Crystal Defense by Wieczny
Crystal Defense is a simple, short survivor-type game, in which you play as a summoner defending their crystal against incoming waves of enemies.

Summon the powers of nature and combine it for special effects to get rid of the hellspawn.


DOWNLOAD FOR THE BEST EXPERIENCE (game will run much smoother)
Controlls: WASD - movement LMB - summon magic 1,2,3,4 - magic's slots E - interact with monolith between waves SPACE - start wave ESC - quit game (windows build only)
Wieczny - manager, programmer
Marryvss - 2D artist
phototraper - 3D artist
JamesBoink - programmer, audio
| Link | https://jamesboink.itch.io/crystal-defense |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/crystal-defense-1 |
Ratings
| Overall | 880th | 3.3⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 624th | 3.405⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1029th | 2.857⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 668th | 3.571⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 830th | 3.325⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 698th | 2.85⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 1018th | 2.111⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1022th | 3.026⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 21🗳️ | 25🗨️ |
Well done!
The synergy between the effects is a cool mechanic.
graphics are nice, especially the icons wich are really easy to identify
Nice entry 👍
(Side note hitting esc makes the game unresponsive with seemingly no way to get it working again. I lost a run trying to cancel a spell :p)
I loved how the game started right away, no sort of tutorial for the store and stuff, when it's relevant it is introduced. I really think all jam games should aim to start like this. Let the player start by playing the game, and then point them in the right direction. How the player firing the first spell triggers the first wave is classy AF.
The visual circle on the ground for the spells are great! You could have left it at left click to magic and gotten away with it. I really like the WC3 aesthetic as well!
I think that the player should earn a lot more crystals per wave. After the second wave I could upgrade a spell - and that feels appropriate to me. One wave - one upgrade ish. Maybe something was bugged but I only got about a crystal per wave. I feel since it's a game jam, let the the player be a spell slinger and then overload them with enemies instead. I wanted to try all the spells but I didn't want to replay more than a couple of times.
I couldn't get past the 4th wave. I read in the comments some people manage to get to the 10th wave. Maybe they picked a better skill initially or I just can't figure out how to get crystals?
I think this is something you might be able to just fix on the itch page, but right now, the fullscreen button is cropped and also the web fullscreen thingy is on top of it. I first ran the game in that fullscreen, meaning I got big black borders around the game. And also it seems like pressing escape locks the game.
Keep in mind most my criticism is just some technical issue, and maybe the balancing of crystals. The core concept is really solid! Well done, you made a nice little game in 2 or 3 days!