The Daily Click

::. ::. ::.

Author:	David Newton (DavidN)	Submitted:	1st October, 2004	Favourites:	0
Genre:	Platformer	Downloads:	458
Rated:

As you saw in the preview last week, Crystal Towers is a platform game about Bernard, the nightwatchman at the Column Temple, who has to recover the stolen life crystals from around the world.

This demo features three stages - all of Column Temple, the first level of the game, and one of the levels from Walnut Creek slightly later on. There's also a mini-preview of the full game at the end.

Controls are standard Click fare: Arrow keys to move about, look up and down, and select on menus. The Shift key to select an option or jump. Read the in-game help for more information.

The game runs in a window, but can be scaled up to a full-screen window which uses VRAM - I've heard that this can run very slowly on some computers, particularly when transparent objects are being displayed. In the full game a true full screen option will be available.

Main character design by Jamie Newton, everything else (graphics, music, coding) by David Newton.

Review This Download

http://wired.st-and.ac.uk/~wong/crystaltowersdemo.zip (1858kb )

Posted by Mitch M

1st October, 2004

yeeey. I"m gonne play this :)

Posted by Retired Kliker Lazarus

1st October, 2004

Looks sweet...I need to get back to the classroom, though. I'll download it later...

Posted by Arf :: FPP Games

1st October, 2004

Well the engine's quite decent, so that puts it in the top 5% or so of klik platformers already. I was mildy disappointed though, given Circy's enthusiastic write up, that it didn't really have any original elements or ideas (unless there are loads in the third level, which I didn't reach). The level design was quite good - the non-linearity of it really helps - but it could do with one or two stand-out features to make it more interesting than the average platformer. This is definately a promising start, however.

Posted by Silveraura

1st October, 2004

Nice, the engine is really smooth, the music is high quality, same with the sound effects. Its really nice quality! Good job, keep it going!

Posted by Jason Orme

1st October, 2004

very cool game!

Posted by Noyb

1st October, 2004

Great job. I'm looking forward to the full version.

Posted by Tom

1st October, 2004

I have to say I really enjoyed playing this game. The graphics are alright I guess, about average for a click game, but the game plays just great. The engine ran fairly nicely, I had a couple of bugs but they're nothing to worry about. The presentation is excellent, as is the music. Good luck with the game, I look forward to it's release.

Posted by Cazra

1st October, 2004

looks very good! :) If this wasn't a demo, it would own GOTW.

Posted by tdc052621

1st October, 2004

there is one glitch where the guy dies.

Posted by Muggus

1st October, 2004

Oh man. This game severely rocks. This is what Klik platformers should be like.

Posted by vortex2

1st October, 2004

I loved the old apogee games and dos platformers :D. I think this is the best 2d side scroller I have played in a long time! Add a custom F1 help screen in the style of commander keen or hocus pocus and you got it made ;).

Posted by Claudio-Italy

2nd October, 2004

I don't like platform games in general but I really like this. I think the graphics are quite good too.

Posted by ChasetheCheese

2nd October, 2004

Cool, Nam and Crystal Towers, I was waiting for those :) Hehe I like it, But ive got a question. I guess you made this with MMF. Now you made Parallax scrolling. So is your entire level made of active objects? or is there another way. Ive been trying to find out so long :P please, could anyone here answer me this.

Posted by David Newton (DavidN)

2nd October, 2004

I learned everything I know about parallax scrolling from Circy - http://www.create-games.com/article.asp?id=1255 zim, where's the glitch? I may be able to repair it in the full version.

Posted by MattB

2nd October, 2004

I quite like it. The previous comments about innovating are true, but I think it's a really solid game as it is. As mentioned by others, the parallax scrolling is terriffic, reminds me of something, I wanna say Super Mario World but I can't remember exactly. Some of the environment graphics, particularly in the cave at the very start, seemed to lack the polish of those later in the level, specifically the repeating rock background, platforms, and those hunks of polygonal rock here and there. I really enjoyed the graphics later in the first level and in the second level, though; I guess just because I've never seen anything like that in a game. The music is pretty nice, too. It's got that great 80's MIDI feel that the Sonic games had and, though I'm just judging by the first few levels of course, it seems to retain that same feel instead of going all over the place like most Klik soundtracks. Oh yeah, if possible, I think you should make Bernie bob a bit while he's running to make him see more natural, but I guess I'm just kinda weird like that. But more to the point: I really like it. Can't wait for the full release.

Posted by Dogzer

2nd October, 2004

this game is AWESOME

Posted by Pepparstruts

3rd October, 2004

Yeah, this game's awesome alright! Simply amazing: how did you ever make such a great game?

Posted by Jason Orme

3rd October, 2004

Very nice Retro feel to it.

Posted by MekahDexa

4th October, 2004

It's a pretty good game, I really like the scrolling, keep working on it, it looks like one of the best

Posted by GoMoogles

4th October, 2004

Very nice! I've been looking for a good platformer...and I've finally found one!

Posted by DaVince

6th October, 2004

WE WANT MORE! :D:D:D:D:D:D

Posted by Dr. James MD

10th October, 2004

i really like the music in this. some catchy stuff. the gameplay kinda reminds me of Superfrog minus the attack abilities. not a huge fan of the graphics mind you (except them beautifully simplistic level-name intros) but the music more than makes up for it. will the full game have bosses?

Posted by David Newton (DavidN)

10th October, 2004

I'm rather torn as to whether to include them or not.

Posted by Bo Fu

14th October, 2004