Jewel Quest
From Casual Games Wiki
| Jewel Quest
| |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | iWin |
| Publisher(s) | iWin |
| Distributor(s) | iWin |
| Release date(s) | July 14, 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mobile, Xbox |
Jewel Quest is a popular match-three puzzle game developed and published by iWin in July 2004. It is the first title in the Jewel Quest series, followed by the sequel Jewel Quest II. In Jewel Quest, players complete a series of match-three puzzles in an Indiana Jones-like story context.
Contents |
Description
Jewel Quest is a match-three game where players complete puzzles in the context of exploring a Mayan civilization, discovering hidden treasures and artifacts along the way. The goal is to complete all 180 puzzles, uncover all the gold statues, and prove yourself as a Chief Explorer.
The core game play involves swapping colored "relics" on a grid to create vertical or horizontal sets of three or more like objects. When a grouping is created, the board space under each relic turns gold, the relics disappear, and new relics fall from above to fill the empty grid squares. The more relics that are matched simultaneously, the more points scored per relic. Chain reactions and each space that turns to gold are also worth additional points. As the game progresses, players encounter "buried" and "cursed" relics with characteristics that add a greater level of challenge.
The player begins with 5 lives. A life is lost if a level is not complete before the timer runs out, or if there are no more moves available. Bonus points are added based on how much time is left. New lives are awarded every 50,000 points. The game ends when all lives are gone.
Background & History
Jewel Quest was developed in 2004 by iWin for Windows PCs following the success of Bejeweled and similar match-three games. On page 55 of the IGDA's 2005 Casual Games Whitepaper,[1] Jim Stern from iWin described their process of innovating on the Bejeweled formula:
| Match-Three games have done well historically and have proven to be quite addictive. We wanted to take a familiar concept that people already enjoy and raise it to a level that is much more exciting and engaging than it's ever been.
With that in mind, we added new properties to the jewels (such as buried relics that require multiple matches before they can be removed and cursed items that can wreak havoc on your progress under special circumstances), new layouts (such as different shaped boards and areas that are inaccessible), and more importantly, a specific goal to complete each board (turning all the tiles to gold). These relatively simple concepts, when combined in different ways, allow for great variation and ramping of play levels to provide hours and hours of challenging game play. On top of this, we felt it would be fun to have a compelling storyline to engage the players – a thematic storyline with immersive graphics and a map to track your progress as you get further into the game. |
Jewel Quest has been licensed for various platforms including the Xbox and mobile phones. The mobile version was awarded "Best Puzzle Game of 2005" from Mobile Game Faqs and "Best Mobile Game 2005" from Jamba.[2] In May 2007, CryptoLogic Inc. announced its wholly-owned subsidiary, WagerLogic Limited, had secured rights to develop the first slot version of Jewel Quest.[3]
