Sculpting is an artform and so is solving nonograms… IN 3D.

Taking one of the classic puzzle games based on filling out a grid with black and white squares and adding a third dimension doesn’t sound like an easy task. You have to compensate for face orientation and show inner layers in a way that the player can tell them apart by depth perception. Also, in case you end up making a mistake, have a way to get back on track by adding or removing blocks seamlessly, or some other alternative. Well, fear not since this game delivers and in quite an elegant way.

First of all, you start with a prism with blocks to remove by following the classic nonogram rules being taught through a tutorial. This is the time to practice, undo and redo moves, add blocks, select specific layers, scroll through them, rotate them and so on. In fact, try to use this opportunity to choose between keyboard or mouse (which was my preferred option). Later on if you make a mistake and don’t know how to solve it, no problem, as from the pause menu you can load a previous valid state. This may be way further back than your current one, but hey, it’s better than guessing or starting all over again.

As can be seen, in terms of playability it works and hooks you in so that you come back to solve just one more puzzle. Fortunately there are plenty of them in the main campaign, a purchasable DLC, randomly generated puzzles and even a workshop with literally thousands of them uploaded by the community with varying degrees of quality. Maybe you end up downloading one that’s mainly about monotonously deleting full rows or rather a more interesting one where you go back and forth between angles and figure out where the next move is even though the rows where you can do something are marked (thankfully).

By this point, this experience could only be enhanced with the appropriate music and what more fitting that having classical piano music with some chants here and there. Indeed, the tracks chosen were so appropriate that I personally never muted the game and have some as an earworm. Otherwise it is a competent podcast game or to have something to do in the background of a meeting… not that I’ve ever done that.

All in all, even after earning every single achievement I find myself unable to uninstall it just yet. It fits that spot of relaxation and comfort that makes me turn it on for a bit just to get to another sculpture without relying on dopamine inducement or cheap visual invasive tricks. It also has a sequel so there’s more path to trace from here.

Great game

This game helped me figured out nonograms.