Android A Crystal Life - Adventure/Platform Indie Game

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ProjectGamesInc

Guest
A Crystal Life
Platform/Puzzle/Adventure game
Made with Game Maker Studio 2

The Main Game Idea


The game take place in a strange world, where all the things are made by colored crystals.
Bright and happy days, until the Shadow Lord make his appearance.
You will be deprived from all the colors, and with everything turned in a sad gray shade, you will start your long journey to fight the Shadow Lord.
With every world cleaned from the shadows, you will gain back colors while recovering your full power.

Game Mechanics


The game will use physics, and will focus for most of the time on puzzle and platform themed levels.
But the game its not only jumping and running around!
You will face strange worlds with a variable gravity, places where you will fly, strange caves where you can choose the gravity direction and much more!
You will earn Lumia, those valuable shards will help you unlock you full potential like the double jump, sprints, the ability to smash cracked walls and even more!

Here we have some details about the mechanics:

1 - There will be 2 levels for the tutorial + 2 real levels to introduce the player to the game main mechanics/graph style, the real game start after our counterpart, the "Shadow Lord", steal all the colors in the 5th level.
2 - Here comes the very 1st new mechanics : Everything that DOES NOT have back its color, will not work. (Ex - you can't pick Lumia if they are gray, and they wont be animated; same for the Grav-Inverters and so on)
3 - You will obtain specific colors back sometimes while playing levels, you can buy secondary colors in the shop with your Lumia
4 - There will be 3 new GUI buttons. The buttons will be placed near the Right Arrow in the bottom-right corner in a circular shape. The buttons will be unlocked when you buy one of the ability for the Hero.
5 - The ability buttons will be customizable, since there will be more then 3 abilities in the game, you will choose which one you want to use during the levels.
6 - The abilities will be : Sprint; Heavy Crash; Lightning Dash; Spikes; Heal; Crystal Burst and the last, that will not be in the abilities buttons: Double Jump.
7 - Enemies will appear in the world, some of them will be not killable without a specific Ability.
8 - The main hero can suffer damages from different sources : Falling for more then 4 Blocks (The more you fall, the more damage it takes), getting hit by enemies, colliding with walls with high speed (also here, the more speed you have, the more damage you take) and so on.
9 - There will not be a life/hp GUI, every time you get damage, the ball will start to have "cracks" in the sprite, and will shatter in pieces when destroyed.
10 - There will be ramps, floating-moving platforms, speed increaser/decreaser, breakable walls/terrain and much more!

The Game Resources



The game will be 100% original, with all the resources made by scratch.
With its own soundtracks, graphics and design, we hope to give to this game a fresh looking experience, a simple and intuitive play style and a simple, but nice looking story!
Here some examples of our work.

Hero Wake Up!


Animating Things!


Basic Movements!


The Main Theme!

https://soundcloud.com/projectgamesinc/a-new-journey

The Second Theme!
https://soundcloud.com/projectgamesinc/follow-the-light

Screens

Title Screen (WIP)



In this screen we see one of the game interactive elements. What could it be?



Inverted gravity and terrain hole full of shadows!


DEMO (Windows only)

http://www.mediafire.com/file/03bunz5545is09m/A+Crystal+Life.zip

Special Thanks and What's Next


First of all, many thanks to the GameMaker Community.
Every one here helped us when we had problems, here in the forums and in the Discord server, we have done a lot of things in such small time thanks to your hints, so thanks.
Thanks also to the YoYo Games!
We started our journey 5 years ago with Game Maker Studio 1, and we have now 5 apps on the store thanks to this software.

So, what's the plan here huh?
We are planning to work hard on the project, we will post an update every time we have something "big" coming out from our work, so this thread will be updated i think once a week.
The plan right now is to publish the game for Android, Windows, Mac and Linux, maybe IOs will be another target if this game will grow, who know.
Since we are only 2 guys, and we really do all the job, this may take a little bit of time but who cares, we love to do those things and we want to share them!

