#opencrystalcaves — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #opencrystalcaves, aggregated by home.social.
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In #CrystalCaves, there are occasional signs with boomer memes like “Kilroy was here” or “Winners don’t use drugs”. If you’ve encountered these contemporaneously, it’s time to schedule a colonoscopy
OTOH #OpenCrystalCaves’s “remaster” mode will show a set of (relatively) modern memes!
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In #CrystalCaves, there are occasional signs with boomer memes like “Kilroy was here” or “Winners don’t use drugs”. If you’ve encountered these contemporaneously, it’s time to schedule a colonoscopy
OTOH #OpenCrystalCaves’s “remaster” mode will show a set of (relatively) modern memes!
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In #CrystalCaves, there are occasional signs with boomer memes like “Kilroy was here” or “Winners don’t use drugs”. If you’ve encountered these contemporaneously, it’s time to schedule a colonoscopy
OTOH #OpenCrystalCaves’s “remaster” mode will show a set of (relatively) modern memes!
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In #CrystalCaves, there are occasional signs with boomer memes like “Kilroy was here” or “Winners don’t use drugs”. If you’ve encountered these contemporaneously, it’s time to schedule a colonoscopy
OTOH #OpenCrystalCaves’s “remaster” mode will show a set of (relatively) modern memes!
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In #CrystalCaves, there are occasional signs with boomer memes like “Kilroy was here” or “Winners don’t use drugs”. If you’ve encountered these contemporaneously, it’s time to schedule a colonoscopy
OTOH #OpenCrystalCaves’s “remaster” mode will show a set of (relatively) modern memes!
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Added BONUS eggs in #OpenCrystalCaves!
A classic easter egg in #CrystalCaves. Did you ever shoot these? If you did they seem to leave random letters that are worth 100 points, but the eggs alone are 1000 points. Smarter not to shoot them right?
This is where the game tricks you! Because the letters aren't random, they exactly spell BONUS (there are always 5 eggs when they appear), and the last gives you 10000 points!
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Big progress with #OpenCrystalCaves: levels 13 and 14 are done, including the “low gravity” mechanic!
Why the scare quotes? Because it doesn’t - as you might assume - make you jump higher, despite what the sign says. Instead it means when you fire it pushes you back a bit, so in “remaster” mode the signs are replaced with “heavy recoil” or “light recoil” depending on the level.
#CrystalCaves #GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday #OpenSource #DOS #RetroGames
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It's #PortfolioDay! I'm a hobbyist #OpenSource #gamedev all-rounder, I make games like #CDogsSDL and #OpenCrystalCaves
I also make #chiptune #music, #PixelArt, sometimes at the same time
https://www.youtube.com/@congusbongusgames
If you like them I have a small but growing collection at bandcamp
https://congusbongusgames.bandcamp.com
I also #blog about gamedev, #GameDesign, game music, game maps and other related topics
My projects are usually slow burning so follow me for updates!
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New release for #OpenCrystalCaves!
https://congusbongus.itch.io/opencrystalcaves/devlog/1479607/levels-8-12-savecontinue-game
We’ve completed levels 8-12, and implemented game save and continue. Also made a quality-of-life feature where the game controls are shown to first-time players, complete with @kenney's keyboard sprites and mini-Mylo
#ScreenshotSaturday #GameDev #PixelArt #OpenSource #CrystalCaves #DOS #RetroGames
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Added the option to continue in #OpenCrystalCaves. Now that most of the levels are playable and it takes about an hour to finish each episode, this feature will come in real handy!
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#OpenCrystalCaves now tracks your progress across levels, saving to disk using good ol' .ini files!
Oh and level 12 is complete. No sweat!
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This dev update for #OpenCrystalCaves is mostly backend for a change - working on persisting player state, including health, ammo and levels completed, which carry over between levels. For the first time this game is starting to feel like a game and less like an engine tech demo!
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Another level done for #OpenCrystalCaves! Level 11 is relatively simple, claustrophobic and requires lots of backtracking in order to unlock the exit. The variety of challenge keeps a somewhat bland level interesting though, including a destructible-block section that you need to backtrack through so if you hit too many of the wrong blocks, you’d get yourself stuck. Keep your wits sharp to make it through!
