Game Digest #6: Nonogram
Many puzzle lovers might be familiar with Sudoku but have never heard about Nonogram before. Nonogram is from the same family of games as Sudoku, a logic puzzle originating from Japan and getting more trendy since last year. It’s also seen by other names like Picross, Griddlers, but Nonogram is the most popular one. The way to play is simply filling cells in a grid with either a cross or square according to the numbers on each side. The basic puzzle is black and white (single color), but it can get more advanced with multiple colors (number clues colored as well). Compared to Sudoku, Nonogram is more like a combination of a coloring game and Sudoku. You are not only calculating numbers but also unveil a picture in the end.
The diagram below shows the interest over Nonogram in the past five years according to Google trends. The interest has surged 3X since the start of this year.
Like Sudoku, the original version of Nonograms were printed on paper, and later migrated to mobile phones. There are several key differences in game design while making the game more mobile-friendly.
Mechanics
The basic game play for single-color Nonogram is straight forward. Players can choose either square and cross to fill in the cell (square means colored and cross means blank). After the whole picture is finished (all colored tiles are filled), the game is finished and the hidden picture is revealed.
The difficulty of the game is primarily based on the size of the picture, and it varies from 5x5, 10x10, 15x15 to 20x20. Though these puzzles are mostly squared, there are other sizes like the ones in Cooler Nonogram or Nonogram Katana. The limitation to adding complexity with bigger sized puzzles on phones is the size of the phone screen (playable size of the puzzle). Especially when the puzzle is too big (larger than 15x15), the tiles will become too small relatively while fitting all tiles in one screen. It becomes really hard to spot and click on each individual tile (like the one on the left Nonogram.com). To solve this problem, the game on the right, Nonogram Katana, which really commits to migrating the full experience from paper to digital, adds additional tools. Instead of settling with a reduced size to make it mobile-friendly, it adds a zoom-in and out function to make a bigger puzzle more accessible. As for most of Nonogram games, they rather add more advanced reasoning than the size of puzzle to increase the difficulty.
Other noticeable changes added in the digital game vs. analog:
1. Limited lives: Players have limited chances to make mistakes each round before failing.
2. Hints: Players can get hints for tiles they are not sure about.
3. Timer: Some games will add timer to record the time player uses to finish the puzzle
4. Auto-fill: When the colored tiles in one row or column are filled, the other blank tiles will be auto filled with a cross.
5. The final picture is multicolored though the puzzle is single colored. Like the ones below, developers add more colors to make the completed pictures more vivid.
Dynamics
Though the basic game play is similar, game developers make the system more complicated to attract more players and make them stay longer in game. This could be done in several ways.
Adding meta game systems is a common way to achieve this goal. Like the game below (Eyes: Nonogram), it could add a story mode to this game, players can unlock more stories while playing more puzzles.
Revealing a bigger picture by solving smaller puzzles (like the ones below). This mode also enables a new currency to get introduced in the game economy system: stamina to play. For example, the diamonds in Nonogram - Picture Cross Puzzle are consumed each time to play, and the number of diamonds to play each puzzle depends on the difficulty. For every 5 mins, one diamond will be awarded, and players have to buy diamonds instead of waiting if they want to continue the game.
Make it a Collection!
The most classic mode of nonogram is to put all completed puzzles as players’ collections. So players will own a collection of pictures after they finish more puzzles. This is also similar to most coloring games, players feel more accomplished from finishing puzzles and relish in checking their collections.
Aesthetics
As for the aesthetics in nonogram games, the fundamental fun is similar to other puzzle games, mainly from tackling challenges. Thus game developers add timers, limited lives and other restrictions to make the gameplay more challenging. The secondary fun of nonograms is satisfaction from completing pictures (puzzles are also pictures). This fun is enhanced in the games when game developers use fine pictures as puzzles and add the collection feature for players to view them after. Applying story mode as a metagame is also to satisfy players needs to get fun from completing a storyline.
Monetization
In most nonogram games, the IAP/IAA ratio is relatively low compared to other genres, less than 10% on average. Most nonogram games have implemented all three formats: rewarded, banner and interstitial ads. The proportion of each format may slightly vary from game to game depending on the game dynamics, but overall revenue distribution is similar.
When we look at the revenue per ad format breakdown, interstitial ads are probably the heaviest, a bit over 60%. Banner and rewarded ads take similar share of revenue, each about 20%. It’s not to our surprise that rewarded ads share is the lowest (different than other genres). Since players who like nonograms enjoy more challenges, they nearly never watch any ads to get hints (which they might consider hints as cheats). Banner ads take most impressions in nonograms. Mainly for two reasons: 1.Most operations on the screen are easy 2. Time spent per game can be long.
Some placement examples:
Banner ads (at bottom during game play)
Interstitial ad (before and after each level)
Rewarded ads:
Free gems/coins (watch an ad for 5 gems, value at~$0.02-$0.04)
Free gift box choice after each level, watch an ad to get one more chance
Daily rewards after login, watch an ad to double rewards