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Game
Game2026
CiniCross
Developer Hydrobates
CiniCross is a dark fantasy roguelite where nonogram puzzles meet dungeon crawling. Solve increasingly complex puzzles, choose your path through a branching dungeon, and bend the rules using powerful artifacts. Each room is a puzzle. Each boss, a deadly challenge. From the Steam store page
268 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Oct 29, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
77
LovedLoved
173 positive · 51 negative
95% range 71–82%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 173 | 51 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 20 | 4 | 16 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 2 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
327 of 394 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
77% recommend · 170 yes, 51 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 221 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (415 of 492 positive).
Players praise the creative mashup of nonograms and roguelike elements. [1][2][3] Many reviewers note the game's balance is uneven, especially with the timer and difficulty scaling. [4][5][6] Some players find the lack of a save system during runs a significant drawback. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [6]
The balance on this game is bonkers. Mostly it's a boss problem. Here are two examples and I wouldn't recommend playing until some balance patches hit: - My first boss was The Shadow. 30% chance to hide clues. On most of the puzzles, it hid enough clues that I was simply forced to guess wildly to gain enough information to fill the puzzle. I might have had a really unlucky 30% but it was a misery and I only just …
- [1]
Normally I play Picross/nonograms to relax. This one ain't relaxing, but it's loads of fun. CiniCross basically throws nonograms at you one after another with a Slay the Spire-type progression map, where you acquire artifacts and purchase consumables. Very simple, very fun. The twist is that there's a time limit and hit points involved. Make mistakes and you take damage. Run out of time and you begin to take damage. …
- [4]
I wish there was a 'neutral' option because this is a really neat premise and I think it has the sauce, but its balance is absolutely all over the place. The puzzle generation seems heavily weighted to keep from giving you 'dead giveaway' lines on more complex puzzles, which, coupled with the kill timer, can make tier 4 and 5 puzzles impossible to complete in time without significant upgrades. This does, sometimes, …
- [7]
It's fun. I do recommend for the sheer creativity and if you like picross. But It needs urgently a save file system. I don't want to have to play the full run at once. This is not how I play games.
- [3]
I don't need to play more to know that this is extraordinary. A dream game. Slick, superb and excellent. Bosses are as fun as they can be troubling. Gameplay loop is awesome. Difficulty levels, classes, items and all. That is the Balatro of Nonograms and that's the best nonogram game I've played, ever. This is the game I will sink most of my hours in 2026, for sure. Amazing !
Summarised from 34 of the 262 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 13, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
77% of the 221 Steam reviewers we collected recommend CiniCross. The complaint that keeps coming up: balance is all over the place, especially with timer and difficulty. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Reactions
60 of 268 · most liked firstThe balance on this game is bonkers. Mostly it's a boss problem. Here are two examples and I wouldn't recommend playing until some balance patches hit: - My first boss was The Shadow. 30% chance to hide clues. On most of the puzzles, it hid enough clues that I was simply forced to guess wildly to gain enough information to fill the puzzle. I might have had a really unlucky 30% but it was a misery and I only just barely survived. - My second boss on the next run left bombs (timers) on cells…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Needs either gameplay revision or major balance changes. Most higher floor runs succeed via making the time a nonfactor with a 0x multiplier and then getting enough random relics to where you actually get more out of making mistakes and taking damage than actually solving the puzzles. It's a good concept for a game but the execution needs to be looked at again. I would love for this to work but it really doesn't in it's current state.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really hate to give this a bad review because this is an incredible idea that I wish had been done sooner, but the execution really falls apart. The game at first seems very interesting, it has a good variety of items and artifacts that seem to cater to different play styles. It has a cool retro aesthetic. But once you dig a little deeper things don't seem as rosy. The game seems to do a lot to cater to people who might be new to picross puzzles, to the point where at a sufficiently high…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →New Steam Games with Native Linux Builds, including Cinicross and Shadows of the Afterland - 2026-02-11 Edition.
