ANNEAL
A free browser game from Core Systems Asset Factory. Genre: Puzzle. Free.
ANNEAL is a free browser game, free to play in the browser.
You steer a stream of glowing motes up a foundry shaft. The pour has a COUNT (how many motes you carry) and a TEMPER: EMBER, FROST or IRON. Both matter, and they are not the same thing. Every crucible changes your count, and some change your temper too. A crucible reading ×4 EMBER multiplies you by four AND makes you ember. You pass through exactly one crucible per row, so every row is a choice.
The shaft is flawed, and each flaw only yields to one temper. A SEAL burns open for ember. A RACE freezes into a bridge for frost. A SLAGWALL yields to iron. Each also wants a minimum number of motes, and passing one costs you some. So the crucible that gives you the count you need is frequently the one that gives you the wrong temper for the flaw two rows later. Arriving big and wrong is still a loss.
That is the whole game. When a crowd is one undifferentiated number, every choice collapses to "aim at the biggest multiplier"; here the temper keeps the choice alive. What is in it Twelve channels, each designed for the game, every one machine-proven solvable and proven to have a real decision in it.
AI disclosure, as the store page states it: AI Assisted, Code, Graphics, Text
Free · Get it on itch.io. Files, screenshots and the full description are on the store page.