I'm very pleased to announce that the number of puzzles created by the community has passed the 1,700 mark since the release of Pictopix in 2017! ːishappyː
It's just amazing! I would like to thank all the players who continue to play and create new puzzles on Pictopix. Some puzzles are very fun to play and you have a lot of imagination. As you can see below, some pictures are really nice! (click to enlarge)
So again, I would like to thank all the community of Pictopix for sharing their creations ːisveryhappyː
Halloween
In celebration of Halloween, Pictopix is 33% off on Steam this week!
Feel free to play Halloween themed puzzles if you want to be scared ːsteamhappyː
Update
As usual, fixes and improvements have been made since the last update. Take a look at the changelog (version 1.4.4) to check them out.
I'm very excited to announce that a new free update is available for Pictopix! This update adds new content and foremost a new game mode: the Mosaics Mode! :isstar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVqKxQN_cxE
Mosaics Mode
In this new game mode, you'll have to reveal three large pictures! They are composed of grids of puzzles. Solve the puzzles one after the other for unveiling small parts of the picture. When all of the tiles are completed, the entire image will appear in color!
You can play the puzzles in any order you like or, if you prefer, click on the Shuffle button (upper right corner of the screen) to pick a random puzzle!
As you can see in game, the size of the puzzles vary from one mosaic to another. In the first mosaic, the puzzles are 10 x 10. In the second one, 15 x 15. And 20 x 20 in the last mosaic!
There are more than a hundred of puzzles to solve! Completing the three large mosaics should take several hours. :ishappy:
New Achievements
I also added four new achievements in relation to the Mosaics Mode. The most skilled players among you will probably want to earn all the awards in this mode! :isveryhappy:
I hope you will have fun with the Mosaics Mode! Do not hesitate to give feedback :ishappy:
As usual, you can read the full changelog here (version 1.4.0). I made some minor fixes and improvements in the game.
Once again, I would like to thank the players who help me translate the game. :isheart:
To celebrate the arrival of the Mosaics DLC, Pictopix is on sale for several days! Feel free to share the news with your friends!
I hope you are enjoying some time off with family and relaxing with good games! To celebrate Christmas, I have a gift for you! Some new puzzles and a small update :ishappy:
Christmas puzzles
I've added puzzles of various sizes based on Christmas theme in Pictopix. Go in the Workshop, you will see the new puzzles. Do not hesitate to sort the puzzles by "Christmas" theme if you missed those of the past year!
A little surprise is waiting you when you complete a puzzle on Christmas theme!
Workshop notifications
When you run the game, a notification will now appear on some buttons if new puzzles have been added in the Workshop. The notification will display the number of puzzles created since your last visit.
Besides this new feature, I made some minor tweaks and fixes in the new update (version 1.3.6)
Winter Solstice
Today is winter solstice! If you have (almost) finished the classic mode, perhaps you should take a look at puzzles :ishappy:
Two years old
On 5 January 2019, Pictopix will be 2 years old! Once again, I'd like to thank all of the people who play Pictopix! Thanks for helping me improve the game and translate it in different languages. Thanks for creating hundreds of puzzles in the Workshop. Thank you also for your positive reviews and feedback! :isheart:
It's amazing to see players spending hundreds of hours on Pictopix so it makes me very happy! I hope you will continue enjoying Pictopix :isveryhappy:
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! :isstar:
To celebrate Halloween, I'm really pleased to announce a new update for Pictopix!
Halloween
Like last year, there is a special event hidden in the game! To discover what it is, here's a little hint: go into the Workshop and play a puzzle in the Halloween theme :ishappy:
Feel free to use the search engine to find puzzles quickly!
Henceforth, this event will be active every year over the same period.
I've also created a new puzzle in the Workshop. I hope you'll enjoy it!
Preview filling
In the new update, Pictopix introduces a new feature named "Preview filling". When this one is enabled, now you can preview the squares that you are filling. Hold the button and move the cursor to highlight squares. Then release the button to fill the squares!
A counter is also displayed next to the cursor. It shows the number of squares highlighted. It can be helpful to count them.
This feature works with the mouse, the keyboard or the controller! You can enable "Preview filling" in the game options (Gameplay tab)
Some players were asking me regularly this feature. I was reticent at first because I thought the feature will give an advantage to players in Challenges mode, but it does not. :ishappy:
Interface improvement
In the previous update (version 1.3.4), I added the "Thick line" option in the Interface tab. When you check it, the five-block indicator lines are thicker (thanks constantcompile for the suggestion!)