neutral · AI labelView post →I hate to vote this game down, since I like these dungeon crawl roguelikes, and I like nonograms, and honestly, the gameplay idea is sound. Problem is the game itself just isn't very fun to play. One of the issues I have is the timer. In other games I find nonograms to be a relaxing way to pass time, but here when you have a timer going, especially at earlier floors, the game becomes stressful races against time, which gets incredibly frustrating. While at later floors, the reverse happens,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TL;DR Good Nanogram game ( but how could you miss that part?) Bad roguelike First of all, i'm huge fan of nanogram game and i was very excited to experiment the roguelike twist. But sadly i think the game suffer from a bad game design choice. It does'nt offert enough diversity of build, class does'nt offer a specific gameplay because you could loot each class starting loot. You end up each time with the same item and i think you could'nt loose with specific class. For example in the last…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Please send help. They found my kryptonite. My one weakness. You are looking at a woman who has at least 5000 cumulative hours wasted across dozens of nonogram games and hundreds of hours playing rogue style game. Peanut butter in my chocolate? Rogue elements in my nonograms? I never stood a chance.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Normally I play Picross/nonograms to relax. This one ain't relaxing, but it's loads of fun. CiniCross basically throws nonograms at you one after another with a Slay the Spire-type progression map, where you acquire artifacts and purchase consumables. Very simple, very fun. The twist is that there's a time limit and hit points involved. Make mistakes and you take damage. Run out of time and you begin to take damage. Boss fights require you to complete nonograms to damage them. Normally I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i loved the demo. hard nonogram game and the time pressure gave me the incentive try and solve them as fast as possible. Turns out that the demo was more than than the full game. Balancing is a mess. Game ranges from too easy to impossible. A few bosses should not be in the game, I have no idea what the dev was thinking. I thought the full version would a useful leveling system that would give me the tools to win over later stages but it's not great as it stands right now.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wish there was a 'neutral' option because this is a really neat premise and I think it has the sauce, but its balance is absolutely all over the place. The puzzle generation seems heavily weighted to keep from giving you 'dead giveaway' lines on more complex puzzles, which, coupled with the kill timer, can make tier 4 and 5 puzzles impossible to complete in time without significant upgrades. This does, sometimes, result in runs where you just get completely screwed by the generation, at…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Look, it's not a bad game. But in its current state, I can't recommend it. First, game balance is okay for the first levels, but once you get some way of reducing the time multiplier or get free time, the time pressure aspect goes completely out of the window, and if you keep pressing forward the game completely breaks and you literally can't lose. Not like in a buggy manner, it's just that the HP healing gets way faster than any damage your mistakes may cause. It may work for like a power…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Check out the demo for CiniCross if you enjoy roguelikes and nonogram styled puzzles #CiniCross #IndieGames #PCGaming #PuzzleGames #Roguelikes
neutral · AI labelView post →Kinda 50/50 on recommending or not, so I'll call it a "wait for updates" for now. As a whole it can be a ton of fun once you adapt your brain to taking risks and playing around hp. Promo material doesn't do a good enough job of emphasizing how important the timer is, so be wary of that. Your enjoyment of this game will very much depend on how ready you are to work under pressure and time constraints. Items can be cool, but a lot of them are clearly balanced with endless mode in mind and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love this game, but hate the gameplay after you save and exit. When I save and exit, I expect my game to keep the powerups and timer as it was after I left. When I save and exit, it keeps my power ups, but the time saved does not carry over and it resets it instead. When continuing from a high floor after saving and quitting, you will run out of time, which leads to losing health and wasting your power ups. if the intention of this game was to beat it in one 'sitting' then you shouldnt have…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →DO NOT JUDGE THIS GAME BY THE DEMO. I don't know if the demo was an early build demo or what, but the main game has different rooms, items, and balance from the literal start that addresses so many issues in the demo. Number 1 among these is better ways to use your money and letting you fight the timer. If the demo caught you at all, try the main game. The devs have done themselves so dirty representing their game that way. IMO better to remove the demo entirely and let the positive…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I genuinely don’t have the heart to downvote this one because it’s a wildly creative mashup of nonograms/picross and roguelite dungeon crawling in a gritty dark fantasy world. One of which I love the idea, but perhaps not the execution. So, I guess this is more of a neutral review above anything else. And it definitely taught me two things: 1) I’m really dumb sometimes, and 2) I get even dumber the more I’m under pressure and/or panicking… Descending in rooms where puzzles vary in size,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's fun. I do recommend for the sheer creativity and if you like picross. But It needs urgently a save file system. I don't want to have to play the full run at once. This is not how I play games.