Nonogram Museum

Inspiration

I like nonogram games and old tech devices. Putting them together sounded fun: what if every puzzle revealed something you could add to a little museum?

What it does

Nonogram Museum is a picture puzzle game. You use the number clues beside a grid to uncover an object from the recent past, such as a pager, film camera, or cassette tape. Solving it restores the artifact and adds its artwork and a short curator note to your collection.

You can play at your own pace, with hints, undo, and zoom for larger grids. There are no ads, timers, or streaks. The first 20 puzzles are free, and a one-time Full Museum purchase unlocks the rest of the collection.

How we built it

I built the game with React, TypeScript, Vite, and Capacitor for iPhone. The puzzles and artwork are included in the app, and progress is saved on the device, so gameplay works offline. RevenueCat handles the Full Museum purchase and verifies access through the App Store.

I also built tools to generate and check puzzles. They help make sure each image works as a nonogram, can be solved from its clues, and fits the difficulty progression.

Challenges

An object can look recognizable as pixel art but still make a poor puzzle. I had to find grids that both reveal the artifact and give players enough information to solve it without guessing.

Keeping the clues and cells readable on a phone was another challenge as the puzzles grew. The larger boards needed room to zoom and move around without losing track of the clues.

Accomplishments

I’m happy that finishing a puzzle leads to more than a completed grid. It reveals an artifact, its artwork, and a small piece of writing about it. The collection gives me a reason to see what the next puzzle will uncover.

What we learned

Making a good nonogram takes more than turning an image into squares. The shape, clues, difficulty, and size on screen all affect whether solving it feels satisfying.