I also updated some skins and added two new ones ("Classic Dark" and "Amethyst") :
Translation
Once again, I would like to thank the players who help me translate Pictopix in their own language. Sometimes they are not always available so there may be some missing translation. In such cases, feel free to let me know!
As usual, you will find the full changelog here (version 1.3.5).
I hope you are doing well! I'm glad to announce that Pictopix has got a new update with some special features! The first one is the integration of Twitch. Let me introduce this new feature!
Twitch Integration
After several tests and iterations of this feature with the help of a few players and the french streamer Seldell (many thanks to him!), I'm finally satisfied with the Twitch integration.
When the streamers enable this feature, the viewers can interact with the game by typing commands to the Twitch chat!
For example, if a viewer wants to fill the square at coordinates B 4, he just types "!fill B4". The proposal will be displayed on game screen. The streamer can check the proposal ("!fill 15" in the screenshot) before validating or discarding it.
The streamer can also activate an "Autoplay" option and the most submitted actions will be played automatically after a certain period of time!
Following is a list of commands you can type in Twitch chat:
!fill: fill blank squares.
!cross: mark blank squares with crosses.
!mark: mark temporarily blank squares.
!clear: clear blank.
!help: display the commands in chat.
The first four commands can be used in this way:
!fill [letter]: fill a column (for e.g. !fill A)
!fill [number]: fill a row (for e.g. !fill 1)
!fill [letter][number]: fill a square (for e.g. !fill A1)
!fill [letter][number] [letter][number]: fill a line (for e.g. !fill A1 A5)
Streamers can enable Twitch Integration in the game options (Streaming tab):
Enter your Twitch username then click on "Get OAuth" button. This will open a web page ( https://twitchapps.com/tmi/ ). Click on "Connect with Twitch". Copy the text "oauth:...." (press Ctrl+C to copy the selected text) and paste it in "OAuth Password:" field in Pictopix (press Ctrl+V to paste). Then click "Enable Twitch Integration". The username and the OAuth password will be saved and Pictopix will be connected to Twitch. Just start a puzzle to play with your viewers!
I hope you will appreciate this new game mode! Do not hesitate to give feedback about Twitch Integration. :ishappy:
Discord
I've added Rich Presence suppport to Discord. Now you can see which game mode your friends are playing. If one of them is playing Challenge Mode for example, you can join him to try to break his record!
Feel to join the discord of Pictopix if you want to discuss about the game!
Steam Chat
As in Discord, you can see which game mode your friends are playing.
If you want to learn more about the Steam Chat update, you can click this link: https://steamcommunity.com/updates/chatupdate
As usual, many fixes and improvements have been made since the last update. Take a look at the changelog (version 1.3.2) to check them out.
I hope you're all well and that you don't keep on dreaming about small squares… I've been working on a new update – I hope you'll like it. No new puzzles this time but I've added some new game modes: an Endless mode and a Challenges mode!
I'll tell you about them. :ishappy:
Endless mode
In this game mode the grids are generated at random! Choose the size of the grids you want to have and define other parameters. If you prefer square grids of which the size is a multiple of 5, it's possible! You can therefore customize your puzzle as you wish. An abstract image will be shown at the end of each puzzle – with different colors.
The interface of Endless mode
If you want to practice or just do a quick puzzle in Pictopix, Endless mode is a good addition to the puzzles created by the players in the Workshop!
A random generated puzzle
Challenges mode
If what you like is solving puzzles as quickly as possible, Challenges mode is made for you! Different challenges are presented, notably against the clock. Solve a series of four 5x5 puzzles as quickly as possible. Your time will be saved in a leaderboard. Not only can you compare your times with other players but also watch their game! The challenges are renewed every half hour and the leaderboards are stocked for 24 hours.
The Challenges mode interface
As of now there are 4 Time Trials challenges. I may add other kinds of challenges later!
Watch players' games!
New achievements
To mark the occasion, 4 new achievements have been added and 2 have been modified. The 4 new achievements are linked to the Challenges mode. To unlock them, do the challenges in the time allowed.
The other two are "5 ■ 5" and "10 ■ 10". These were originally created when playing puzzles in Shuffle mode (in Classic mode). They are now linked to Endless mode because they are more appropriate to randomly generated puzzles.
Translations
I would like once again to thank the players who translate the game. If you can play Pictopix in your own language, it's thanks to them. Excuse me if some parts of the game have not yet been translated. The players do the translations in their own free time so we must give them time to complete them.
Don't hesitate to thank them personally! Their names are in the game credits.
As always, you'll find the modifications in the changelog (version 1.3.0)
For this rather special day I wanted to build a rather special update for you!
On the face of it the update will look quite inoffensive but maybe when you play a puzzle I've added to the Workshop (theme "Machine" from Tomlab Games) something will happen! Some things might have changed in the game!
