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Crystalline is a puzzle platformer about multidimensional space exploration.
Controls:
A/D: Run
Spacebar: Jump
Hold Q: Equip Weapon 1 (when available)
Hold E: Equip Weapon 2 (when available)
Move Mouse: Aim equipped weapon
Left Mouse Button: Shoot equipped weapon
R: Reset level
F: Toggle fullscreen (Windows version only)
Update: I've uploaded a fixed Web port that no longer has the issues where very few stars appear and tile textures aren't randomized. This brings it in line with the original Windows version and contains no other changes or fixes. For those interested, the problem arose from calling the randomize() function in GameMaker every time I needed a random integer, instead of just calling randomize() once at the start of the game.
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Coolness | 100% |
| #45 | Overall(Jam) | 3.99 |
| #52 | Fun(Jam) | 3.89 |
| #72 | Innovation(Jam) | 3.90 |
| #90 | Mood(Jam) | 3.82 |
| #163 | Audio(Jam) | 3.57 |
| #318 | Theme(Jam) | 3.65 |
| #500 | Graphics(Jam) | 3.33 |
Comments
Nice idea. The music and the atmosphere of the game are great.
Excellent concept and mood. The weapon is unconventional but could have been taken further. Seeing ahead of time what you pull "from the rift" makes it predictable. Imagine any tile is something different and you can't predict what you will reveal. Hilarity and potential is endless there.
Love the pixel art you made. Fun to play. Maybe need a little tutorial.
Very nice little game, I love the mechanics. The story is really interesting as well, I love the self dialogue the character has. The ending even gave me a little hit of feels :P
Excellent!
Audio and storyline work very well together. The learning curve is also great.
I think the controls could be more friendly; I found it hard to synchronize movement+jump with a single hand.
Wow, you have a really complex and interesting mechanic here, yet you present it in such a way that it is easily understandable. It reminds me of Portal. The graphics are GREAT, the mechanic is GENIUS, the level design is challenging and interesting, the mood is PERFECT and overall the game is just brilliant. Well done!
I give you my 5 star overall! This is really well-crafted puzzle! The mechanism is profound like Braid! I love the end game moment!
Great game! I liked the presentation and how the concept was introduced bit by bit through the levels and the dialog. It also has some odd fell to it (in a good way :D).
Great puzzler, was fun to figure out. It appears that some of the items/warp gates are there to fool the player into trying to go for them? I didn't like that quite as much, made me feel dumb once I realized :)
That was some excellent puzzles all the way through to the end! I really like the recursiveness of some of the levels. Great atmosphere also. Great work!
Reminded me of Snapshot. In no means is that a bad thing WHATSOEVER. Snapshot is my favorite game that should've been a flash game.
The puzzles didn't seem tricky enough for me, and that's my only real complaint. Bookmarking this game so I don't lose it. Can't wait to see where it places.
Loved the game, feels really big, complete and well designed for a game jam entry. Great job!
First off Id like to say this is, if not my favorite LudemDare game, it takes my top 5 easily. I loved the gameplay, puzzle design, and how the story fit into it and the audio set the mood so well. definitely would love to see this developed further. A few things though, I didn't see the connection with the theme (I might have missed something though) and textures could have varied slightly between the purple and oranage blocks. Overall awesome game.
Really like the music. I love the teleportation effect. Nice work!
Whoa. That was really amazing. What an unexpected treat. I thought your puzzles were simply brilliant. Fantastic way to tie in the theme as well. Brilliant!
After 100+ games, this is my first 5 stars across the board rating. It's excellent. The mechanic is introduced at a good pace, allowing the player to understand how each feature works. Sound, music, graphics; all enjoyable. Very very nice.
Wow, excellent game! Clever and original mechanic, interesting and mysterious story, and thoughtful / well scaffolded puzzles. You should expand on this idea - I'd buy a full version of this game!
Absolutely loved it. (Would have liked to have used arrow keys instead of forcing to use AD)
Outstanding entry. Puzzle design excelled considering the time frame, and a polished aesthetic. This one really had me thinking and I enjoyed seeing it through to the end. Now I want more :)
Great puzzle game. I like the concept and the narrative throughout the game. It kept me entertained and wanted me to play further. One of my favorites so far. Excellent job!
Awesome game! I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the game. The gun mechanic was really cool, but I felt like it could have been taken even further. Great work :)
Great story, atmosphere, and puzzles. The ending was really cool. Nice job.
Whoa nice mechanic and decent execution. Smart level design.
I really like the mood, i don't know if it's because of music, graphics or story, maybe both. And that ending... pretty much the ideal way to end this game.
Overall it was a really fun game! I got stuck eventually (I'm not great at puzzle games).
Love this puzzle game. Well done! Tough puzzles, indeed. Took at least two minds to get through.
The story was a bit mysterious, which fits well the entire research theme.
Awesome Story! Awesome Music! Awesome Graphics! Awesome Puzzles! AWESOME GAME! .... but a bit too easy :D
Well done mate!
