Katazome

About Katazome

Katazome, by haruyasu, takes its name and look from Japanese stencil dyeing. The board is a grid of cloth cells, and each cell steps through four shades: raw, pale, mid and deep indigo, then back to raw. Place a stencil block and every cell it covers goes one shade darker. Dye the whole board deep indigo and the stage is cleared. Each cell also shows its shade as a count of dots, so colour is never the only clue.

The main mode is a run. Moves are shared across the whole run rather than per stage, and between stages you pick one card from four kinds (resource, power, stage condition, gamble). Every fifth stage is a Gate, where the board grows and the goal becomes a pattern such as stripes or a checkerboard. You choose one of five dyers, ten difficulty ranks per level, and boards from 3x3 to 6x6, and at the end of each layer you decide whether to bank your coins or carry them deeper.

The daily is Today's Cloth. The date sets the run, so everyone plays the same problem that day, with one twist such as no take-backs or no hints. Scores go on daily, weekly, monthly and all-time boards, and each run's moves are replayed on the server before they count. After you have played, you can watch how the top players solved the day's problem move by move. A day streak counts the days you dyed the daily, with one rest day a month, and a Today's hard spot puzzle replays the board where most people stopped the day before.

The game runs in the browser in portrait and works on phones. It needs no account and shows no ads or purchases; the leaderboard is optional and only sends a nickname you choose. Without a connection the game still plays, just without the boards. Sixty set puzzles are there for days when you do not want a full run.

How to play Katazome

1. Open Katazome on itch.io and choose Dailies to start Today's Cloth.
2. Pick a stencil block from the tray and place it on the board; every cell it covers goes one shade darker.
3. Remember that shades wrap around: a deep indigo cell covered again goes back to raw.
4. Turn every cell deep indigo before the run's moves run out, choosing one card between stages.
5. Submit your score to the daily board, then watch the top players' moves if you want to compare.

Screenshots

Tips

• Read the dots on each cell: they show how many more coats it needs.
• Spend moves carefully early on; the pool is shared by the whole run, not refilled per stage.
• On Gate stages, plan for the pattern goal, since not every cell should end deep indigo.
• Check the day's twist before you start; a no-undo day rewards a slower first move.
• Bank coins at the end of a layer if your moves are running low.

Questions