Acknowledgments

Swapping jewels
The core of the game revolves around an 8x8 grid filled with jewels of various shapes and 
colors. When the game begins, each of the 64 cells holds a random jewel type. The goal of the 
game is to score points by matching jewels of the same kind in sets of three or more. The 
player can swap two adjacent jewels by selecting first one and then the other.
Matching three
A swap is legal only if it produces a match of three or more jewels of the same color; any ille-
gal swaps are reversed automatically. When the player performs a valid swap, all jewels 
included in the matching set are removed. If any jewels are above the resulting gaps, these 
jewels fall down, and new, randomly picked jewels enter the game area from the top. The 
simplest match is a match with three identical jewels, but it’s also possible to create chains of 
four or five matching jewels. The more jewels the player matches in a single row or column, 
the more points he or she receives.
Triggering chain reactions reward the player with additional points. After a valid swap, the 
falling jewels can produce even more groups of matching jewels, which are then subject to a 
bonus multiplier. By carefully examining the board, the player can even trigger these chain 
reactions intentionally to score extra points.
During the course of a game, the player can also face a situation where no valid moves are 
left. If no swaps can produce a set of at least three identical jewels, the game board must be 
reshuffled. The board is cleared of jewels, and new ones are brought in using the same ran-
domized fill routing that was used when the board was initially set up.
Level progression
To create a sense of urgency, I introduce a timer that slowly counts down. If the timer reaches 
zero, the game ends. The player can progress to the next level by reaching a specified number 
of points before the timer runs out. This triggers a refill of the jewel board, resets the timer, 

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