Ritratto: Nonogram Detective

You are the police sketch artist. Shade the grid until every number fits, and the face you have drawn is the culprit. The evidence decides which numbers you get, and a lying witness hands you numbers that can never fit.

THE GRID IS THE EVIDENCE
Somebody painted a curly moustache on the mayor's statue. Somebody else walked off with forty pizzas. Every case is a picture logic puzzle with a culprit inside it. The column numbers are always there, and so are the numbers for the plain rows of the face. The rows of the features, the headwear, the eyes, the nose, the chin and the collar, show a question mark until the evidence speaks for them. Apply a card that claims a top hat, a monocle or a handlebar moustache, and the artist sketches the claim in: that band's numbers appear.

FORENSICS NEVER LIE. WITNESSES MIGHT.
The lab is always right. A witness may not be. A lie's numbers can never all fit the columns: work the lines and one of them turns red, and the shading tells you who lied. Strike the card and its numbers leave again. Some bands have no card at all. Only the columns can tell you what is there, and that feature is something you learn by drawing it.

WHO MATCHES THE SKETCH?
Shade the last square and your pencil drawing comes to life in colour. Five faces stand in the line-up, and exactly one of them matches. Some differ from the culprit by a single feature, and on the higher ranks that feature is one only your finished sketch can settle. Pick the wrong face and you get a nudge, nothing more: the case stays open until you name the right one.

EVERY CASE IS PROVEN FAIR
No guessing, ever. Before a case reaches you, the game proves that the true evidence draws exactly one picture by plain line logic, that every lie breaks the numbers, and that only one face in the line-up fits.

FOUR RANKS, EARNED
Rookie is a ten by ten sketch where every witness tells the truth. Detective grows to twelve by twelve, and one witness argues with the lab. Inspector is fourteen by fourteen, with a liar nobody contradicts and a band with no card. Chief is fifteen by fifteen, with two liars and features only the grid can reveal. Finish ten cases at one rank and the next one opens.

CASES WITHOUT END
Cases are generated, not hand counted, so there is always another face to draw. The ranks rotate through twelve light-hearted town mysteries, from the vanished prize cake to the missing garden gnomes. And case 12 on your phone is case 12 on every phone, same evidence, same culprit, so you can compare sketches with a friend.

A PENCIL THAT PLAYS FAIR
Tap a square to shade it or drag along a row, cross out the squares you know are blank, pinch to zoom the biggest grids and undo anything. Numbers turn grey as their runs close. No countdown, no lives, no failing. When a case has you stuck, a hint catches a liar you applied or sketches one whole row, and it is only spent when it helps. Hints come from short ads you choose to watch or from hint packs in the store; no case ever needs one.

A CAST WORTH DRAWING
The witnesses are a hand drawn cast, from Chef Bruno and Nonna Pia to Whiskers the Cat and Professor Hoot, and every case is a family friendly caper: painted statues, swapped street signs and missing cakes. Nobody ever gets hurt.

TEN SPECIAL CASE PACKS
Santa hats and antlers, witch hats and vampire fangs, crowns and ruffs, ski goggles, clown wigs and cowboy hats. Seven themed packs of 32 cases each climb from Rookie to a Mastermind finale, and three extreme packs hold 32 Mastermind cases each on fifteen by fifteen grids.

Portrait, one hand, sixteen languages, and it plays offline.

Ritratto is free, funded by a full screen ad between some cases. Optional extras stay optional: hint packs and ten special case packs, plus free hints for watching ads. No subscription, and no account to create.

Recent changes:
New: remove the ads. Subscribe monthly or yearly from the store and the ads between games are gone, while the videos you choose to watch for a reward stay. Plus minor improvements and fixes.