Home, sweet home · Crystal Dream

Eleven weeks after the first commit, Crystal Dream has a home, literally. This week’s two versions change how the game begins, how it looks in its menus, and how alive its meadows feel.

A new logo

The title screen has a new pixel-art CRYSTAL DREAM logo: gold lettering set with gems, violet crystals behind and curling vines. It replaces the old full-screen illustration, which still spelled the title “Cristal”. It’s the same logo you see at the top of this website.

The new title screen.

Starting at home

The hill at the start of the first map is gone. In its place stands Ash’s house, and a new game begins inside it. It has art of its own: a thatched cottage with honey-coloured plank walls, built against a huge old oak. Inside is an attic room with a fireplace, a round window, barrels and a bed where Ash can rest, like at an inn.

Ash in his attic bedroom, with the fireplace, the bed and a painting on the wall — Where it all begins: Ash's room.

The outside of Ash's house, a thatched cottage under a big oak, with the first tutorial stone nearby — Ash's house from outside, under the old oak.

When Ash enters a building the camera now zooms in smoothly from 2x to 3x, and frames the whole room. Every house also got a painting on the wall, picked from ten (hills, the Crystal Heart, an oak, Barkwood’s castle, a moonlit lake, a mine, a sailing ship, snowy peaks, a village and a vase of flowers).

The Sylvanor tavern: the innkeeper, a fireplace, a painting of a sailing ship and the new bed with a red blanket — The tavern, with its painting and the new inn bed.

Gold frames

Dialogues, the pause menu and the confirm boxes now sit in an ornate gold frame with violet gems and curling vines, matching the logo. Item cards, buttons and save slots got thin gold frames too, and the HUD got lighter. (These same frames dress this website.)

A dialogue with the Wizard in an ornate gold frame with violet gems — The Wizard's dialogue in the new gold frame.

The pause menu in its gold frame, on the Map tab, listing the seven realms — The pause menu, now framed in gold.

Meadows full of life

Birds (sparrows, robins, blue tits, wrens) peck on the grass and take off when Ash comes close, one after another, each in its own direction. Butterflies flutter around the flowers.
Tall grass bends as you walk through it, up to Ash’s knees.
Falling leaves drift down from the trees and settle on the ground, and Ash kicks them up again when he runs over them.
Fireflies blink in the dark maps of the Mother Tree.
Dust puffs up when Ash lands or skids, and he splashes when he swims at the surface.
Stones, mushrooms, stumps, logs and ferns break up the meadows.

The dark roots of the Mother Tree, dotted with glowing fireflies — Fireflies in the dark of the Mother Tree.

A story taking shape

Past the Wizard’s hut, a wall of brambles blocks the forest path until Ash has a sword. One stroke cuts the whole thicket down.
Ash can speak his mind at chosen spots, with his portrait: in the storm he says he’d better find shelter, and then that he’ll spend the night in a cave.
That cave closes the first map and leads to the Dream Scene, for now a black screen waiting for its animation.
NPCs can say something different the second time you talk to them, and the Wizard’s dialogue was rewritten, shorter.

Ash in the forest in front of a thick wall of brambles — The brambles that only a sword can clear.

Water and lava also got animated, hand-crafted depths, and saved games can now be deleted from the slot screen.

By the numbers

27 commits.
Versions 0.26.0 and 0.27.0.
Eleven weeks, 27 versions and around 430 commits since the first green rectangle.