Also if you want to hear some of our soundtracks (all made for games) feel free to take a look on our Soundcloud channel at : https://soundcloud.com/projectgamesinc/tracks

Thanks ya all guys!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
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ProjectGamesInc

Guest
Wow, thanks a lot guys! I really appreciate that you like the design!
Well, right now i have the first tutorial level, the second and the first real playable level done, so i think i will post a video (and not only gifs) in a week.
Before that, i think i will update the main post tomorrow with some screenshots ;)

EDIT : Here we have some screens!
Edited also the main topic.

In this screen we see one of the game interactive elements. What could it be?



Inverted gravity and terrain hole full of shadows!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
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ProjectGamesInc

Guest
Hello guys! Big update: The first demo is ready!
So, what to expect from this demo?
You will be able to play the tutorial and other 2 levels, as well as the last level, that is a special cutscene made to introduce the story behind the game!
Since english is not my main language, tell me if something is wrong, also leave a comment if you try the demo! (Right now it is Windows only)

http://www.mediafire.com/file/03bunz5545is09m/A+Crystal+Life.zip
 
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ProjectGamesInc

Guest
Thanks a lot for the feedback guys :).
I'm happy that you liked it!
 

Rayek

Member
Here is some feedback from me. (I am going to be harsh, but fair.)
No suggestions about sound, because it is clear that still needs to be added.

- I would prefer it if the game would start in windowed mode instead of full screen mode. Or at least an option to switch to windowed mode in an options menu.

Start screen
- the title screen is very colourful, but the main title text and is lost in all the textures and colours. It lacks visual contrast and blends too much with the background.
- same for the PLAY button, which looks identical to the main title screen, and its visual meaning as a button action could be made more clear for me.

Tutorial

- slide-in panel takes too much time to appear. Text fades and overall rhythm feels too slow, and after seeing it the first time the novelty wears off, leading to frustrated waiting times. It takes 6 seconds to display the message, AND then you force more waiting time to activate the continue button!
- center aligned text impedes the readability. Keep it left aligned.
- Too much unnecessary information is given. The game play mechanics are quite simple, and have no need for that much descriptive text.
- The slide-in panel breaks the immersion of the player and yanks the player out of the game play. Consider quick in-game short one instead. Or a tutorial character explaining things.
- The invisible "walls" which trigger the tutorial slide-ins were unexpected here and there, and I just wanted to continue quickly, but could not do this. Allow the user to quickly glance at the explanation given, and continue playing. A tutorial character would also indicate when to expect these tutorial explanations.
- "click here to continue": remove "click here to" (which is redundant), and allow the user to tap/click the screen anywhere. Keyboard user ought to be able to hit ESC or SPACE, or any key.
- hints should be given a specific colour to differentiate.
- the explanation about "Lumia" and level numbering seems entirely redundant. I just wanted to grab those goodies, but the tutorial prevented me from doing this. In-game quick explanations while playing would reduce this friction.
- in short, I think you should rethink the entire tutorial presentation and integration. It almost wanted me to give up on the game. Not a good initial impression, and some players will just turn away.

Game Play
- ball jump mechanics: not a lot of control, only one height is possible. It feels lacking in control. I'd like to have more control, for example, higher jump when pressing and holding down the space bar.
- the basic movement is quite limited as well. Perhaps allow for more speed? It felt too constrained to me.
- I like the gravity switching, although it is not very original. Airscape makes better use of this gameplay mechanic. See http://airscapegame.com/
- at this point having to depend on these gravity switch points seems to block the player from returning to a previous location. In a couple of instances I had forgotten to pick up a gem (this name makes more sense to me), but had already used a gravity switcher, and could not return to get it. I would suggest adding one both at the top AND the bottom, reducing this player friction, and it would add to a feeling of freedom of movement.
- the black gaps really need some kind of relevant looking danger. The black holes don't give a good visual feedback. The death effect is
- in level 1-1 you force the player to backtrack to retrieve a couple of gems. This feels forced, unless you provide a good incentive for the player to do so.
- perhaps provide an option to flip the screen when orientation is changed?
- there is not a lot to do so far. No enemies or evil contraptions that make life more difficult, and the basic gravity switching mechanic is reduced to a gimmick, rather than an integral required game component, because either up or down feels pretty much the same.
- environments lack variation in regards to game play elements.
- the trees animate, but don't really do anything else. They would be great indicators for windy conditions, or something, and have those windy conditions affect the game play.

