Levels 1-5 are free. Levels 6-30 need a $3 licence key. About the full pack
Driftquartz is a short puzzle game for a break: open the page, slide a piece around a small board, close the tab. There is nothing to install, no account to create and no menu to click through before the first level. In the same browser, the game opens on the level you were on last time.
It does not hold you to a clock either. There is no timer, there are no lives and there is no daily streak to keep up. The game counts your moves and nothing else.
Level 1, the shortest of the free levels: the amber piece, a blue gem, grey walls and the shut exit (the crossed ring).
How long a level is
This page gives no time per level, because that depends on you. What can be stated is the number of moves. Each level has a par, the smallest number of moves that solves it, and the five free levels have a par of 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. Played at par, all five take 25 slides. Finding those slides is the part that takes thought.
The boards are small as well. Levels 1 to 3 are 5x5 boards with one or two gems; levels 4 and 5 are 6x6 boards with two and three gems.
The one rule
Pick a direction: up, down, left or right. The piece slides that way and does not stop until a wall or the edge of the board blocks it. It collects every gem it slides over. The exit stays shut until you hold every gem, and until then the piece slides straight across it; after that the exit catches the piece and the level is solved. The how to play page lists the keys and the touch controls.
Level 1 in three slides
Level 1 has one gem and three walls. The piece begins in the bottom left corner; the gem and the exit are both in the right-hand column, the gem in the second row from the top and the exit in the fourth.
The first slide goes right, four cells along the bottom row to the edge. The second goes up, three cells: the piece runs over the shut exit, lands on the gem and stops against the wall above it, and the exit opens. The third goes down, two cells, into the exit. Three moves is the par for level 1, so this is a shortest solution.
Stopping and coming back
The game saves your progress in this browser: the level you are on and your best move count for each level. A half-solved level is not saved, so when you come back it starts from its first position. With solutions this short, little is lost. Undo takes back one move at a time and Restart resets the board.
The saved best count gives a second break something to do: replay a level you solved in more moves than par and look for the shorter route.
When five levels are not enough
The 25 levels of the full pack take longer. Their boards run from 7x7 to 10x10 with 3 to 6 gems, and par runs from 8 to 20 moves, against 3 to 7 on the free levels. The rule is the same.
What is free and what costs $3
Levels 1-5 are free: no account, no key, no time limit. Levels 6-30 are the full pack and need a $3 licence key, sold on Gumroad.
Gumroad shows the key after the purchase and on your receipt. You enter it on the unlock page and the 25 extra levels are stored in this browser.
Buy the $3 licence key on Gumroad
Refunds and support go through Gumroad: use the contact link on your Gumroad receipt. Refunds follow Gumroad's refund policy.
More about Driftquartz
How to play, Free logic puzzle, No-download gem puzzle, Ice sliding puzzle, Puzzle with no ads and no sign-up, Autumn puzzle, Halloween puzzle