Great work here, man. Really enjoyed this one and the puzzles were really well done. I wasn't able to finish yet, but I'll definitely be coming back for more. Congrats on finishing and dooooo more. The music creates an awesome mood, too. Very nicely done. Loops incredibly well.
Very nice game. I enjoy puzzle games like this, very rewarding and gentle at first, to a slow progression of mega frustration and determination. The difficulty scaled very nicely, my regards to the level designer.
This is amazing, didn't expect much but was totally hooked in! The puzzle mechanics, mood, ambient sounds all added to the atmosphere. And I loved the ending, even if it is somewhat disturbing! I also created a platformer/Metroidvania type thing, and was really glad I stumbled onto your entry as it provided me with a lot of inspiration for study. Good job, top marks!
Thanks for your comment on Nuclear Autumn! I agree with all your points. In addition to all your suggestions, I think a way to let the player manually add markers/annotations to their map might be an interesting way to record progress as well! What do you think?
Thanks again for the reply! Well, yes I've been playing a lot of old school Metroids and Castlevanias, and while a map is handy I think there is a lot of UI work that can be done to make them even more accessible. Nuclear Autumn doesn't have a map, I was going to create one but ran out of time.
Metroidvanias essentially boil down to finding abilties to let you access certain areas, and backtracking is essential to that. So areas that you need to backtrack to, needs to be marked. Of course some secret areas should probably not be too obvious, but that's where the letting the player annotate/place markers comes in!
There are a few mods in Skyrim and other similar open world games that allow you to annotate maps, so why not in Metroidvanias?
I realise I'm preaching to the choir here, since it was your feedback that initially started this but if I were to take Nuclear Autumn further I would definitely have multiple large areas (each one similar to the level I have already created) - and a map system like what we've discussed I would definitely consider implementing.
Exciting times!
Btw. I need to think up of more interesting game mechanics/abilities rather than just jetpack/walljump/double jump etc... Something like your rift gun and transformation thing is really cool, need to start thinking outside the box! :)
That was epic.
As already mentioned the puzzles were well constructed and the mood spot on. Especially loved the ending. Took a while to realize what was going on, but it only added to the mood so not really an issue. It was fun figuring it out on my own instead of being told what to do.
Nice idea. I like that all level's I've seen have 2 exit doors, either way It would be quite easy to solve the puzzle, and this way, you have to decide which is the viable one.
The first time I played I didn't notice I spent all amno, so some feedback would be nice.
Also It would be nice to have a workaround so you don't need to reset the room yourself when stuck.
Hey, I liked this entry so much I included the game as part of my Top 10 Platformers of Ludum Dare 32:
http://ludumdare.com/compo/2015/04/27/my-top-10-platformer-games-of-ludum-dare-32/
Whoah. super cool. the ending left me thinking. the puzzles were pretty easy, but overall its great.
Great mechanic, really dig this interpretation. The level design is excellent too, script bits like "must not allow these shadows to lead me astray" especially. Tying gameplay and story together with a neat little puzzle, this is how tutorials should be done.
I also love the art; low-rez is hard, it's not just less is more. Tidbits like the star twinkling, the teleport animation and the character's head turning make a big difference when it all adds up visually.
I have to say, excellent level design. I also really liked the music, and the little effects such as stars moving backwards in rifts. Great job!
I just love what you made here, man. You carefully introduced each concept and the difficulty curve was spot-on. I enjoyed every level of it.
I think I love you.
Damn. That was awesome. LD should have a rating category "Story". Because I'd rate this 8/5.
very nice game! personally not a fan of the controls, but the graphics, leveldesign, puzzles and concept are implemented most excellent
This game is hella rad. I'll admit, I have a soft spot for puzzle platformers, but this feels like a really good one. Incredible atmosphere, great pacing, and fun. Great work. :)
That's a really neat pair of mechanics, the rift and transmutation. Very solid. Bonus points on the graphics for being colorblind friendly.
got a good amount of level design. loved the stars. Would like to see a game with 30-50 levels.
This is a great concept on its own, and the levels burning through makes it even more interesting. This would be such a fun game to design levels for.
Not bad at all. Good level design, great game idea, plays solidly and on the whole a lot of fun! I thought a couple areas could do with building on though. The controls weren't my thing (left-handed movement in a platformer - I would have preferred W to be jump to Space), and some of the menu graphics didn't fit the in-game graphics. And just related to the jam, I don't know if it's that I didn't get far enough, but I never got to use the "weapon" as an actual weapon.
Very nice game. The introduction of the mechanics was effective and interesting and I enjoyed each level.
Superb. Interesting mechanic accompanied with interesting levels.
Straight up awesome, but could be even greater with more polish!
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This is definitely one of my favorite Ludum Dare games that I've played. I had a little bit of trouble understanding the concept at first, but after the first two levels when I finally understood what happened to the blocks when I clicked and how to change them effectively I mostly breezed through it, enjoying every bit. There is a great sense of difficulty scale as the game progresses, introducing each new concept slowly and intuitively, with only a couple levels feeling too simple or easy. The game overall invokes a very lonely, lost in space feeling, especially in the ending, which was very impressive for a game made in such a short amount of time.