#CrystalCaves #OpenSource #ScreenshotSaturday #DOS #RetroGames #GameDev
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Just like that, level 10 for #OpenCrystalCaves is complete. It's not as impressive, lacking the distinct set pieces or theming of earlier levels, but it does have a cool double-moving-lasers and moving platforms section that makes you feel like a super agent
So I worked on more QoL features, like making lasers flicker so they’re easy to see. EGA games look vivid but when the background is also vivid, you can’t see the important stuff.
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Another enemy and level done for #OpenCrystalCaves! The eye monster is the most complex enemy in the game, featuring three body parts that must be destroyed separately, and the monster can shoot eyeballs and is invulnerable while its eyes are closed too!
Many enemy behaviours are shared so after some refactoring the enemies can be implemented by sharing code. The game is coming together at a quicker pace
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Extra dev time from nursing a cold so finished level 8 of #OpenCrystalCaves, including a cheeky robot enemy that zaps you!
All the levels in #CrystalCaves are memorable, and while level 8 doesn’t have huge set pieces, it has some one-way passages (via blocks that you can only jump up through), so it’s the first time players get stuck and need to restart. This plus a few sneaky surprises means the game gets serious now!
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Implemented the bird enemy in #OpenCrystalCaves
This is no simple enemy - it drops eggs on you, which normally break open and leave a hazard on the ground, but 10% of the time it hatches into a little bird! So the effort was 4x normal (bird+egg+spill+birdlet).
That 10% chance is a doozy - most players won’t expect it because the first few times they come across the bird it will never happen. This game loves surprises!
#GameDev #OpenSource #CrystalCaves #RetroGames #DOS #ScreenshotSaturday
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It's a new release of #OpenCrystalCaves, and levels 5, 6, 7 are now complete!
https://congusbongus.itch.io/opencrystalcaves/devlog/1114309/level-5-6-7
There's also a bunch of features and game mechanics added, like Milo exploding after shooting the air tank.
This feels like an important milestone as we have just under 50% of the first episode playable, so the game feels half-complete now. Based on experience this means we're about... 20% done haha
#GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday #OpenSource #CrystalCaves #DOS #RetroGames
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Completed level 7 in #OpenCrystalCaves, which looks like an overgrown jungle full of vines and moss and hazards like spikes (same colour as the moss), an inert rock which looks exactly like a rock monster seen earlier, and for the first time, a wall monster that pops out when close! Very sneaky, game!
The best part is the many chests that open with a satisfying sound (I think it sounds like “buuurger”). Mmm I’m hungry
#DOS #OpenSource #CrystalCaves #RetroGames #GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday
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Hey #PortfolioDay! I'm a hobbyist #OpenSource #gamedev all-rounder, I make games like #CDogsSDL and #OpenCrystalCaves
https://congusbongus.itch.io/opencrystalcaves
I also make #chiptune #music, #PixelArt, sometimes at the same time
https://www.youtube.com/@congusbongusgames
When I find the time - which is not often - I #blog about gamedev, #GameDesign, game music, game maps and other related topics
So many projects, so little time! I hope you find something you like
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#CrystalCaves has a lot of humour and this really shows in the death animations. Implemented one in #OpenCrystalCaves: hitting the air tank and exploding! Also, Mylo’s helmet flies off!
This is peak 90s, the myth of humans inflating or exploding in vacuum was quite common. (Not shown: Arnold noises)
Also shown is a dev bug where using the wrong sprite makes it look like Mylo is being raptured
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Strange things happen in #gamedev, like reverse causality: in level 6 of #OpenCrystalCaves, the presence of the reverse gravity sign causes the level’s gravity to be reversed!
And with this level 6 is complete. It’s memorable but otherwise quite simple, only with some speleothems (that’s a term that covers stalactites and stalagmites - did you know this? My spell check certainly didn’t - the things you learn when making a game!
