Gem Swap

Gem Swap is a match three built for short, sharp rounds. Six faceted gems fill an eight by eight board and every move is a swap with a neighbour: line up three of a kind and they burst, the gems above fall into the gap and fresh ones drop in from the top. If the new arrangement makes another match it clears on its own, and each link in that chain multiplies what the whole cascade is worth.

Bigger matches leave something behind. Four in a row packs the leftover gem into a line gem that fires down a whole row or column the next time it is matched, and five makes a rainbow gem: swap it with any gem on the board and every gem of that colour goes at once. Set one off next to the other and the chain reaction runs across the board on its own.

A round is ninety seconds and there is no move limit, so the only thing that matters is how fast you can read the board. Cascades put seconds back on the clock. If you would rather take your time, switch on Zen and the clock disappears entirely. Drag a gem or tap two in turn on a touch screen, drag or click with a mouse, arrow keys and space on a keyboard. Idle for five seconds and a gem wobbles to point out a move; if the board ever runs out of moves it shuffles itself. Your best score is saved in your browser. Press Z for Zen, M to mute.