- I am thinking that you need more variation in the game play mechanics. Currently it's not much of a puzzle game, nor an action game. It neither there nor here.

- I am missing some kind of narrative. What is the story? You allude to some kind of back story (last level black ball).

Suggestions for Game Play

These are only suggestions, of course. As it stands, your game play feels too unoriginal and needs more "jazz" and inventiveness.
- allow for crystal/material density changes. A very light ball, a very heavy ball. A slippery ball, etc. Combination of properties can make nice puzzles and actions. A very solid strong ball, and one that shatters easily, but can do speed runs (and shatter into walls). Add obvious risk and reward scenarios with your mechanics.
- more variation in environment game play interaction: a heavy ball breaks through light crystal doors or platforms. A slippery ball is required to slide off a long ramp to make a difficult jump.
- allow for variations in jump height in player control.
- allow for speed ups and slow downs. A bit like Sonic, perhaps (but not too much).
- allow for diagonals, ramps, etc.
- add inventive enemies with different tactics the player must employ to defeat them.
- add wind and rain, etc. which affect the terrain's navigability.
- add inventive dangerous environment elements. Shard-like spikes in pits
- do more with the physics! It feels too stale as it stands.
- add true incentives for the player. Not merely "grab all the gems" - that is not enough. Provide a true goal or goals.

Visuals
- it's quite colourful looking in a good way.
- would be nice to have a parallax scrolling background.
- the background is very regular, and rather too obvious in patterns.
- all the tree and gem animations would benefit from an ease-in-and-out. Avoid the linear tweening: it doesn't look good. Keep it natural looking your movements.
- the crystal look I am not getting yet. It needs a bit more work.


- lots of opportunity to add various great-looking crystal structures!
- the particle effects need more "oomph". Too understated now.
- I am guessing you are going for an "underground crystal cave" effect - as it stands, your backgrounds, your graphics lack a sense of depth and use of good lighting. It feels much too flat to me.
- better death animations. It would be nice if the player could fall from a ledge, and shatter.

Anyway, I apologize if I sounded harsh. I think the game has potential, otherwise I would not be commenting here. Push the game play mechanics to the next level. Think about how crystal as a game concept may be utilized in your game, because so far nothing feels or plays as if this is a crystal world. Not yet, at least.
 
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ProjectGamesInc

Guest
This is why i posted here and i asked for testing the demo even if i started this few days ago.
I loved your post and i will of course pick all of your hints and use them to make the game feels more good and interesting.
Just to make some points clear, there will be double jump, speed dash, there will be evil counterparts that will act like enemies and of course more backgrounds/visual variations, that's why i said this demo is just for the game basics mechanics.

I will rework the tutorial, to be honest your right, the tutorial right now is a little bit too long and forced in some ways, i need too make it faster.

For all the rest, thanks, i will take care of your suggestions, really, i bet you used a lot of your time to test and write everything so i will use all of your informations to make the game better.
Thanks a lot for your feedback @Rayek !
 

kupo15

Member
Pretty cool so far! I don't have much to add from Rayek's post other than to say I think the Tutorial is too wordy and front loads too much information.

Also, since this is intended for Android, I'm not entirely sure what feedback on the control scheme is needed. I tried doing everything by mouse first but couldn't figure out how to roll forward and jump at the same time. I ended up using the keyboard and mouse.

One thing, any reason for needing to do a normal jump while inside the gravity switcher? Seems cumbersome to have to click on the Ball to use it instead of just anywhere
 
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ProjectGamesInc

Guest
Yeah right now you have to use the windows commands, it will not be only for Android btw, so testing and debugging is good also on Win!

You will need sometimes the jump on the gravity switcher, there will be levels where if you use the grav-switch you will not be able to go back, so if you are on it but you dont want to use it you always have the chance to go out.

By the way thanks a lot guys! I'm not working so much right now beacouse we are near Christmas so have a bit of patience, i will fix everything and improve it as you said as soon as i can!
 
Hey. Tried your demo last week, but I've been too busy to post my thoughts until now. Better late than never, right? So here goes:

THE TUTORIAL: Like everyone else said, it might be a little wordy. I for one don't really mind the "tutorial wall" pushing in. I've seen other games do something similar, and even if you find it temporarily annoying, its completely forgotten once the actual game begins.