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm a big Picross head. Hundreds if not thousands of hours across the DS and 3DS games and the various nonogram games on Steam. What I really, really like about Picross is the feeling of methodically untangling a nonogram's knot. CiniCross is not built around that. It rewards speed above all else, and late enough in a given run, it is basically solving the puzzles for you. I frequently found myself just quitting the game before letting an endless run reach its logical conclusion, because I was…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mixed feelings about this one Think the idea is good but execution drops the ball late game Overall the core concept is fun and neat The execution makes early/mid game great but wow late game is boring and Endless mode is straight up a chore (Got the beat level 15 achievement and probably never touching endless again). The bosses' gimmicks are surprisingly neat too and only a handful don't really matter or are annoying without being interesting The early game is great: You're fighting…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was willing to try on the prospect of the mechanics, but this game feels bad to play. The 8 bit graphics are a detriment, it's hard to read the numbers. The non-picross events don't feel super meaningful, and the picross...is bad.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Making a roguelike out of a game like Picross/nonograms is a pretty challenging endeavour - the puzzles themselves have to be solvable without guessing, so the balance of the game needs to add challenge even for players making no logical errors. Unfortunately, I feel that Cinicross pushes too much towards the timer as the main balancing mechanic in a way that drowns out the rest of it. The once-per-floor nodes to buy items reducing the time multiplier place too many constraints on player…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Check out the demo for CiniCross if you enjoy roguelikes and nonogram styled puzzles https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/01/check-out-the-demo-for-cinicross-if-you-enjoy-roguelikes-and-nonogram-styled-puzzles/ #CiniCross #IndieGames #PCGaming #PuzzleGames #Roguelikes
neutral · AI labelView post →I'm not sure this combo works at all? Like picross is my favorite puzzle game and so many of my favorite games are roguelikes, but I like those two genres for such different reasons that they end up mixing like water and oil. I was optimistic at the thought of learning to enjoy playing picross puzzles fast, but in the end I just found it a bit miserable, like taking time to think was a worse choice than trial-and-erroring. Of what I played I can't imagine the gameplay varying much from run to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →CiniCross is a good picross game, because there’s a timer display that is very good at telling me that I’m fast at picross in exciting ways
positive · AI labelView post →This game is good but it could be great. The glaring issue for me it's using time as tax: it currently scales too harshly in higher difficulties, and having tested playing without it in peaceful runs makes the game too easy. It's probably not an easy thing to balance. Some power-ups are boring but coming up with power-ups for picross must not be easy. Overall I like this game and I think it's worth its price
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love the idea of the game and the components are really fun, but the time component COMPLETELY RUINS THE GAME. I don't care that I can get stuff to increase time or to slow time down. Being rushed to solve larger puzzles (10x10+) in the first level when I don't have anything to make time go slower is infuriating, especially when I get debuffs like "not being able to place a cross" which massively slows me down even more. If there was a mode which didn't have this time component, I'd buy the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →(Review as of patch 1.0.3) CiniCross is a really interesting game because it enforces a very different approach to solving Nonograms: probabilistic solving. More specifically, in this game you have to manage time and a health pool as two key additional resources. The health pool acts as a resource to allow you to make mistakes. Because the time you are given is VERY tight (until you get into the last 1/3rd of a run), you essentially cannot physically afford to try and solve a nonogram…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is fun, but it's as much about RNG as it is about intelligence. At the higher levels, you are literally playing pattern recognition, educated guessing, and a willingness to lose health. There's no other way to kill these giant puzzles in the time limit otherwise.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Speed nonograms with artifacts to create different effects like marking squares for you, etc. Very difficult for me since I do not move quickly. Encourages guessing because taking damage from errors is better than running out of time. Fun, but not for me.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Oh, yes. First of all, disclaimer; I've been playtesting this on and off since the earliest released versions. I didn't get the retail version for free, I did buy it. Take that as you will. I love a good picross game, and there's nothing wrong with the classic way of doing things; a big list of puzzles, pick one, take your time figuring it out, and then when you finish you get a pretty picture. Nothing wrong with that at all. But... If you want that, you already have it. There are a billion…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I didn't know what pain and despair was until I fought a late game Leech.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →CiniCross (Altego) "CiniCross is a roguelike puzzle game set in a dark fantasy universe." PWYC to download on itch.io - Windows: warpdoor.com/2026/08/28/c...
