Screenshot of OpenCrystalCaves, showing a pixelated video game scene with the player standing in a night scene, with planets and stars in the background. Some button prompts are shown above the player, showing them which keys to press to move, jump and shoot

New release for #OpenCrystalCaves!

congusbongus.itch.io/opencrystalcaves/devlog/...

We’ve completed levels 8-12, and implemented game save and continue. Also made a quality-of-life feature where the game […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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!

#CrystalCaves #DOS #GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday

#OpenCrystalCaves now tracks your progress across levels, saving to disk using good ol' .ini files!

Oh and level 12 is complete. No sweat!

#GameDev #CrystalCaves #DOS #RetroGames #ScreenshotSaturday

Screenshot of OpenCrystalCaves showing the main level, with the player standing among wooden beams and numerous entrances, marked with a red check, indicating that those levels have been completed

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

It's a new release of #OpenCrystalCaves, and levels 5, 6, 7 are now complete!

congusbongus.itch.io/opencrystalcaves/devlog/...

There's also a bunch of features and game mechanics added, like Milo exploding after shooting the […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

#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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

Screenshot of level 5 of OpenCrystalCaves, which shows a blue rocky level split into left/right sections. The first section features a large cavern with platforms spread around, with a “Falling rocks” sign, indicating that rocks will randomly fall from the top of the screen, making platforming a tense challenge. The second section features long vertical shafts that lead to stalagmites at the bottom, with crystals in the many ledges on the sides.

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

Made a new release of #OpenCrystalCaves!

congusbongus.itch.io/opencrystalcaves/devlog/...

This release includes playable levels 1 & 3, both with unique mechanics, as well as features like sound!

The game has likely hit an inflection […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

Screenshot of dark mode in Crystal Caves. The level is mostly black with some rim highlights, especially on the breakable "ice" blocks below the player

Screenshot of the remastered OpenCrystalCaves dark mode, which uses a blue monochrome palette. It is also mostly dark with prominent rim lighting, but there are also a mix of dark blue shades used throughout

Screenshot of dark mode for Crystal Caves HD. Most of the level is very dark, with some not so obvious rim lighting.

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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

#GameDev #OpenSource #CrystalCaves #ScreenshotSaturday

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 […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

Today's #OpenCrystalCaves update is also a minor release, where we've made level 2 playable, and implemented a few more mechanics!

congusbongus.itch.io/opencrystalcaves/devlog/...

All the levels in #CrystalCaves are pretty unique but […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

Unlike #CrystalCaves, in #OpenCrystalCaves when you get hit by the hammer as it is coming down, you'll get squished. Hammers only appear in one level in the entire episode, so most people might miss this, but for those who see it, it could come as a […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

Implemented these scary hammers in #OpenCrystalCaves!

It was simple to implement - they just go up and down after all - but it's still quite an impressive set piece. Hard to believe that #CrystalCaves is supposed to be a mining game!

#GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday #DOS #RetroGames #OpenSource

Implemented a few things in #OpenCrystalCaves like this odd, autonomous mine cart

Also enhanced the level editor to show tile ids and unknown tiles - this should help reverse engineering a lot, I don't have to squint at a hex editor anymore! […]

[Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]