Show HN: FuseCells – a handcrafted logic puzzle game with 2,500 levels
19 points by keini 3 hours ago | 6 comments
Hi everyone, I built FuseCells, a minimalistic logic puzzle game where every level is handcrafted (no procedural generation). It started as a personal challenge to design a clean rule-set and scale it to thousands of puzzles without losing difficulty balance.

What’s unique: • 2,500 handcrafted levels across multiple grid sizes • Deterministic logic — no guessing required • A rule system inspired by constraint-solving and path-finding concepts • Daily challenges and global progress tracking • Fully built as a solo dev project

Technical notes for those curious: • Level generation tools I wrote validate solvability using a custom constraint solver • Difficulty is estimated via step-count of the solver • The game is optimized to run smoothly on low-end devices • Designed first for iOS, now fully adapted for iPad as well

I’d love feedback from puzzle lovers, game designers, and anyone interested in handcrafted logic design. Here’s the App Store link: [inserați linkul]

Thanks for reading — happy to answer any technical questions!

  • keini 3 hours ago |
    Happy to share some technical details for anyone curious:

    I wrote a custom solver to validate each puzzle and estimate difficulty. It works by applying deterministic constraints until the board reaches a stable state. If anyone is interested, I can share the logic flow or even open-source the validator.

    Also curious: does anyone here have experience balancing handcrafted puzzle difficulty at scale?

  • Goofy_Coyote an hour ago |
    Bought and started playing it, I love it.

    One feedback I have is that the instant I get the combination correct and complete a challenge, it suddenly pops up a “congratulations” message with a button to go to the next level, I can’t see my final solution.

    I really want to take a few seconds to see my final solution, study, understand and admire it.

    • keini an hour ago |
      Thank you so much for the feedback really appreciate it! These are still the early versions of the game, and what you’re saying makes complete sense!

      I’ll adjust this behavior in the next release.

      Thanks again! feedback like this really helps!

  • rbits an hour ago |
    Looks cool. I assume it's iOS only? I'd love to play it otherwise, I love logic puzzle games
    • keini an hour ago |
      Thanks! Yes, at the moment it’s iOS only (iPhone/iPad). I’m currently working on Android and a Web version as well — the core engine is portable, so those should follow.

      Really glad to hear you enjoy logic puzzle games!

  • Waterluvian 26 minutes ago |
    I loved how quickly the app started up and immediately had me at an interactive step.

    I think you really need to have 10-20 levels, not 2, before interrupting with the CTA for paying. I had only just learned the basic rules and had no clue if I liked the game or what hints would even be worth to me.

    I was going to comment that the frame rate and responsiveness was oddly bad but when I went back to check a few things it was buttery smooth. Dunno if that was just a weird one-off or something that happens on first launch?

    Let me hide the timer. I know, it’s silly. But it truly affects my enjoyment of nonogram games.

    I like the simple little beeps it makes when toggling. Have you considered picking triads from different keys? This can break the monotony. You could pick a random key each game and different chords from that key!

    Overall this is well done. You should feel proud of your accomplishment!