I'm a big fan of nonograms/grid puzzles and this is a good addition to my library. Since Jason -- much smarter than I am - expressed a little confusion - and since I don't feel the tutorials here are that good - they start out well, but fall a little short, especially because the translation to English is slightly clunky in the tutorials - allow me to give some guidelines as to how to solve these logic puzzles for the newcomer. Hopefully, this will encourage some intimated or confused by these puzzles to give them a try. In fact, as I was purposely going through the tutorials to evaluate them, mine got stuck and wouldn't progress in the expert examples past the demonstration of how to cancel an operation. Hopefully these tips won't seem TOO egotistical on my part.

Though Wikipedia says the Nonograms only go back to the 1980s, older classic board games have used similar process of elimination to solve puzzles. The 2 most famous examples are the "whodunit" multiplayer game Clue, and the 2 person "code breaker" game Mastermind. Though process of elimination only hints at the exact process in a Nonogram. As Sherlock Holmes famously said, "If you eliminate the impossible, what ever is left, no matter how improbable, must be the truth". The numbers on the left and top give you clues as to how many of the blocks are filled and how many are empty. But not all of the clues allow that row to be either completely or even partially solved. So you start by solving the clues that DO tell you something. You're looking for the clues that either tell you something that MUST be true, or that CAN'T be true. The obvious examples in a 5 horizontal by 5 vertical block grid are a row (horizontal) or a column (vertical) that is marked either 5 or 0. As you can likely guess, the 5 means that all blocks in that row or column MUST be full, and the 0 that the blocks in that row or column CAN'T POSSIBLY be filled - or must be left empty. Each time you correctly interpret a MUST be or CAN'T be clue and either fill a block with a left click or fill a block with an X by right clicking - which certifies it's empty -
this gives you further clues that, along with the numbers next to other rows or columns, reveal the status of other blocks. For example, if you have a horizontal row of 5 marked in, and a vertical column of 5's clue is 1, you've already solved it - and the game will have crossed that clue off as solved - because the block in that filled in horizontal row MUST also be the 1 and only valid block in that vertical column! But that also tells you that the other 4 blocks in that column MUST be empty, and you can mark them as such. As you solve the correct markings for individual blocks and groups of blocks, more and more of the answers become available until you can work out all of the blocks. Once in awhile a designer will either on purpose, or by a botch, leave a block unsolvable - but it will be down to a 50/50 chance, which is something that was part of both Clue and Mastermind, where you often needed to take a risk to solve the puzzle before your opponents did (Clue) or before your number of fixed moves ran out (Mastermind). Still one 50/50 chance in a large puzzle isn't too bad, and it's likely that you'll see few if any of these, and sometimes when you think you've found one, further reflection will reveal that you've missed a clue (you've miscounted) and it's actually solveable. Also, this game, unlike the others I have, resolves that by having both hints, and bonus shortcuts that you can buy, if you decide to take advantage of them

Overall, the best method is to change directions after you've solved all the obvious clues in 1 direction. In other words, look over the rows and solve any with obvious clues, then look over the columns to solve anything obvious and THEN anything that was revealed vertically when you solved one or more of the horizontals, then, with the new vertical clues, go back to see what new info. you have about the horizontals -- back and forth and back and forth until it's all solved.

Also, unless you're in command of more advanced math, much of the clues just come from counting. REMEMBER: there must be at least 1 space between each group of numbers. You can't have a 1 next to a 1 next to a 1, because that would be a 3. This is often an easy clue for a 5 block row or column. If it says 1,1,1 then you have all you need to solve it. The answer MUST be: 1, Space, 1, Space, 1. Although this might seem obvious, it can help reveal clues on larger grids that seem daunting. For example, in a row or column of 15 this may look daunting: 1,6,4,1; but it's actually already solved for you! Remember, when you count groups of numbers like this, which in the puzzle won't have commas, thus will look like 1 6 4 1, you need to also count the spaces between the numbers. Count them as 1s. So this adds up to 1+Space (1+1=2)+6 (2+6=8)+Space (8+1=9)+4 (9+4=13)+Space (13+1=14) +1 (14+1=15). So you see you have all the info. you need to solve that row or column of 15. This also points out an obvious factor: knowing where the spaces MUST be (or think of them as blocks which CAN'T be filled) is equally as valuable as knowing where the filled blocks MUST be. Remember that each time you identify a group of blocks that MUST be filled, they also MUST have a space on either side, unless 1 side is up against an edge of the grid, but all groups that don't fill up the whole row or column MUST have at least 1 space either before or after the group, but, again, MUST have spaces on BOTH sides, unless they're against an edge.

A final hint. There's a simple way to solve some of the middle blocks, especially when a large single clue number is given. Say the clue for a row or column of 15 is an 8, or a 10, or a 12. For this to be a true statement, at least some of the middle blocks MUST be filled. In other words, if your clue number is more than half of the size of the row or column, then at least 1 middle block MUST be filled. 8 is obvious in a row of 15, for example. Since there are 7 blocks to the left of the very middle block, and 7 to the right, you can't be sure whether those blocks are filled or empty. But that only accounts for 14. Whichever way those other 7 go - some or all to the left of the middle block, or some or all to the right, the middle block MUST be filled. Or take a clue of 10. Since that's 5 short of 15, then 5 blocks could be all the way to the left, or 5 could be all the way to the right, but, to make a 10, the 5 in the middle MUST be filled. For 12, that's 3 short of 15, so there could be as many as 3 to the very left and 3 to the very right, but the middle 9 MUST be filled. If that last sounds confusing, remember that you're starting from the middle block in an odd number, so you'd mark it, then 4 to the left and 4 to the right of the middle block - and you have 9. This works for even # rows or columns, such as 10, too, as you'll see if you try 1. Note that all grid puzzles/nonograms will be in multiples of 5 - it probably wouldn't work any other way - so 5 by 5, 10 by 5, 5 by 10, 10 by 15, 15 by 10, 15 by 15, and so forth. But, back to the middle block example, there's some not too tough math, which will save you some counting, to solve these. You take the clue - which, again, must be a single number equal to more than half the number of blocks - and you subtract from the number of blocks in the row or column. Using the 8 clue for 15 blocks: 15-8=7. But, since that 7 could be any combination right or left of the middle block(or blocks (plural) if the clue is 9,10,11,12,13, or 14), you need to then double that answer: 7x2=14. Finally subtract THAT from 15: 15-14=1, and you know how many CERTAIN blocks you have. 1 in this case, 3 if the clue where 9, and so forth. Then you fill that number in - 1,2,3,4, however many - directly in the middle. Although, you'll often get that answer intuitively - that's the kind of answer that will often leap to mind unconsciously. Once you get the concept, the correct #, with a little practice (believe it or not), often will just start popping into your head.

