Ingot: Gold Block Puzzle

A block puzzle with a gold mine under it. You get three shapes at a time and a 9x9 grid. Fill a row, a column, or one of the nine boxes and it clears. Nothing drops, nothing rushes you, and the board only changes when you change it. Think as long as you like. That is the job. Then there is the gold. Shovels turn up in the dirt. Cover one and it becomes a pile of ingots sitting on your board, glinting, waiting for you to clear the line it is in. Manage that in a single colour and it pays triple. And then there is him. Striped shirt, black beanie, sack over one shoulder, and a keen interest in gold he did not dig for. Leave a pile sitting too long and he starts walking. He moves while you think, which is a genuinely rude thing for a puzzle game to do, and he gets faster the better you are playing. Beat him to the pile and he stops dead, bursts into tears and vanishes in a puff of dust. It is enormously satisfying. Let him get there and he laughs at you. Fill your safe up and he loses interest in piles altogether and comes for that instead. So you sell. Ingots turn into points, and the more you sell at once the better the rate, which means the clever play is to hoard, and hoarding is exactly what brings him running. Those two facts do not get along. That is deliberate. Everything you own is a decision. Gold turns a piece, takes back a move, rubs out a square, or bins the whole hand for three new ones. Spend it carelessly and you will meet a board you could have solved if you had kept one coin back. No timers. No lives. No waiting for hearts to refill. Just you, the dirt, and a man who thinks your gold is his. Free to play. There is an optional video for gold if you get properly stuck, and skipping it costs you nothing.