Diamond Dreams is an elegant twist on the match-3 meta
- Focused on Lux & Elegance, Diamond Dreams does something vastly different than its contemporaries
- Currently in closed beta, but already in fine shape
- Has EA, Blizzard and Digital Chocolate veterans behind the wheel, and it shows
When you think of match-3, I bet you don't think of words like Sophisticated, Lux or Elegant. Well, GFAL (Games For a Living) are doing something a little different with Diamond Dreams - specifically targeting a different kind of audience, with a very different vibe than we're used to seeing.
In Diamond Dreams, everything is intended to be lux and eloquent. From its bold, serif fonts on neutral backgrounds - conjuring up thoughts of fashion brands and magazines - through to the jewellery you're assembling for your collection. That jewellery is hyper-realistic and designed by the same artist who created the jewellery in Netflix's "The Crown" series intro, however the same level of care and thought runs throughout the design of the whole project.
The gameplay is simple, it's match-3 but each level gives you a diamond that you then use in the metagame to create beautiful digital jewellery in digital collections which you can then customise and display in your own digital gallery. You can join up with other teams and, in perhaps the most natural pairing of Web3 tech, you can trade those customised, digital creations with other players. Digital (or, if you're a sceptic, like me, manufactured) scarcity is the aim of the game with digital coins and marketplaces, but this is actually a clever application of that technology as the items that are traded are visually impressive emulations of things that are equally scarce in the real world.
I've been playing it on and off, for a couple of weeks now - after bumping into the team while at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco - and have quite enjoyed chipping away at its levels between my runs of games in my regular, more heavy genres.
The usual article structure would have me chat about the genre and how Diamond Dreams fits into it a bit here, however, I don't think anybody needs to read 40-50 words on the prevalence of matching (and now merging) games. However, what I do think is incredibly notable is that, especially in the case of the latter, a lot of the genre focuses on repairing or fixing things, rather than pleasure, luxury or extravagance. It's felt like a long ignored, missed opportunity in a time when people surely want to escape the real world.
Difficulty and mechanics-wise, it ramps up really fast. New interactables - from blockers like pearl cases and ring boxes, to flowery, under-tile decorations that need to be cleared - are in place before the 20th level, and the shape of the play space starts changing rapidly. In fact, the thirteenth level is (currently, because Diamond Dreams is still in beta) four squares of four-by-four, meaning it's the first level that blocks out the incredibly overpowered rainbow broach power-up.
Power-ups largely follow the same patterns as we see around, with a square giving you a butterfly that flies off to critical tiles and bombs and directional missiles also showing face. They can, of course, combine into more powerful versions and there's a combo-meter that gives you more powerful versions once you've filled it.
For me, the most critical part of a good match-3 game is that it has to make you feel like it wants you to clear the level. There are plenty of options available, from taking boosters in to five different bonus moves (clear vertical, clear single, and clear horizontal) in there, however, the recommended move function currently leaves a little to desire, in fact, in 2025, I'm wondering if there shouldn't be an option to turn it off, especially now that there are no longer timers built into these games by default.
There are a few things that do still need work here, for instance, mailboxes for scoring could have been a wallet with notes or even an oyster with pearls; That and some of the pop-ups still spin like some of its higher-adrenaline, brightly coloured peers - the titles that they're most likely to succeed by distancing themselves from. Otherwise, Diamond Dreams looks set to captivate those who want something a little more lux, or even a little bit more professional, in their match-3 experience.
We'll be sure to keep you updated as it moves along, closer to launch, but for now ,you can find out a bit more information on it from its website.
