Starlighter

Starlighter is a swap match-3 played on a night sky. Swap two neighbouring gems to line up three or more of a kind and they vanish, the gems above fall and new ones drop in. Four in a row leave a comet line that clears a whole row or column, an L or a T leaves a nova bomb that blasts the cells around it, a square of four makes a UFO that flies off to hit a target of its own, and five in a row leave a rainbow ball that takes every gem of one colour; swap two powers together for something bigger. Each of the 30 levels sets its goals inside a fixed number of moves: so many gems of a colour, star crates to smash through up to four layers, moons that fill up with every hit until they clear, and frost that melts when you match on top of it. The later levels are drawn as night-sky shapes, a shooting star, a comet, Orion's Belt, a spiral galaxy, with the move budget to match. There are no lives: play as long as you like, and when the moves run out you can buy five more with coins or try again.

Every level you win pays one to three starlight, depending on how many moves you have left; beating your best on a replay pays the difference. Starlight is spent on the home sky. There the stars of a real constellation wait in the dark, and each starlight you spend lights the next one and draws a glowing line to it. Twelve constellations follow the seasons of the year: Triangulum, Aries and Cassiopeia in autumn, Orion, Gemini and Canis Major in winter, Leo, Ursa Major and Corona Borealis in spring, Lyra, Cygnus and Scorpius in summer, 82 stars in all, and the first star of each figure is lit for you when you arrive. A finished figure turns golden, shows its name, its brightest star and a fact about it, and pays coins and a booster before the sky glides on to the next. The star atlas keeps the whole year in view.

Coins come from levels and finished constellations. Before a level you can spend them on one of five boosts that place a power on the board from the first move: Comet, UFO, Nova, Combo and Rainbow. Under the board wait four boosters for the tight spots: a comet strike that clears one tile, a star beam that clears a row, a sky beam that clears a column and an orbit swirl that shuffles the gems; you start with one of each, constellations pay more, and coins buy one when you have none. Once per constellation the Ember Express steams across the sky: feed its engine an ember for 40 coins and it leaves a starlight behind. Play with a swipe or a drag of the mouse; your sky, your coins and your level stars are saved in your browser.