thanks for the clarification. appreciated.

Nope, he was not. In fact, neither of us had even heard of nonograms until late 2008 when while doing some publicity for our first book, someone mentioned to me a similar puzzle game called Picross. After that, we found a whole family of games similar to our creation, in a genre known as nonograms. We then adapted our direction slightly and continue to push forward with the Shady Puzzle. In a sense, it’s a bit easier for us now because there are communities of puzzlers out there who are already interested in these puzzles.

Oh, I almost forgot, one of our adapted objectives was to help build the community surrounding these puzzles as well. We have been actively in contact with various nonogram and hanjie makers since discovering them and are always seeking to collaborate with them in helping this particular puzzle community grow. Our goal is to raise awareness for this family of puzzles, because as puzzle developers, it can only help us!

So it wouldn’t look good if we even *try* to disassociate ourselves from them! =) Have a look at our twitter friends (connect from shadypuzzle.com blog), which include nonograms and griddlers (another form of the game) – we even included them in our description. The Twitter page is only just starting to grow though..

just one question. was dr mark aware of nonogram when he was developing shady puzzle?

My name is Ivan, and I am the co-writer of the Shady Puzzle book. I’d like to assure readers that the Shady Puzzle as a concept was independently created by Dr. Nowacki for his university logic course several years ago in late 2004. The Shady Puzzle name is a registered trademark here in Singapore and the creation of Shady Puzzles, as well as the printing and manufacturing of Shady Puzzle books are done locally.

We happily acknowledge that nonograms, picross, paint by numbers, hanjie (also independently created themselves and with slightly different goals) had already existed when we created the puzzles. We were even about to apply for IP rights until we discovered these ourselves – imagine our own personal disappointment! So even though we won’t claim full originality over the concept, we still claim they were independently created by Dr. Nowacki right here in Singapore, for his SMU classes, because that’s true.

You can read about the various many forms of these puzzles and how some of their creators invented them across the Internet. However, this Wikipedia page is a good place to start to check out many of the puzzle variants in this genre and their slight differences. Rest assured we will be including the Shady Puzzle’s Singapore story into that entry very soon as well.

With puzzles based on logic, which is common standard across cultures, there are bound to be overlaps in thought and design every now and then. Despite our own disappointment at this not being a unique invention like we had initially thought, we are passionate about this being a great puzzle concept and will push it even further (with more developments instore over the next few months!) Our minions, erm sorry, ‘helpers’ (many of whom are students helping out part-time) have already started working on new shapes and more difficult concepts for puzzlers to master. So expect some crazy stuff soon!

What Mark and I tell ourselves: Both Alexander Graham Bell and Antonio Meucci independently created the telephone – it’s just that Bell had better marketing! And we hope to do just that, with the Shady Puzzle! So if you want to find out more about what makes the Shady Puzzle distinct from all those others that came before, do check out some of our humble but fun marketing –> Blog here: http://www.shadypuzzle.com/ run by some university undergraduates. All help will be appreciated to make this big internationally!

And talking about mistakes, by completing a Doctorate in Engineering (and a Master’s Degree in Mathematics), I guess the article should be referring to me as Dr, not Mr! (I am just kidding here, as I do not expect everyone to know my qualifications!)

Please refer to our website http://www.mindstratpuzzles.com (which will soon be professionally renovated) for future events or puzzles. We really have big plans! Regards from Perth.

Thank you for taking your time to clarify things with us.
It is good to know the concept was designed in Singapore and you guys are branding Singapore with your puzzles.

It us just that the misleading article and inaccurate claims by the main stream media made me raise a few questions on the subject.

First the journalist claims Dr Mark to be the creator of the nanogram. He then mentions the nanogram is a “unique concept crafted in singapore 10 mths back”. Which clearly is not.

Due the top half of the article being dodgy, it made me question the reliability of the bottom half which mentions the cubedron.

Again, thank you for clarifying with us.
I wish you all the best with your future puzzles.

-Benjamin

oh you are from another company. cool. my question should be directed to dr mark instead. sounds dodgy, don’t you think?

gravity puzzles seems pretty neat! all the best to you guys!!! i might buy one if it’s reasonably priced.

puzzle hub…hmmm….pretty relevant to human capital only singapura. niche niche!