A Dwarf's Story

The dwarfs are trapped below ground. You, the Avatar, are having odd dreams. The Wiseman says this is prophesied that this means you will lead your people out. Build the city's buildings and the teleportation temple and return your people to the surface.

A Dwarf's Story has elements of match-three, hidden object and arcade with just a bit of role playing thrown in. To start, you must name the Avatar, select whether they will be male or female and select if they will be a wizard, warrior or scientist. You begin at a site where a house needs to be constructed. The constructing is done by way of a match-three board. To make matches, based on what color your mouse pointer is, find two other item in a straight line of the same color and click a third space to turn that space into that object to make a three-way match. You can swap between two colors by using the right mouse button. On the right side of the screen are two meters that indicate what items you must collect to clear the puzzle. When you match these items, some drop to the bottom and are collected by dwarfs.

Some sites have a flag and are labeled 'Excavate'. These are hidden-object caves. When you clear a cave, you will have found an item like armor, helmets, capes, etc. that you can wear to help you with luck, hints, etc. At some point on each city, an evil wizard/witch will unleash flying monsters. When this happens, you must place your mouse on a monster and click to fire at it to knock it from the sky. One monster will land in a site that you have not yet reached. When you play a site with a monster, the monster will fire fireballs at the board to create chains and double chains. These will prevent you from clicking the item under the chain. To remove chains, you must make a match with the chained item. Single chains require one match, double chains require two matches.

As you play, you will acquire bonus items. Bonus items start at level one. During the game, you will build altars that can upgrade these bonuses up two levels. These bonuses are:* Fire bonus: At level 1, clears an entire horizontal line of items.

• Lightning bonus: At level 1, shuffles a three-by-three area of the board.
• Freeze bonus: At level 1, stops the clock for ten seconds.
• Sun bonus: At level 1, randomly removes five of what ever type of item you select.
• Dragon bonus: At level 1, removes an area in the shape of a plus sign consisting of five tiles.

Bonus items do not affect chains.