Nonogram Depths

Nonogram Depths is a dungeon crawl made of nonograms. Every floor is a nonogram, and the figure you uncover is what shares the room with you: a monster, a treasure, a trap. Solving it is the only way down.

Floor by floor through the halls of eight vanished peoples: the Gravewards' catacombs, the Drowned's vault, the Founders' forge, and deeper. A mistake costs a heart, and so does a clock run out. The run ends when the hearts do. Every gate you pass is kept, and the record is the deepest gate you have ever passed.

One descent a day, one stratum, the same halls for every diver. Free, always. The standings keep the record.

The catacombs are free. The way down is bought once.

The puzzle is the encounter.

The picture you solve is the monster, treasure, or trap you resolve; the reveal and the risk are one moment.

The gates keep.

The run ends when you fall; every gate you pass is kept, and the record is the deepest gate passed. Every door is a real decision with the run on it.

One seed, one world.

Runs are deterministic; the daily is the same stratum for every diver, with Game Center standings.

Eight vanished peoples and the unbuilt.

Each stratum has its own stone, figures, light and words. Hundreds of figures, every one validated line-solvable at build time.

What you keep shows.

Pass a people's gate and the well can wear their stone; the satchel holds portals, flames, titles.

Craft over volume.

One drawn alphabet, art authored as text and rendered by one engine, haptics on every stone, sixty frames a second, no third-party code.

Ashlar Depths is a stone-fitting dungeon crawl for iPhone and iPad. Every floor is an unfinished course of masonry with a gap in it; fit the cut stones, and the gap turns out to have been a figure all along. It is Nine Fathoms' second game, and it is still being built.