You were right, and the data agreed with you — we checked and about a fifth of all games were dying to the lives system. So we removed it completely: wrong rectangles now just flash and count as a mistake, nothing interrupts the solve anymore.

Finish a level with zero mistakes and the win card marks it Flawless. Thanks for pushing on this one — it’s live now if you want to give it another go: https://gridpaw.com/

Update: we built on this. The Case Trail is live - five linked cases, one Cat Burglar. Solve each scene (two 4x4 warm-ups, then three trickier 6x6 houses), name the room where the killer was caught with the victim, and the clue initials you collect spell out what the burglar was after. Cases are fixed, so everyone works the same five puzzles - progress saves in your browser. https://gridpaw.com/from/lemmy-trail

Update: you asked, we shipped — and the first-case flow got rebuilt.

• The tutorial now teaches by doing: it points at the suspect to pick and highlights the exact tile to place, instead of three paragraphs of rules.
• Wrong taps now explain themselves (that’s furniture / that’s the victim), and the highlighted tile scrolls into view on mobile.
• Also shipped: clearer page titles (Hashi, Two Not Touch), a homepage description that explains Shikaku in one line, and the Hitori crossword answer stated up front.

Full changelog: https://gridpaw.com/from/lemmy-devlog Play Murdoku: https://gridpaw.com/from/lemmy-murdoku

The other two things from your list are live now as well: rooms stay connected in one piece, and every room gets its own floor texture and tint combo, so no more twin rooms. Details are in the changelog if you’re curious. Thanks again for playing so carefully — this round of feedback made the game genuinely better. https://gridpaw.com/changelog/

Update: the corner clue fix just went live. Walls are now only the board edge, so “in a corner” means a real corner again — no more invisible walls between rooms. The other two points (rooms staying connected, more distinct room tiles) are still on the list. Thanks for the kind words, and honestly for the sharp bug report too — https://gridpaw.com/changelog/ has the note if you want the details.

Thanks for digging in, this is genuinely useful. You basically reverse-engineered the corner clue: the engine counts a room boundary as a wall, so two identical tiles from different rooms make what it calls a corner. Agreed the clue wording is misleading, that needs fixing. Disconnected rooms and the tile variety point are both noted too. No dates to promise, but these are the next things going in.

Fair call, you were right. Those pages did have ad units when you first flagged it, and my earlier ‘no ads’ reply was wrong, I hadn’t checked. All ad units are gone as of yesterday, every page re-checked, zero ad scripts left. Fresh link if you want to give it another go: https://gridpaw.com/akari/daily/

Not a scam — that link is our own domain (gridpaw.com): /from/lemmy-dailygames just forwards straight to the daily puzzle page, no ads, no affiliate, no third-party hop. If redirects bug you, the direct link is https://gridpaw.com/akari/daily/

dailyakari.com is a solid site — no argument there. GridPaw bundles Akari together with Shikaku, Pictomino and step-by-step hints on one site, so I think there’s room for both. And ‘slop’ is fair criticism — if there’s anything specific that reads that way to you, I’d honestly like to know.

Thanks for playing and for the streak share — and both points are fair. There’s actually a dedicated daily page at gridpaw.com/akari/daily/ (I’ve updated this post to link straight there — landing new players on the tutorial and making them hunt for the daily was a bad default, that’s on me). The lit-cell contrast is a real one too; the glow is too subtle against the cream board, and a contrast pass for lit rows/columns is on the fix list this week. And yes, the 🔥 in the nav is exactly the daily — you found it.

Quick follow-up since you both took the time to report: the selection feedback got another pass today. The size badge (e.g. 2×2 = 4) now follows your selection and flips to whichever side your finger isn’t covering, so you can read the dimensions mid-drag without lifting a finger. Live on gridpaw.com now; the hosted builds on other portals will pick it up with their next update.

bneu’s 14×14 case is exactly what this is for — if it still feels off on a phone, tell me.

Thank you @ChaoticNeutralCzech and @bneu for the detailed feedback — this is exactly the kind of report that makes the game better, and I’m sorry the lost run felt unfair. All three issues are now fixed and live (just refresh):

🐾 Drag feedback on touch: the selection now shows a solid highlight plus a live “2×3 = 6” size badge below the board, so you always know how many cells you’ve marked — no more counting under your thumb.

🐾 Numbers stay visible: cat ears no longer poke out of placed blocks, and shadows are softer, so numbers in neighbouring cells stay readable on complex boards.

🐾 Fairer lives: a drag that doesn’t frame any number is now treated as a slip — no life lost. Only drags that actually frame a number but break the rules count as a mistake.

Also, if you only tried the daily so far: Classic mode has hand-graded levels from tiny 3×1 warm-ups up to dense expert grids, with a hint system (3 per level) and undo. Would love to hear how it holds up — keep the feedback coming, it really does get patched fast. 🐱