neutral · AI labelView post →Will recommend because there aren't that many enjoyable games with nonograms. However, the game felt heavily skewed towards rng rather over nonogram solving skills. Some of the classes are a lot harder than others, felt aimless and time consuming at the end. Finished the whole game regardless.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A roguelike picross game sounds right up my alley. However, a few things hold this game back. For example, you can't save during runs but have to beat floor 15 for one of the achievements. Has some very grindy and very challenging achievements. Approximate time to 100%: Unsure, as it is luck and skill-based, both at the same time. I would expect it to take over 20 hours, even when you're a pro at Picross/Nanogram games. Estimated achievement difficulty: 8/10 Minimum number of playthroughs…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love picross but didn't enjoy this. Randomized 5x5 images grids take up most of the early part of the game. Uninteresting pickups and, worst of all, doesn't have the ability to save a run and come back later.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really cool game and can be a lot of fun, but there are huge balancing issues that keep me from recommending. On the normal difficulty on floor 1 you will sometimes be forced into level 5 puzzles. Because you can only clear a few puzzles prior you will have nearly no items and this pretty much leads to an auto-lose. Even worse, I've had my first nodes be level 3 or 4 puzzles. I'm sure if you were great at nonograms you could still clear these, but it's a pretty big slap in the face for new…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is broadly well implemented and does what I think it intends to do, but that just isn't really what I wanted. The gameplay comes down to being fundamentally an autoclicker for nonograms. The early stages/simpler puzzles are totally human solvable, but once you start to spin up the upgrades the game shifts more and more towards summoning helpers that fill in some of the squares for you. You in theory could forgo these upgrades and play the game directly, but the later bosses are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Started out fun but the timer is enough to cause stress. The boss who kept removing tile solutions were just annoying.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's pretty alright for a bunch of quick, small nonogram puzzles. Runs feel very snowball-y, I've had a couple in endless mode reach a point where I could just fill in random squares and outheal any penalties for mistakes but I haven't unlocked higher difficulties yet so maybe that's worse. The bosses that require you to solve several puzzles with unique gimmicks like not being able to cross out tiles or randomly flipping the board are the best part of the game. I like the idea of being able to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Difficulty scaling seems bugged maybe? Frequently run into 15x15 tables on my first stage. Even using a machine solver and the pause button I still can't clear those in the time allotted. Similarly I get more chances to expand my inventory or sacrifice an item than I do item drops. The game could be cool if they tuned it, but right now it's mostly just a neat idea. Skip for now, come back in 6 months.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this is brilliant! way better than the demo and I already loved the demo, however I was disappointed to not be able to save, I thought that would just be a demo thing. is there a way to save and quit a run and I've just missed it? if not I really think that should be added, I'm prepared to sink more time into a game if I can save and it's probably like that for a lot of people. I'll definitely be playing this a lot though. really recommend playing. even if you're good at nonograms its really…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like it. But bigger grids are hard to read for this grandma.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is very fun, but the endless mode is terrible. Your abilities get so powerful that you can just randomly click cells and complete the puzzle without losing health or time. Additionally, the difficulty scaling doesn't actually make the floors harder, it just makes the boss way longer. As insult to injury, you only gain XP when you die, but once you get to a certain floor it becomes impossible to die. I think if the endless mode was fixed this could be a very fun game since the core…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I played the demo for hours before deciding to buy this game. However, the demo is a much different game from the final game. The final game added alot of irritating boss mechanics. The difficulty in the demo is largely nerfed by the abundance artifact you will collect through the run. Its so easy to become overpowered now that I can simply drag and open all squares to go through a stage. Largely unbalanced, the demo was a much better game than the final product.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Look, it's fun to a point. But it also unfortunately embodies the Vampire Survivors/Balatro model of run-based games. Flashy numbers and an incomprehensible machine that quickly eliminates the actual nonogram element. My later, higher level runs were being won by clicking randomly. Yes, because of a machine I had crafted, but actually good runners integrate builds and the actual encounters in balance. My bitterness is not helped by the out-of-place gambling aesthetic; despite a lonely delve…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I can't convey how fucked up of a game CiniCross is. If you play picross/nonograms you understand
