Why matches give clues

Match-3 feels good in the hand. Line up three and they burst, the board tumbles, the next move is already waiting. But little of it stays with you — you can’t quite tell whether you played well or got lucky.

Logic puzzles are the opposite. Finish a nonogram or a sudoku and you keep the certainty: I solved this. The hands, meanwhile, are bored. Filling in a cell has no taste at all.

Silmadi is an attempt to put the two on one board. Make a match and out comes a clue about the hidden arrangement behind the board, instead of points. The hands play match-3; the head does deduction.

For that to work, the clues have to be worth trusting. So the game keeps four promises.

Every puzzle has exactly one solution. If there could be two, deduction turns into choice.

Guessing is never required. If you are stuck, you are short on clues — it is not your turn to gamble.

Clues only tell the truth. This game does not build tension out of lies.

The given ink is always enough. Solve without waste and the budget reaches the end.

As long as those four lines hold, a match is information, not decoration. One board gives you the certainty of a nonogram and the feel of match-3 at once.

Silmadi is in review on Google Play.