Bubble Gems is a bubble-popping game with a fantasy theme. Against the backdrop of a nature preserve that features green meadows, a stream and bridge, and nearby mountains, a unicorn tasks the player with collecting 106 gems across levels of play.
The player receives a basic open-ring shooter with a red arrow. They use projectiles that load into the shooter to pop clusters of floating bubbles in groups of three or more to clear the playfield and collect the gemstones. In some cases, they don't need to pop every bubble. They merely need to collect the gem or gems.
The bubbles act like water balloons. The surface of each one flexes when hit and acts a bit squishy. If a bubble is hit with a matching projectile or pops as part of a cluster, it explodes outward with frosted white lines that look like water. This behavior sometimes makes targeting with the arrow difficult, especially since the game doesn't offer an aiming line. Additionally, the game sometimes covers a bubble with a thin film of ice. The player must pop a cluster next to an iced bubble, and then later use the bubble to create a separate cluster.
Bubble Gems doesn't provide swappable projectiles. The player must shoot with what they receive at any given time. Thankfully, the game does have a pass system that allows them to not pop bubbles four times before it issues a penalty. The player can track this system with four red bubbles below the unicorn's hooves. If the game issues a penalty, new bubbles appear and enlarge in different spots on the field.
