Crystal Towers 2 - Fourth release in two years

Not to make an extravagant claim or anything, but I think I might have just solved all the game's speed problems in one go. (Not that anyone else was reporting any, that is. It seems that only I have a computer too poor to run my own game.)



I had a look at that after noticing that a level that I'd sat on without quite completing for ages slowed down drastically after I scattered collectible gems throughout. Disabling their collisions when they're not near the game window doesn't have an impact on gameplay because you're always on the screen when you hit one, but it's made performance leap from a snail's pace on some of the more complex levels back to completely normal and fast again. It's just slightly annoying that I discovered this only after a whole lot of other performance-related effort.

Work on the game has sped up again after I released a half-finished version to some testers selected for their interest, game design knowledge or lack of more important things to do, and I'm once again feeling that it's actually going to be quite good - they've been keeping me busy with suggestions for improvements in all areas. I'm quite pleased, also, that the game seems to be taking about as long to play as it did to create.

( Anyway, have some screenshots )