#grid puzzles

I said in my last post I would talk more about Cinicross, because it is an indie game that is utterly mad in the way indie games sometimes tend to be when developers really decide to experiment. The game is a dungeon crawler roguelite that uses picross for its battle mechanics.

That’s right! It uses the act of solving a grid puzzle, as the mechanics to fight monsters and move through the different rooms of a dungeon. Along with the pixel 80s/90s graphic and sound design, the game is a trip to play if you’ve played picross.

If you’ve not done a picross game, you can find sites like this one where you can play it for free. If you’ve not played a video game based on picross, you’ll need a bit of context to understand why Cinicross is so weird and unique.

Most picross games like Squeakross and Murder by Numbers, design their puzzle grids in such a way that when the user solves it, it’s supposed to roughly look like an object or a scene. That object or scene can then be collected by the player to do a variety of things depending on the game. In the case of Squeakross it’s all furniture to decorate a rat’s home, and Murder by Numbers, the objects are pieces of evidence to help solve a crime.

The other thing to understand is that these games, like the original picross, emphasises deduction. By using the clues provided in the grid, you’re making a deduction on which squares to fill and which to mark with an X. Squeakross especially does this well by providing the player with tools to make it easier to count the squares and mark potential points of interest. 

Cinicross is less about deduction and more about pattern recognition, with a mild dose of risk taking. Instead of a chill time trying to deduce the squares, it is a race against the clock to solve the puzzle, while trying to not make too many errors less the hit to your health points ends your run. However, like any good roguelite, the further you progress the more upgrades you earn, which in turn change your gameplay as the run progresses.

It’s certainly an odd game that rewards early accuracy and deduction to allow far, far more reckless problem solving further on in the run. Depending on how good you are on these type of puzzles if the run goes on far too long you may find it too easy.

On the other hand, the fun of seeing all the upgrades get set off may just keep you playing.

It’s a fun game to play, probably not a great game, and I’m still not sure if it’s worth buying at full price, but it is a fun game to play.

I had, at some point, stopped playing Squeakross, and probably because I got distracted by other games.

However, at the time I stopped playing, there were a few puzzles that were giving me a great deal of trouble for some unknown reason. The reason why I say, unknown reason, is because Squeakross has some very strong tools to help the player solve their grid puzzles. The tools are so strong, that as long as you understand how to solve the puzzle, it becomes less of a puzzle and more of a routine process.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, it’s the other reason why I like grid puzzles like Proverbs and Squeakross. However, it does get frustrating when you keep getting wrong, and know very well it is probably some dumb error on your end.

Recently, Squeakross updated their game with more furniture, which you unlock by doing more puzzles. So I jumped in to see what the furniture was and found myself to once more be solving puzzles in an absent minded sort of way without any issues.

Solve the classic Black Box puzzle: deduce hidden atoms by firing laser beams and interpreting their paths. Locate the hidden balls by firing laser beams into the box and analyzing their paths. Play online for free!

Fifteen also known as the 15-puzzle or sliding puzzle, is a classic logic game that challenges players to arrange numbered tiles in ascending order within a 4×4 grid. Slide the tiles around to rearrange them into order.

Grid Puzz: Solve a collection of grid puzzles online! Challenge yourself and train your brain with these free logic puzzles and number puzzles. No signup, no download, playing for free.