Custom Made Pic a Pix Puzzle

Pic a Pix is a logical number-based grid puzzle (like sudoku, for example), but this particular puzzle rewards you when you solve it!

Behind every puzzle is a pixel-based picture which shows itself properly only when one solves it correctly. the bigger and harder the puzzle, the better the picture will look/

This type of puzzle has accompanied me ever since I learned how to solve it, somewhere around the age of 10. My best friend and I were the only ones around who knew how to solve it back then, so we had fun creating custom made pictures / messages that were basically coded for everyone else.

Nothing is better than having a secret code with your best friend!

Checkered paper

Pencil / Pen

The first stage is choosing what you want the puzzle to show once completed.

It can be a picture of a person, landscape, object or some text.

FIY the more complicated the picture, the harder it is to encode it into the puzzle, so start by using small simple things such as text, or shapes.

Try choosing something that will "pixelate" nicely - I recommend text for starters.

Once you've chosen what you want the puzzle to encode, try and draw it on a checkered page only by filling out the squares.

Often it takes a few tries to get it to look good, so don't give up!

Now that you know what your puzzle will look like when it is solve, it is time for some methodical work.

Decide on the size of the puzzle and draw the grid (most times, the bigger the picture, the better its "resolution", but when dealing with text, it doesn't really matter).

Draw your pixelated picture inside the grid.

This is how the puzzle will to look like if solved correctly

Almost done!

time to input the main element of "Pic a Pix" - the numbers.

If you are familiar with the rules of the puzzle, then you already understand how to fill in the number appropriately. If not, then maybe you should learn how to solve them before creating your own :)

The last thing to do is to empty the grid.

You can either erase it thoroughly (only if you used a pencil to draw out the picture to begin with), draw a new grid and copy only the numbers, or even use a blank "Excel" sheet to create a new grid which you could simply print.

That's it, you're done!

Now you can give your custom puzzle to anyone you want to share your picture with.