Most nonogram games ask you to reveal a cute picture of a cat. Homgard asks you to reveal the ruins of a dead civilization — and it’s the best pitch for a puzzle game I’ve seen this year.

Manapunk Studio’s new release, which launched today on Steam, is a story-heavy picross adventure set in a tech-fantasy world that has already met its end. The heroes who could’ve saved it are all asleep. The gods went to get snacks and never came back. You’re left navigating a hidden grid map, solving logic puzzles to piece together what was lost — royal conspiracies, ancient secrets, apocalyptic cults arguing over font sizes.

Yeah, the tone is darker than your average picross title, and that’s the entire point.

The game ships with 690 handcrafted puzzles spread across 25 unique regions, according to its Steam listing and the Thinky Games directory. Six new mechanics layer on top of classic nonogram logic — coloured cells that play by different rules, varied grid shapes — with the design principle that every puzzle is solvable without guessing. That’s a bold claim in a genre where “just guess and undo” is a common crutch.

Early returns are encouraging. Both user reviews on Steam are positive. One player with six hours logged praised the map-reveal structure and the scattered mana cores driving exploration. Another, coming off the demo, called it “cleverly designed” with a “charming atmosphere” and a hefty amount of content.

At 31 concurrent players at launch, Homgard isn’t exactly cracking the Steam top 100. But that’s not the story here. The story is indie developers looking at a genre synonymous with idle Sunday relaxation and deciding it needs royal conspiracies and existential dread. The $13.49 launch price (10% off the usual $14.99) is a reasonable ask for the scope on offer.

Nonograms have always been about revealing hidden images. Homgard just makes the image worth uncovering.

Sources