LudumData

Crystal Of Shadows by Serilyn

[raw]
made by Serilyn for LD26 (COMPO)
In Crystal of Shadows you are defending the crystal from some shades that were attracted by the mushrooms that some faes left nearby. The fewer mushrooms you have, the fewer shades will come in the future, and because they drain power, the power reserves in the area can't handle this many for very long. Minimize the number of mushrooms but keep enough so you can kill the shades that attack.

Hints:
You can move mushrooms with the hand tool.
You win the game if you survive a round that starts with fewer than 10 shades.

Tools Used:
Language: C#/XNA
Javascript Conversion: JSIL
IDE: Visual Studio
Art: Photoshop
Sound Effects: Microphone and Audacity
Music: autotracker and OpenMPT
Map Editor: Tiled

The Javascript version will run in Firefox or Chrome but Firefox is a little sluggish and has some sound problems so Chrome is recommended.

Windows(XNA) http://bitgriffin.com/LudumDare/CrystalOfShadows/CrystalOfShadows.zip
XNA Runtimes http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20914
Web (HTML5 - Best in Chrome) http://bitgriffin.com/LudumDare/CrystalOfShadows/
Source http://bitgriffin.com/LudumDare/CrystalOfShadows/CrystalOfShadowsSource.zip
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=1128

Ratings

Coolness 74% 3
Overall 3.26 457
Audio 2.51 670
Fun 3.05 496
Graphics 2.95 615
Humor 2.38 457
Innovation 3.21 484
Mood 2.84 584
Theme 3.05 994

Feedback

sparkleswirl
29. Apr 2013 · 18:48 UTC
This game is excellent. I really love the way you twisted the tower defense genre. Definitely very creative and fits the theme well.
lody
29. Apr 2013 · 18:57 UTC
I started the first time a little lost (thinking it was a standard tower-defense game) and then came back to see your description (how to win) and it made more sense. Once I was playing with that in mind it is an interesting game.
VictorGrunn
30. Apr 2013 · 01:43 UTC
A good game, but gott in himmel, the audio when they fire.
KunoNoOni
30. Apr 2013 · 01:51 UTC
Loved the gameplay mechanics. very good use of theme.
Fadobo
30. Apr 2013 · 18:09 UTC
Cool take on tower defense. Great game. Btw. JSIL? I never heard of it. You mean I can make my XNA games run in the browser?! I think I just peed myself a little out of pure exitement. :D
Julian Ceipek
30. Apr 2013 · 18:16 UTC
A refreshing take on the tower defense genre that unfortunately seems somewhat underdeveloped. The mechanics are interesting and have the potential to make for a more compelling game, but the experience doesn't seem to be balanced very well; I didn't get the feeling that I was being challenged very much, and the act of juggling mushroom types, which seemed to be the game's focus, didn't feel very urgent because I was never in danger of losing the crystal resource.
mrexcessive
30. Apr 2013 · 18:22 UTC
Tower defense cool. Not seen JSIL before interesting. Impressive all the lasers and fireballs, fun to watch once set up.
jukimv1986
30. Apr 2013 · 18:30 UTC
Took some time on good connection to load (about 30 seconds). Very interesting concept, I like how you have to keep reducing the numbers without compromising too much. It could be more challenging if there were different types of shades, as I beat it in 4 rounds, but overall it was very enjoyable.
klianc09
30. Apr 2013 · 18:44 UTC
Already the second great take on the tower-defense genre. Well done.
8BitPimp
30. Apr 2013 · 19:03 UTC
Nice effort put into this game, even though its not a genre I play much. I did note it ran very slowly in my firefox when things started to get going. Still good effort.
arrogant.gamer
07. May 2013 · 07:03 UTC
Very nice concept. You basically reversed the tower defence game. I really enjoyed slowly relearning to play. I wonder what other genres could benefit from such a reversal?

I lost my first game, but the second game I just started by removing all my non-yellow mushrooms. I won shortly there-after without loosing a single crystal. Yellow is OP! :p
Catman
07. May 2013 · 07:21 UTC
Cute little TD! The various mushrooms seems too strong to me, though!
dertom
07. May 2013 · 21:47 UTC
Cool, very new TD-approach! Not that easy in the end. Funny animation of the shadows :D Good job
MaxSzlagor
08. May 2013 · 05:08 UTC
Interesting variation on the tower defense theme and the mechanics tie into the compo theme. Sound effects play at a very loud volume. Thank you for sharing!
kibertoad
09. May 2013 · 04:29 UTC
I really enjoyed playing this interesting take on TDs. I liked how I had to work my way down to a minimum of strategically placed mushrooms. Good job!
Tsuki_Usagi
13. May 2013 · 04:11 UTC
nice idea but must say that I didn't needed to do anything in order to win the game; just pulsed "go" and after all the shadows died, I won xD

I liked the music thought

PD: it also ran slow in Chrome D:
🎤 Serilyn
13. May 2013 · 05:37 UTC
@Tsuki_Usagi I think you either found a bug or misunderstood the winning condition. You haven't won unless you got the dialog that says "The shades have stopped coming! You have saved the day!" Yes just pushing "go" in the beginning will result in all the shades getting killed before they get to the crystal but that's not sustainable. The colors will drain over time based on the number of that color mushroom and eventually you can't push go anymore without deleting some mushrooms.
KevinLaity
15. May 2013 · 01:59 UTC
You have officially rocked the theme!