Ok, for those of you who already know all that, my sincere apologies. Finally, a handful more comments on the game itself. Some other Nonograms games have more than 1 color of the blocks, so there are also clues in the different colors. That can be interesting - because you also have to concentrate to remember to change colors while you're marking - but that also makes this single color kind more challenging. The music starts off a little 80s/90s arcade electronic cheap sounding, but it quickly psychologically melts appropriately in the background. All the other griddlers I've played automatically fill in all the empty spaces in all the other blocks rows or columns in which you've solved all of the filled blocks. This one doesn't, but, if you're careful to mark the blocks when you solve that there empty, you'll often solve all of the fills without having to mark in all of the empties by hand, so it's not that big of a burden. There are reminders of various techniques of the game: left click to fill, then another time, right click to mark empty, so forth, but they're so quick that I really don't care. These last 2 complaints were lodged by the handful of commentators over at BigFish, which helped drag down the rating to mediocre. You'll have to decide whether they're major aggravations to you. To cancel an action before you've finished it - when you realize you're wrong - before you release the right or left button, you click the other button at the same time and it cancels the action. In other games, you move the mouse off the row or column and then release the mouse button and the action is ignored. Either is fine by me, though I haven't tested if that second method will work here. You're allowed to complete the puzzles with mistakes, which may make this more attractive for some. I competitive and slightly obsessive (as you can see by the length of this post :P ), so it's a problem with me in the later puzzles, since I just can't accept any errors. That's a problem because, if I get careless and make a mistake near the end of a puzzle, it can be a LONG time back to get to that point again and do it right. But, for most this shouldn't be an issue, and the ability to unlock the next puzzle with mistakes in the current one, plus the hints and the other bonuses you can buy with coins you earn to give you aid and shortcuts, should make it a lot easier for folks to complete. Except for obsessives like me. :( This is the 1st griddle I've seen with these features. Also, I haven't seen a griddler game yet with a real story, and I don't think they need one any more than a sudoku would. It's a number/logic puzzle, pure and simple. Also, the other grid puzzles I've played have the bonus of the final solution being the shape of something, which they then reveal to you under the puzzle to confirm what the shape is. As an extra challenge, you could try and figure out the shape while you're revealing blocks. That actually has to do with 1 of the 2 inventors of nonograms - he was trying to design a way that you could show patterns at night in a skyscraper by having various offices on one of the walls turn they're lights on or off - a necessary engineering aid for him. This game, though, doesn't do that, another complaint over at BigFish.

Anyway, thanks to the developer, ToomKy, and GGOTD, and I hope you enjoy your time off, WR.

My favorite kind of game. So glad to add it to my collection. So many levels it's going to take me a long while to work my way through them all, but that's a good thing. Agree with another poster Wolf Stories the best of all time. I'd happily purchase another just like it. Thanks for today's great game. Really appreciate it.

What a nice treat! I love this genre of game and the last one we received here, at least according to my game stash, was Wolf's Stories back in 2019. If you are unfamiliar with this type of game there is a good tutorial section that will walk you through the gameplay in a very easy to comprehend manner. This downloaded, installed and plays fine in Win10HomeX64. The music and sounds are not intrusive but you can always turn them off in the options menu if you'd like. It got colder here in NYC overnight so the beach theme is welcome!

Thank you to all involved for this offering!

Love griddlers!

Love these puzzles - and this one has a good tutorial for anyone trying them for the first time.

Runs well on windows 11. This is a logic puzzle game where you have to fill in the right number of squares according to numbers in the rows and columns. If you like puzzles it might be worth trying and it has a good tutorial to help you solve the puzzles.

Love this type of game. Many thanks

Today's format of game is known as a Nonogram. It's origins were supposedly from Japan and have spawned lots published paper puzzle books in drug stores which sell magazines etc. It even sparked the first video game adaptation of it in America called Mario's Picross.

This is a tough puzzler where you do have to use to use logic in order to fill in the blocks and solve the levels. Even after playing the tutorial levels I've still not gripped the concept of this. But upon completing the puzzle you will notice your completed puzzle looks like something like a pixelated icon of something. It could be a letter, or other object related to the theme of the game you're playing. See the images above as you can see one completed puzzle looks like cocktail glasses.

You won't solve these all in one day, I can guarantee you that. If today's game has you wanting more you can find lots of these games for free online without downloading anything although they do contain plentiful amounts of ads in your browser.

Or you could try the old fashioned way of solving the puzzles by picking up some empty Nonogram books off of Amazon, etc.

I like this kind of games where you have to think and sometimes think ahead. The first levels can seem a bi way to easy, but it will get harder and harder the bugger grid you get.

This has never been given away before. :)