THE MUSIC: A really like the music. The main theme really fits the game but is unobtrusive, which is key for playing a game like this for an extended period of time. And the music that plays when you're introduced to the villain/evil soccer ball brings to mind similar villain introductions from 90's era JRPGs.

GRAPHICS: As I've said before, I like the aesthetic, but be careful going forward to make sure the Ball doesn't blend in with the backgrounds. As far as the particle effects go, you need a little more oomph. They're completely drowned out by the rest of the graphics.

OTHER NOTES: Glad to hear you're going to add double jumps. You'll need something to keep the main gameplay from getting stale, and a bigger moveset will go a long way. This seems like a game that could benefit from some "hold down the key to charge" moves. Also, its a little unclear from the first few levels if this is going to be a Metroidvania-style explore every hidden area for collectibles type game or more of a "figure out the one correct way to complete the level" type of game. That's not so much a complaint as it is genuine curiosity.

So, bottom line, you're off to a good start. With some additions and polish, you could have something interesting here.
 
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ProjectGamesInc

Guest
Thanks and no problem, i'm always happy as new comments comes!
Thanks a lot for all the things, right now, to also reply to the older comments, i can give you all a bit more details of the future gameplay.

1 - As you saw in the small demo, the 2 levels of the tutorial + 2 real levels are just to introduce the player to the game main mechanics/graph style, the real game start after our counterpart, the "Shadow Lord", steal all the colors.
2 - Here comes the very 1st new mechanics : Everything that DOES NOT have back its color, will not work. (Ex - you can't pick Lumia if they are gray, and they wont be animated; same for the Grav-Inverters and so on)
3 - You will obtain specific colors back sometimes while playing levels, you can buy secondary colors in the shop with your Lumia
4 - There will be 3 new GUI buttons. The buttons will be placed near the Right Arrow in the bottom-right corner in a circular shape. The buttons will be unlocked when you buy one of the ability for the Hero.
5 - The ability buttons will be customizable, since there will be more then 3 abilities in the game, you will choose which one you want to use during the levels.
6 - The abilities will be : Sprint; Heavy Crash; Lightning Dash; Spikes; Heal; Crystal Burst and the last, that will not be in the abilities buttons: Double Jump.
7 - Enemies will appear in the world, some of them will be not killable without a specific Ability.
8 - The main hero can suffer damages from different sources : Falling for more then 4 Blocks (The more you fall, the more damage it takes), getting hit by enemies, colliding with walls with high speed (also here, the more speed you have, the more damage you take) and so on.
9 - There will not be a life/hp GUI, every time you get damage, the ball will start to have "cracks" in the sprite, and will shatter in pieces when destroyed.
10 - There will be ramps, floating-moving platforms, speed increaser/decreaser, breakable walls/terrain and much more!

For now this is all i want to tell you, there will be more things to discover but i want to keep them secret :)
 
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ProjectGamesInc

Guest
Thanks a lot @AlmightyTrapGod !
I hope you will find the demo good!

Guys, maybe before the 7 of Jenuary i will update the DEMO with the new tutorial, some new graphical improvements and some of the new mechanics.
I hope to finish the 2nd DEMO in those 2/3 weeks so you can check how the work is going on.
 
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ProjectGamesInc

Guest
Hi guys!
I have not the new demo right now, but here some info about the progress.
I've added all the sound FX to everything, also i've added damage to the ball if you hit a solid block with a high velocity, this will cause the ball to "crack", at the 3rd crack the ball will explode and you will be forced to restart the level.
I'm working now on speed boosts!
 
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ProjectGamesInc

Guest
Yeah, i bit or graph revamp is the next thing, i plan to add a little bit more of details around and a bit more difference in the patterns of the backgrounds/terrains.
 
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Red Phantom

Guest
I'm playing your game right now and I love it!
The sprites, backgrounds, imagery is all just so cool and unique!
I absolutely love the trees. I also like the background, the platform, and the animation effects.
I really like the sprite of the gravity inverters too.
Wow I just saw the cut-scene with the black sphere, what's happening? I found that really interesting. Is that the end of the game?
I really like this game and think you should keep going with it.
 
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