In the past, an archaeologist was on a treasure hunt for the fabled Tonatiuh,
The Temple of the Fifth Sun. To reach the location, he had to conquer portals
by realigning relics according to an ancient description. He wrote his
progress into his Jewel Quest journal.

Today, while arranging manuscripts for the university, he stumbled across his
old journal and now he wants to try it again. The player takes the persona of
the unnamed archaeologist writing more notes into his journal as he goes.

Each level represents one dot on the treasure map, leading from the airplane
take down point to the location of the temple. There are five advancement
categories for progression beginning with Explorer and ending in Researcher.
All levels within all categories must be completed to reach the treasure.
However, if a level is too difficult, the opportunity to skip it presents
itself at a cost of one life (out of five). It is possible to attain up to ten
total lives during the game.

The objective in a level is to do exactly what the ancient script states,
“Align the relics you can see, across or down in groups of three. Turn all
squares to solid gold, the path to riches will soon unfold.”.

So, for example, at the start of level 1-1 (first level in the first group), a
7×7 grid appears, each block filled with one of four different items (relics).
Exchange adjacent items so that a line of three or up to five items will be
created (more than five is possible, but this can’t be done manually). Those
items will vanish and the ground will change from beige to gold, the spaces
will fill with the items from above, and new items fall in from the top of the
playfield. Once all blocks are gold, the level is completed. When the time
runs out, one life is lost.

While the level progresses, there are bigger playfields or more complex ones.
Complex means that they are not always in square or rectangle form, but, for
example, they can also have a zigzag side, where either horizontal or vertical
alignments aren’t possible. More relics are added in the playfield, and also
the time becomes shorter.

Jewel Quest