The Velvet Crystal
Regulus's submission to the 2023 Minetest Game Jam
Recover the lost crystal and bring the light back into the world.
Note
The parkour in the most recent version has been made easier; this was due to the many comments about how the parkour was way too hard.
Licensing
This game code is licensed under the MIT license, a copy of which is contained in the file named LICENSE.
The textures, sounds, and any other media other than the code are licensed under the CC0 license, a copy of which is contained in the file named CC0.
Credits
All of the original code, textures, and sounds from the jam version are authored by me.
Dalgamer also contributed suggestions regarding plot and level design.
After the game jam, Warr1024 and luatic contributed some code.
Additionally, Warr1024 contributed his voice acting skills to make the game fully-voiced.
Beta-testers:
- Dalgamer -- Lead Beta-tester
- Josiah VanderZee
- Archfan
- Maple8
Well-executed, with good variety, for a short game
This is a very balanced and well-executed game. It has a well-written story, variety of gameplay elements and areas, fits the theme, and seems to suffer from no major bugs or breakages.
The main annoyance I ran into, that made it hard to complete the game without resorting to cheating, is how unforgiving the parkour sections are, especially considering the level of movement jank in Minetest. It was hard to get my momentum correct client-side but lock in server-side, even with the short network path for singleplayer. Something like allowing you to set restart checkpoints by standing perfectly still for a few seconds would have been more fair, without sacrificing the challenge for people who want to speed through.
The projectile combat also felt a little sluggish, though this may just have been my bias coming from other games with faster-moving projectiles; given the movement speed of the enemies, it didn't feel unfair or anything. I didn't have enough health supplies for the boss fight, but apparently the only consequence for dying is injury to my pride, so you can still make it through even if you didn't plan well enough.
I didn't find the plot twist all that surprising, but the evolving gameplay supplied enough intrigue to keep me interested through it, and the story was at least not a distraction, and gave the gameplay a sense of structure and meaning.
Players should expect to need some patience for the parkour elements (especially with MT's imprecision) but the momentum-locking mechanic makes those still worth experiencing, and the game overall is enjoyable in a single sitting, and for replay value you can speed-run it.
Fairly complete parkour/maze game, with a plot twist at the end!
You need to recover a crystal and bring it back to it's origin to light up the world again. This is a parkour/maze/combat game in one, which is easily finished, but it's a lot of fun to play and feels mostly complete. The gameplay and characters are pretty good and the music fit well. The plot twist at the end was very unexpected and caught me totally offguard - I only barely survived because I hadn't farmed the health powder enough earlier on, I just jumped over the ants many times. The wand is completely intuitive: The "Orange" function of the wand makes you glide in the vector that you are travelling in for a limited time, the "Blue" function gives you the ability to throw blue damage balls at enemies, and the "Green" function shrinks you. Once you get the hang of it, you can solve the levels somewhat proficiently: it does take some time to get used to it though. My main complaint would be that it felt a bit short - I completed it in 30 minutes, but it felt like it could use a few more levels that explain the theme better. For a short playthrough, this game is fantastic - recommended.
(Mostly) Easy Puzzle Game
[NOTE: This review is for the game jam version of the game]
The game mechanics are pretty simple: You get a magic staff and it has 3 capabilities: You can float, you can shoot blue projectiles of ... something and you can become small. The rooms are pretty simple parcour and/or puzzle maps. Only one room has frustrated me a little because the timing of your jump had to be near-perfect, but I still managed to do it. The "shooting" and "become small" abilities work exactly as you think and they work perfectly.
The "floating" ability feels kinda awkward tho. Basically it just deactivates gravity for you for a few seconds, so you have to first jump, then activate the ability and time it VERY precisely. It works, but it's awkward to use. I wish this ability had been more fleshed-out. I would strongly recommend this in case a larger, more serious version of the game is planned.
The game is pretty short. At the end there's a simple but solid boss fight. It crashed but I could restart and finish the game.
The game is okayish but not great. It's well enough executed for a neutral rating. Neutral because the floating is not well balanced and there is one room that was pointlessly frustrating because you needed perfect jump timing. With better polishing and levels, I would have given thumbs up.
PS: My game completion time was 24 minutes, 18.467227 seconds (very precise game timer lol)
Good game
Took me ~20 minutes to play this through, I like the mechanics. The "health powder" feels like a bit of a cheat - I had plenty of it when I went into the boss fight.