To give you a clue, this update involved quite a lot of texts... A big part of them have been translated in some languages, so I would like to thank the translators who have joined in. The task was not easy :ishappy:
With this event, a new achievement will be unlocked and a permanent option will be added to the game options (in the "Gameplay" Tab).
I hope you'll like this little surprise!
As usual some small corrections have been made. You'll find them here (version 1.2.4)
I'll take the opportunity to say that in version 1.2.3 which came out two weeks ago the game's ergonomics were improved. The Options window has been totally redesigned to be more user friendly. Above all, it is now possible to reconfigure the keys on the keyboard, the mouse and even the controller! In the same way, the keyboard shortcuts in the editor can also be modified.
Here I am again with another update! The welcome you gave to the first anniversary update gave me great pleasure. I got several articles in the press (which you can find on twitter or facebook). A website like Rock, Paper, Shotgun did a great article on Pictopix which you can read here.
I would like to thank the players once again for all the positive feedback and remarks which help me to improve the game.
With this new update I will be replying to your expectations. Here are the new features and improvements:
Skins
The other novelty is that you are now able to select the skin of your choice in the options. This will change the color of some parts of the interface as well as the grid. So, if you would like the background color to be darker while you are playing the game, it's now possible.
For those of you who like tinkering with this sort of thing it is possible to add your own skins in the application's Skins directory. (Default path: \Steam\steamapps\common\Pictopix\Pictopix_Data)
Cursor
As from now you can choose between two types of cursor: the original square one and another which lights up the column and the row you are hovering on. On the bigger grids this can be helpful by making it easier to identify the squares or boxes in the row/column concerned.
Selection of numbers
When the hints are disabled it is possible to click on the numbers to gray them out manually. Well this is now possible from the game controller or from the keyboard! It's quite simple – you just have to hold down the LT button or the Alt key. Arrows will come up on the row and column concerned. Select the row or the column with the stick (or the directional arrows) then move along the numbers to gray them out with the A button (or the space bar). When finished release the LT button (or the Alt key) to get the cursor back on the grid.
To see the other modifications and corrections you can consult changelog (version 1.2.1).
If you'd like to see Pictopix on gog.com one day don’t hesitate to vote on the thread created by a player. One never knows!
In closing, I would like to thank Red Orc who has kindly translated the puzzles (Anniversary update) in Japanese.
It is with great pleasure that I present the Anniversary Update! Here's what you'll find in the new version of Pictopix:
45 new puzzles
Bigger puzzles up to 40 x 40
New achievements
New secrets
Zoom button for big grids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRhzB6x_y3Y
According to my tests and calculations the time needed to solve the 45 new puzzles is longer than it was for all 155 initial puzzles! I was astonished to discover that the total playing time is more than doubled with this latest update. I therefore hope that you’ll be happy with it :ishappy:
Quite a lot of modifications and improvements have been made to the game. To see a list of them, consult the change log of the 1.2.0 version.
One of the new puzzles
Once again I'd like to thank the translators who have kindly translated the new puzzles. There are just one language in which the new texts have not yet been translated – Japanese. The translators are players who do this in their free time. I hope you’ll understand that they need time to complete them.
Zoomed grid
Some players have expressed the wish to play a DRM-Free version of Pictopix on gog.com. It’s quite possible to envisage this. Even if the game will lack the Workshop, I could leave the puzzle editor in there. I will study the question before contacting gog.com. In the meantime I suggest you show your interest in Pictopix by voting on this topic created by a player: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/pictopix
If you wish to be informed of the latest news about Pictopix, you can now subscribe to the newsletter: http://pictopix.tomlabgames.com/newsletter
I wish you all a very happy New Year and all the things you could wish yourselves! :isstar:
Pictopix will soon be celebrating its first anniversary! The 5th of January 2018 to be exact. 2017 has been a good year for Pictopix. The game has been well received by the press and by the players. Thanks to your feedback, as the months went by, I was able to improve the game. What is more, you, the players, have created more than 1,000 puzzles in the Workshop!
I'm therefore greatly excited to announce a major update coming out on the 5th of January! There'll be new puzzles, new achievements and playing time more than doubled! There'll also be some surprises.
This update will be free and won't contain loot boxes! I promise!
I will put up some pictures of the update on the social networks so don't hesitate to follow Pictopix on Facebook or Twitter for example.
While waiting for the update, keep your eye on the Workshop! With Christmas coming, I may add some puzzles! Moreover, a Christmas update is available (version 1.1.20).
Wishing you a very merry Christmas and a Happy New year's! :isstar:
