definitely needs work. I've been playing a lot of nonogram puzzles on my phone and most are terrible "try-to-suck-money-out-of-you" apps. But after playing a bunch I've identified a few things that I want to change to make ours better. The black/white/grey thing is one of them. I think it's important to have 3 states (so you can see what's definitely there, what's definitely not there and what you don't know yet) but the colors are not necessarily the best way to convey that. Practically every nonogram app I've tried makes the definitely-not-there symbol an X, which ends up being way more readable when doing the puzzle. And cycling through them by clicking is not super convenient. It should probably be left mouse/right mouse on pcs and "mark", "X" buttons on mobile (to select what a touch on the board does).

Another thing that I've found is that the puzzles are way more enjoyable when they are integral sizes of 5. It makes it much more pleasant to count from the right and bottoms when they are equally spaced to the left and top.

Also on my (huge) backlog is an editor so it's easy to make new puzzles. I'd love to even make them user submitted (with moderation of course, so it's not just a bunch of "hilarious" phalli).

The names are dubious because we made them up! We found some free puzzles out there but none were labelled so we did our best to squint and give them names. I think you can probably blame me for most of the bad names.

jezzbelle

@dbwoerner and @fingsaint ...you have certainly opened a new can of worms. I have done the heart! I hope there aren't enough rainy days this summer to play 40 Thieves, Alternation, AND Nonogram!

jezzbelle

Is the game supposed to show "elapsed time". If so, how? I've done the heart and the diamond, but I can't see the "bat". Is it a bat (bird) or bat (something you hit a ball with)?

dbwoerner

I think it's a bat flying to the upper right corner B^)

dbwoerner

david(Green Felt Guy),
I don't find anything wrong with the black/white/grey scheme, but it would be nice to make black/white be a right/left click thing. Unfortunately, my browser gives me a little popup window when I right click. It still marks the square as black, but it is annoying. You would still need a means to clear a square. Doesn't the "X" interfere with the picture looking like something? I'm pretty sure the game I played way back 90's written by Everett Kaser (sp?) used the color scheme you have. I thought that was a perfectly implemented Nonogram, though I'm not even sure that's what he called it...

The other things I mentioned above about highlighting clues and guesses would be way higher on my list to make it more fun to play. Of course, more puzzles (especially the big ones) would be the biggest improvement. Opening it up for user constructed puzzles might be the best way to accomplish that.

Thanks for responding!
Dave

dbwoerner

I guess Kaser is still in business. He calls the game "Descartes Enigma"