GemCraft

GemCraft is a series of tower defense games created by Hungarian studio Game In A Bottle, in which magical gems are used as the primary means of offense and defense. The first game, titled GemCraft Chapter One: The Forgotten (also known simply as "GemCraft"), is a tower defense flash game originally released on June 26, 2008. A prequel, GemCraft Chapter 0: Gem of Eternity, was released on April 16, 2009, and a disconnected chapter, GemCraft Lost Chapter: Labyrinth, was released February 17, 2011. On April 4, 2014 the sequel to the first game GemCraft Chapter Two: Chasing Shadows was released. The original game was released for iOS on April 14, 2011 by NTT Resonant. In 30 April, 2015, Chasing Shadows was released on Steam under the publisher ArmorGames. The next game, GemCraft Lost Chapter: Frostborn Wrath, was released in January 2020. GemCraft - Legacy Collection, a version containing the first three games in the series is slated for release on Steam in 2026.

In GemCraft, players are given gems to combine and place into towers. Different combinations of gems produce different effects, such as splash damage, damage over time, and critical hit capability. The player's life bar and magic energy are represented by the same statistic – mana. With mana, the player can forge and combine gems and build towers, trenches, and traps. A key aspect of strategy in GemCraft is to increase the player's mana gain to high levels, enabling creation of stronger and stronger gems. Combining two gems creates a single more powerful gem, with the gem's power level indicated by its shape.