positive · AI labelView post →As a nonogram enjoyer, I enjoyed this nonogram game. Overall, I like the concept enough to recommend it, but a couple patches that balance difficulty and QoL would definitely be nice. There are problems in here. The one that bothered me the most is that difficulty levels are locked to classes. Just beat difficulty 5 as a Peasant and want to keep pushing as another class? Not possible, you need to beat that difficulty again on that class. Edit: That got patched, GG. Still, there's many slow…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cannot recommend this purely because this isn't a true picross game. This is more akin to the millions of other derivative roguelike games where a specific gimmick (e.g., slot machines, poker, pachinko) is used for novelty only. More often than not, the optimal strategy to beat this game involves rushing through each picross and healing through the mistakes you make to preserve as much time as possible. This game is also quite grind-heavy, with rewards for clearing the newest tier being some…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I want this game to do well, so leaving a negative review to hopefully see these things fixed. 1) There seems to be no balancing for hard puzzles showing up early, which can just be an auto-lose. No human is "good enough" at picross to solve a 20x20 in <5 minutes if it shows up as your only choice in the first floor. 2) I don't know if the game is meant to be balanced in endless mode, however, not only is it not balanced (infinitely recurring golden fish makes the game solve itself pretty…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Most of my initial complaints about the game have resolved, but I'm realizing that I'm not really excited to come back to this game to finish the higher difficulties. Even when you can pause in between floors in runs, I find that most of the time, you're just hoping you get a string of time multiplier reductions together to the point that time isn't an issue, then you focus on becoming invincible for the majority of bosses. Difficulties being over a dozen floors is NOT as interesting as other…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't need to play more to know that this is extraordinary. A dream game. Slick, superb and excellent. Bosses are as fun as they can be troubling. Gameplay loop is awesome. Difficulty levels, classes, items and all. That is the Balatro of Nonograms and that's the best nonogram game I've played, ever. This is the game I will sink most of my hours in 2026, for sure. Amazing !
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hubris is a noun that means "an extreme arrogance or unwarranted self-confidence". In fiction, hubris is often the hallmark of a tragic hero whose sordid tale is one of strength and glory, with pride coming before a fall. It could also be a villainous trait, for one whose successes in the early acts lead to an inattentive state wherein he is hoisted on his own petard in the finale. Hubris takes many forms. Consumers of fiction often point to hubris as an enjoyable theme to see, if not its…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A lot of fun, if you like Picross-style puzzles. I thought I was pretty good at them and getting kind of bored of clones, but the additional mechanics in this add whole new levels to the gameplay. It felt a bit like starting all over, in a good way.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have achieved an infinite run in CiniCross, the game basically plays itself for me, I have no timer drain, and I have racked up 596 minutes on my timer I love limit testing :3c
positive · AI labelView post →It's a cute little game! I think you can only save and quit after beating a boss though, so, make a little time for it The bosses do some decent lifting at making boxes and crosses more exciting The harder difficulty nodes are, a bit rough for me, but you can make plenty of mistakes and get away with it, so no worries there HOWEVER It does kind of just devolve into the items playing the game for you, after a while (cough cough vampire cough cough) It'd be far from the only roguelite to be that…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →On paper, this was dangerously checking all my boxes. Certainly not a cozy puzzle experience, but there is fun to be had. Once I figured out how to break the timer and abuse the trash mechanic, the game became super trivial even at the higher difficulties. A great start for a Picross Nonogram rogue-like but there are limits to what bonus work for these types of puzzles. Bosses add some neat tricks except the one that forbid crosses and the other that flipped the meaning of the clues - they…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really was very skeptical of a "roguelike" nanogram game... But I've been having a lot of fun playing this, and it does some really interesting things with each boss fight. I've had to really re-think how I solve a puzzle for some of the bosses, it's been a fun challenge. :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →ok, so you like balatro and you worked in a call center in the mid 2000s and played picross way too much to pass your shifts. Is this game hard? Nope. Current run I have 900mins, level 12, and have 2 of the artifacts maxed out. Is it great for shut your brain off and fill square noise happen? yes. And that's all you need sometimes.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Wrong game for me. As far as I can see, all puzzles are timed. *** EDIT: There's a "Pacifist Timer" option in settings, where the timer no longer reduce HP. Still not the intended way the game is supposed to be played.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →CiniCross by @altego.itch.io, a roguelike picross game [PC] Turn everything you know about picross on its head. Descend into a dungeon where each level gets more complex and new rules change the game. #indiegame
neutral · AI labelView post →
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