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Implemented hidden crystals in #OpenCrystalCaves
I wanted to make this sooner but it turned out harder than expected, as it’s really 3 features in one: bump-able platforms, spawning items on bumping said platforms, and finally the hidden crystal itself which flies up and bounces a bit
With this level 5 is pretty much feature-complete; moving on to the next one!
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Fleshing out mechanics in level 5 of #OpenCrystalCaves - implemented the falling rocks. One thing we're doing differently than the original #CrystalCaves is ensure the rocks aren't spawned harmlessly outside the play area, so the tension is always there!
In most of the game you can sit back and assess before entering danger, but this mechanic means you’re always on edge, making the level unusually tense despite being otherwise simple.
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Level 5 of #OpenCrystalCaves is now “complete”; as we’ve implemented most of the level loading, this came together much faster than before - instead of months per level, this took only a week.
Now we focus on unique game mechanics. Look closely and you’ll see the “Falling rocks” sign: this is a uniquely tense level. And the second half includes big pits with spikes at the bottom: this a classic challenging platforming level.
#CrystalCaves #GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday #OpenSource #RetroGames
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Made a new release of #OpenCrystalCaves!
https://congusbongus.itch.io/opencrystalcaves/devlog/984248/040
This release includes playable levels 1 & 3, both with unique mechanics, as well as features like sound!
The game has likely hit an inflection point, as work on laying groundwork tapers off while the pace of features and polishing pick up. Hopefully episode 1 will be playable before too long!
#GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday #DOS #OpenSource #CrystalCaves #RetroGames
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Working on some bug fixes and polish for an upcoming release of #OpenCrystalCaves, such as having the green "bigfoot” monster chase the player on hit, or tweaking the hurt boxes so that trick jumps work - they have to be just right!
#GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday #DOS #RetroGames #OpenSource #CrystalCaves
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Level 3 of #OpenCrystalCaves is fully playable and the game is ready for another release. Progress has picked up so as well as building out features, I've been working on polish as well.
Now that the game allows dying, I actually died several times attempting to record this playthrough. The game can be quite tough!
#GameDev #OpenSource #CrystalCaves #DOS #RetroGames #ScreenshotSaturday
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Implemented a few mechanics in #OpenCrystalCaves, including being able to die (just restarts the level), the reverse gravity powerup, and the stop enemies powerup. To improve over #CrystalCaves, the stop powerup makes enemies blink, to hint that they can't hurt the player - this isn't obvious and may have tricked many new players.
Level 3 may be very linear but it packs a lot of powerups - including invincibility - so it's memorable.
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Progress is picking up for #OpenCrystalCaves, level 1 is largely done and moving on to level 3. #CrystalCaves has a lot of wacky features, like this air pipe that sucks the player in and can kill you, or this red mushroom which makes the player invincible, so there are still many mechanics to add!
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Here's a comparison of dark mode between classic #CrystalCaves, #OpenCrystalCaves remastered mode and Crystal Caves HD. The otherwise excellent HD remake doesn't do it as well as the original IMO, as the rim lighting is much less obvious and the whole level is much harder to see - the player is especially hard to make out. OpenCrystalCaves follows the original's approach, keeping the prominent highlights but uses blue shades throughout to give a more authentic dark appearance
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Added light switches for #OpenCrystalCaves. The OG #CrystalCaves did this cleverly: being limited to the EGA palette, they did a palette swap, changing lights to darks and darks to blacks, resulting in this atmospheric cave-like effect that is quite effective. But we're not limited to EGA today which means we have the option to try an even better monochrome palette!
Check it out - you can swap between the two in game with the spacebar!
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Implemented some features in #OpenCrystalCaves including the triceratops and this roly poly thing which sleeps occasionally
But what I'm really happy about is refactoring some of the loops so that the programs no longer burn my lap
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This week I've made a major breakthrough with #OpenCrystalCaves - decoded the #CrystalCaves sound files, so now the game has sound!
This was a goal from day one but the reverse engineering proved tricky. It didn't help that the wiki page was misleading (the data file actually has footers, not headers). Staring at the files in a hex editor eventually gave it away.
Pic unrelated - audio recording broken, something else we added recently.