Make your own puzzles for Picross 3D: Round 2.
Ever wished Picross 3D: Round 2 had more puzzles to play?
PictoPlus lets you create your own 3D puzzles, collect them into books and play them on your Nintendo 3DS or with Azahar. Build something from scratch, experiment with 3D models, and share your creations with friends.
It's a little fan-made project for anyone who loves the game and wants to keep creating.
v0.9 Beta
Download for Windows · USA SD Loader · Release notes
Build your own 3D puzzles
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Preview the finished model
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Fine-tune your puzzle's difficulty
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Collect puzzles into your own books
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- Create your own 3D puzzles - Build with blue cubes and yellow shapes, working freely in 3D or one layer at a time.
- Import 3D models - Turn existing models into puzzles or attach them as the finished reveal. Conversion is still experimental, so some manual editing may be needed.
- Make puzzles as easy or tricky as you like - Preview and fine-tune clues for Easy, Medium and Hard, with tools to check whether your puzzle can be solved without guessing.
- Build your own puzzle books - Organise up to 210 puzzles per book, with custom covers, artwork, names and descriptions.
- Play on your 3DS or PC - Export your creations and play them in Picross 3D: Round 2 using a Nintendo 3DS or the Azahar emulator.
- Share your creations - Send
.pictobookfiles to friends so they can play your puzzles or open them in PictoPlus to edit. - Keep your progress - The loader saves your progress and avoids rebuilding books that haven't changed.
Your custom puzzles become part of Picross 3D: Round 2, complete with their own books, artwork and finished 3D models.
These screenshots were captured using Azahar with the PictoPlus USA loader.
Your own books in the game
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Browse and play your puzzles
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See your creations come to life
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PictoPlus preparing your setup
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You'll need:
- A Windows 10 (22H2 or newer) or Windows 11 PC, 64-bit.
- A Nintendo 3DS with Luma3DS, or the Azahar emulator.
- A legally obtained USA copy of Picross 3D: Round 2.
The public PictoPlus loader currently supports the USA version of the game. EUR development is separate.
Download PictoPlus for Windows.
Extract the entire ZIP to a folder on your computer and open PictoPlus.exe.
Keep all the included files together. PictoPlus needs them to run correctly.
Download the PictoPlus USA SD Loader.
Extract its luma and PictoPlus folders to the root of your 3DS SD card, keeping the original folder structure.
Enable plugin loading in Luma3DS:
- Turn on your 3DS and open the Rosalina menu by pressing
L + D-Pad Down + Select. - Find Plugin Loader and set it to Enabled.
- Press
Bto exit the menu.
Now launch your legally obtained USA copy of Picross 3D: Round 2.
On first launch, PictoPlus can prepare a setup file using your installed game.
Once it's finished, return the SD card to your computer and import this file into the Windows app:
SD:/PictoPlus/PictoPlus-Setup.pictosetup
You only need to do this once.
Already used PictoPlus before? You can import an existing valid setup file instead. There's no need to generate it again. If you're reinstalling the loader and want to skip generation, the SD package includes an optional skip file. See the installation guide.
Keep your setup file private. It contains resources from your game and should never be shared.
No ROM dump or manual save editing is needed for the normal physical 3DS setup.
Open PictoPlus and start making puzzles.
Once you've created a book, go to Book Library, select it and choose Export / install.
Copy the exported .pictobook file to:
SD:/PictoPlus/Books/
Put your SD card back into your 3DS, launch the game and enjoy your creations!
You only need to install the loader once. You can add more books whenever you like.
Prefer playing on your PC? PictoPlus also works with Azahar, the Nintendo 3DS emulator.
PictoPlus has been successfully tested with Azahar 2126.2, using the USA version of the game.
You'll need a legally obtained USA copy of Picross 3D: Round 2.
- Open Azahar and go to Emulation → Configure → System.
- Enable 3GX Plugin Loader.
- Go to File → Open Azahar Folder and locate the
sdmcfolder. - Extract the PictoPlus USA SD Loader into
sdmc, keeping its folder structure intact. - Copy your
.pictobookfiles intosdmc/PictoPlus/Books/. - Launch your USA copy of Picross 3D: Round 2.
Using portable Azahar? Your virtual SD card may be located at:
Azahar/user/sdmc/
The exact location depends on your installation, so using File → Open Azahar Folder is the easiest way to find it.
You don't need Luma3DS installed inside Azahar. The emulator has its own 3GX plugin loader.
Compatibility may vary between emulator versions. The PictoPlus USA loader is not intended for other game regions.
Not sure where to start? I've put together an Animals Puzzle Pack with 15 puzzles, featuring everything from a hummingbird to a hippopotamus.
It's a nice way to try PictoPlus without having to make your own puzzles first.
Download the Animals Puzzle Pack
Just unzip the download and copy Animals.pictobook into your PictoPlus/Books/ folder on your 3DS or Azahar virtual SD card.
If you already have an older version of Animals, replace it with the new one.
The pack includes model credits and CC BY 3.0 licence information. Please keep these credits if you redistribute the pack.
Made something you're proud of?
Share your .pictobook file with another PictoPlus user. They can copy it to their Books folder to play, or import it into the desktop app to make their own changes.
Please only share models and artwork you have permission to distribute.
Your setup files, extracted game resources and save data should stay private.
PictoPlus is still in beta, so there may be a few rough edges.
If something isn't working or you have an idea for a new feature, feel free to open an issue.
Bug reports, suggestions and code contributions are all welcome!
You can also find more information here:
PictoPlus was developed over the course of a month, with countless hours spent building, refining, debugging and testing it.
AI-assisted coding tools have been a big part of the development process, but this wasn't something that came together with a single prompt. There's been a lot of back and forth, plenty of experimentation, more than a few things breaking, and many rounds of testing to get everything working.
I wanted to be transparent about how it was made, while also acknowledging the time, care and hands-on work that went into it.
PictoPlus's original code is available under the MIT licence. Third-party dependencies retain their own licences. See third-party and artwork notices.
The cube mascot was generated with ChatGPT, and the built-in covers were made using image-generation tools. AI-generated artwork is not automatically guaranteed to be copyright-free or legally cleared.
PictoPlus is an unofficial fan project and is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Nintendo. Nintendo and Picross 3D: Round 2 names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.
PictoPlus requires a legally obtained copy of Picross 3D: Round 2. No Nintendo game files, ROMs or proprietary game assets are included in the downloads.