Interesting game with a basic plot and twist, but still fun.
The Velvet Crystal is an rpg game where you become a wizard and have to go on a quest through backrooms to get the thingamabob that was stolen. So pretty basic and not extremely interesting, but still fun. The wand effects were cool to figure out how to use, and the parkour was unique to the wand's powers. The twist at the end wasn't unexpected for me however, because I was pretty suspicious about halfway through.
Lists and ratings:
Scores rate how good different aspects of the game are.
Effects is mostly how the game looks and is built. If a game doesn’t have good-looking textures, particle effects, or architecture that is actually plot-relevant, it can get a low Effects score.
Gameplay involves how good, fun, interesting or effective the gameplay is. If a game doesn’t have well-designed puzzles that are something a gamer actually feels they can figure out with obvious end results, it can get a low Gameplay score.
Plot, of course, is how good the plot is, how well it fits with the game itself, and whether it is interesting enough to keep players interested. If a game doesn’t have an obvious plot or goals, it can get a low Plot score.
Theme is how the game feels and is laid out. If a game doesn’t feel right, have a theme that fits its plot or gameplay, or is too bland or empty-feeling, it can get a low Theme score.
Unexpected Theme is only how a game fits the theme of the 2024 Game Jam.
All of these are rated out of ten (#/10), and the final result will be a combination of all these scores out of fifty (#/50).
Effects: 4/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Plot: 6/10
Theme: 8/10
Unexpected Theme: 4/10
Overall: 31/50
Pretty cool
OVERVIEW - The Velvet crystal is pretty cool. It's lacking a bit in sounds and graphics, but seems to have a pretty cool storyline.
RATING SYSTEM:
1 - Not a fan 2 - Meh 3 - Okay 4 - Good 5 - Love it!
GAMEPLAY - 4
GRAPHICS - 2
PLAYER-FRIENDLY - 5
PERFORMANCE - 5
SOUNDS & MUSIC - 2
THEME - 2
TOTAL - 20 (Good)
It's fun
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers.)
Well made, a nice linear game
Other than the issues with the parkour difficulty mentioned by other reviews (I found the downward glide really hard to do, and am still not sure how I completed the grey glass parkour) this was a really enjoyable ~21-minute game. Points for it being made in a month too.
Probably the best for this jam
It's hard to balance content and mechanics for a short minimalist game. But this game does not feel unfinished, it feels exactly minimalist, and its made with very simple tools into fun platformer, and it does not seem that something is missing or this game has to be much more to be enjoyable. This game nails it.
Nice game
The game is fun to play and I never felt like I was lost or confused when going through it, I think the worst thing I could say about it is that I forgot who the characters were when they reappeared later in the story (which is not really an issue, I think I managed to figure out who they were).
Velvet crystal playthrough
i loved the story and the music keep up the great work
complicado
Un juego divertido pero exige mucha habilidad
6.5/10 One of the few in Minetest...
A very neatly execution of a short adventure game! Love the story, love the charm of the music, love the classic feel of playing an RPG title. The NPC dialogs (or monologues i guess) and narrative sets the tone for the game. Game mechanics wise, it's lame. The "ominously float like a ghost" wand is a bit cheesable by spam clicking, unless that's intended (the parkour isn't bad imo, since it's at least more predictable to control compared to Glitch's dash). The blue fireballs wand is meh combat. The shrinking wand needs more ideas to expand on it. The boss room should make me use all three wands, and there's probably lots of ways to execute this. Overall, i was convinced by the premise wholeheartedly but the mechanics bores me. However, i still recommend players to try this game solely for its charm, plus it's very short.
Additionally, of course, a combination of engine limitations and bugs. The room transitions could use work. Falling into the murky water(?) sends you below the world, kinda ruining the experience. HUD animations for deaths would be neat. The boss cinematic bars don't work right with the hotbar.
Highly frustrating, dropped it after a little bit
It started nicely with the introduction (albeit a bit too long) but then it immediately becomes frustrating with the wand mechanic. It's not intuitive, and starting from the begininning of the parkour area every time you fail doesn't help. I wasn't encouraged to continue after a few tries. Also, I don't understand how it fits the jam theme "unexpected"