Enchanted Gemstones

A Pico-8 Magic Jewlery/Columns Clone (Submission for LOWREZJAM 2020)

What is this game?

This game is a clone of Magic Jewelry (an unlicensed NES game) which is in turn a clone of Columns (a puzzle game for the Sega Genisis).

It is a match-3 falling block puzzle game. The goal is to place the falling colored gems (blocks) onto the board so that three gems of the same color can match vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.

How to Play

When the game starts, the bottom of a set of 3 gems will appear in the 1st row, 4th column.

• The three gems will slowly move downwards towards the bottom of the board.
• Use and to move the gems into the position where you want it.
• Press to make the gems fall faster, or press to instantly drop the gems to the bottom of the board.
• Press or to rotate the order of the gems.

Once a gem reaches the bottom of the board (or collides with another gem from below), there will be 1 second (30 frames) to move rotate or move the gem before it locks into place. Moving the gem to be above blank tile again will refresh the timer. Pressing or will skip the rest of the timer.

If you place 3 or more gems of the same color in a line vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, those gems will break and you will be given points equal to score multiplier ⨉ (number of gems broken - 2).

Once the gems are broken, any gems left floating will fall down to fill all of the empty space on the board. If this causes 3 gems of the same color to form a line again, the score multiplier will increase and those gems will be removed as well.

Every 50 gems broken, the level will increase (up to level 20) and so will the gems' falling speed.

Every 25 points, a special multi color gem will be given. This gem, when placed above another gem, will break all gems of the same color at once.

The game ends when you top out (a gem is locked in the 1st row, 4th column) or when you complete level 20 (marathon mode only).

Modes

The game has two modes: Marathon and Endless. Marathon mode ends after beating level 20 (1000 gems broken total), or when you top out. Endless mode ends only when you top out.

You can choose which mode you want on the main menu.

Levels

The level increases by one every 50 gems broken. You can choose the starting level on the main menu. Using a different falling speed from the menu will not change the amounts of gems needed to pass each level. For example, if you started on level 15, you would still need 750 gems to get to level 16, and 1000 gems to beat endless.

High Scores

5 high scores are saved for each mode along with three character names. When the game ends and you get a new high score for the mode you are playing, you will be taken to a screen where you can enter your name.

Links

• Itch page
• Github Repo
• Play on Github
• LOWREZJAM 2020