Controls:
Mouse click / Touch: Select a gem, then the gem you want to swap it with
Line up 3 or more gems of the same color in a row or column to clear them.
Click the gem you want to move, then click a neighbouring gem. If the trade makes a line of 3 or more, they swap and the line disappears.
If the swap makes nothing, the two gems bounce straight back.
Cleared gems leave gaps, and the gems above fall down to fill them.
A falling gem can complete another line on its own, so one good swap can cascade into several clears and a much bigger score.
Timed mode: score as much as you can before the bar runs out.
Untimed mode: keep playing until the board has no legal move left anywhere.
Tip: Look two swaps ahead. A line of 4 or 5 is worth far more than a hurried 3 that destroys the setup you were building!
Freegemas is an open Bejeweled: a grid of colored gems, two neighbors, and the old promise that three in a line is enough. José Tomás Tocino wrote it in C++ and SDL2 so the click-and-swap evening could live outside a store page.
You pick one gem, then the one beside it. If the trade makes a straight row or column of three or more of the same color, the line vanishes and gravity does the rest. New gems fall. Sometimes they make another line without asking you. That cascade is the game being generous. If the swap makes nothing, the two stones bounce home and the board pretends you never touched it.
There are two clocks. In the untimed mode you hunt a high score until the grid is a dead language — no legal three left anywhere. In the timed mode a bar runs down while you try to speak faster than it empties. Same grammar. Different manners.
The addiction is not a hidden mechanic. It is the moment a fourth gem joins and the score jumps, or the moment you leave a setup for later and the fall steals it. Look two swaps ahead when you can. A lonely pair at the bottom is a gift if you refuse the obvious three on the left.
No story, no village, no sword. Just color, gravity, and the quiet decision to take the cascade you can see instead of the prettier one you cannot prove.
