The Hidden Rune

This is a drawing puzzle game. 

You have been hired to create a rune that protects against all damage. You inscribe these experimental runes onto gems that can hold different types of magic. You can sell these to afford more gems to further your research. Better and longer protection gets you a higher price. You still make some money from ineffective gems from people who will buy it as jewellery. You want 100% effectiveness in a final merged stone.

Effective gems are used by explorers in other realms, by dragon caretakers and other people working with dangerous creatures, by new students of magic not yet skilled in safety. 

Controls:

Left mouse click and drag. Some parts are too small for mobile, but other than that it's mobile-compatible.

Three notes:

1. Protection does not stack. If you have two gems of any type and efficacy, only the higher efficacy will show any results. The goal therefore is to get all three protections work from a single gem, with complete protection. 

2. There was no time to balance and playtest difficulty properly, so the prices and hints are generous so as to not be a bottleneck in the experience. Currently, brute force will get you the final answer using just hints and no puzzle-solving. For an added challenge, you can avoid hints completely and try to decode the rune yourself. 

3. The puzzle has 5 possible solutions, i.e., five patterns that can be the secret rune, and one is randomly chosen when the game loads. If you refresh the page, you probably have to start over. 

The idea for this game grew out of a project I was working on before the jam started: 

I really, really didn't want to make a combat-based game, so this is the second time I've accidentally made drawing the main mechanic of a game.  

Hope you enjoy it!

Music by: Abstraction (https://tallbeard.itch.io/music-loop-bundle)