Crystal Towers 2 - Obsession

[davidn]

I think it's safe to say that I can forget any hopes of actually having this game ever out of my life. I've set up Google alerts and analytics and I still can't stop searching for myself. And that's when I'm not looking at the scorecards and seeing how fast people are making progress. Here, for the purposes of cataloguing and boasting, is a list of significant articles I've seen so far:

http://indiegames.com/2011/06/crystal_towers_2_released.html - Indiegames (pleasantly surprised)

http://www.extraguy.com/2011/06/crystal-towers-2-is-out-today/ - Sort of a repost of the Indiegames one

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/19/this-weeks-best-free-pc-games-5/ - PC Gamer's list of free games (mentions enjoying the storyline and dialogue. Not bad being on this list despite not being free, is it?)

http://www.giantbomb.com/crystal-towers-2/61-35736/ - Wiki entry on GiantBomb

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/ahoodedfigure/impulse-buys-and-a-crystal-towers-2-profile/30-83312/ - Blog on GiantBomb (the word "love" is used)

http://mediocritycodex.blogspot.com/2011/06/indie-cred-david-k-newtons-crystal.html (Flowery but enthusiastic - and you can comment to get a chance to win a free copy)

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/06/15/celestica-crystal-towers-2/ - Rock Paper Shotgun (Appreciative yet patronizing)

Out of everything I've seen written about it, however, this is pretty much my dream. To have someone who discovered the game on their own be sufficiently enthralled by it to fill in the map that I gave out to a couple of people, to write a guide to finding each level, the objectives and the use of the spells (notably finding some of the less obvious uses of them, as shown in his comments) and soon, how to get each item in the game. Given the accidental size of the challenge it's helpful to anybody to take notes, but it's a wonderful feeling that anybody cares about the game enough to produce or use such a guide.

I'm also relieved that people seem to be able to work out what to do on the final boss. I'd worried that I'd be faced with a heap of people entering the level called 'Silent Void', seeing nothing there and just standing around stuck.

Comments

[xaq.livejournal.com]

I guess this would be a bad time to mention, then, that I submitted the game for review over at Jay Is Games, my favorite site for finding new games to play?

No review of it on there yet, but I imagine there will be one in a few weeks...retro-style games like CT2 are rather popular over there.

[starfishchris.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be too concerned, some people spend their whole life searching for themselves.

Anyway, this reminded me how I never actually got further than the fifth level or so. I've downloaded it again and will try not to let it join the decade-old desktop icon cruft that plunged Red Alert 3 into a similar state of incompleteness.

[xaq.livejournal.com]

On a much happier side note...

I WOOOOOON! I BEAT THE GAME! WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I FEEL AWESOME!!! (And here I thought I'd just be thrilled about finally beating Fungulator!)

..Now to clear the last 1/3 of it I missed. *swerves around a full 180 and dives back in* Allons-y, Alonzo! ...I mean, David!

[lupineangel.livejournal.com]

I got into the Silent Void, then noted I wasn't standing on anything, the stars appeared to be made of blood, and my only aid was moving back and forth uncertainly due to the moving background, and felt like I'd accidentally wandered into CT2's equivalent of Welcome To The Machine. (I believe I actually muttered the words "...but I don't want to be in the Silent Void anymore..." at some point. :P) Then I started firing at things randomly, noting that there was no floor, and no walls, but that something blocked my shots a certain distance up above a certain section. I figured it might be like those Earthworm Jim bonus levels where everything was dark and you had to 'feel' your way around, so I tried that; didn't help any.

Then I remembered that I had a spell that helped me see invisible things, and facepalmed mightily. :P

Also, I hope my contribution to the guide effort is useful - feel free to correct anything I've screwed up, or some of the enemy names that I had to guess at.

D.F.

[davidn]

the stars appeared to be made of blood

That was... unintentional! In fact, the stars were meant to start off white and then fade to different colours as you defeated each boss. This didn't make it into the final game because I discovered late on that I'd just forgotten to do it, and couldn't be bothered at that point. (These would make great liner notes.)

felt like I'd accidentally wandered into CT2's equivalent of Welcome To The Machine

This, however, was entirely intentional and a small, futile measure of revenge to the world in general for the existence of that level and the fact that it was ever inflicted upon me. Indeed, FAROUT itself was given the starring role of introducing the level. If people under the age of ten get there, I want it to appear on "Things that scared you in classic games" lists on GameFAQs a decade from now ;)

I'm leaving people to their own devices for now, trying not to step in and give things away :) I'm interested in what people call enemies, in their own heads, though. Everything has an internal name, but for poor design decision reasons, not many will be what you'd expect. (For example, "Fossil fuel" = "Wing".)

[davidn]

Congratulations, then, and enjoy the gold star on your entry on the list :) (Probably not too much, though, because you had it this morning and I only just changed it so that paid players who hadn't completed the game had silver stars instead.)

Now that I look at your played-won-lost numbers, I noticed you're just about the first person I've looked at who didn't have special difficulty with Beam Stack.

[davidn]

And thank you for the submission :) I actually did that myself today, as well - perhaps the power of multiple suggestions will increase its chances!

[davidn]

I'll be watching the scorecards :) People have said it's difficult to get out of, once you're in it...

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Beam Stack was a cinch once I got the hang of dodging its attacks. The missiles were, admittedly, the trickiest part, but once I got that taken care of, he had a one-way ticket for the scrap pile.

In any case, though, yay for me! :D

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Glad I'm not the only one who applied palm to face at that particular revelation.

"WHY CAN I NOT SEE ANYTHING!?!?"

...

...

*types 5* (Quick aside ein: Did you know you can assign 1-0 to hotkey various spells? 1-5 will switch Spell 1, 6-0 Spell 2.)

*type E* (Quick aside zwei: I redid my controls in my standard Emulator Keypad layout for this game.)

*WHAP* "Much better." (Quick aside drei: ...Actually, there is no QA3. Sorry!)

[xaq.livejournal.com]

I think I may have just topped myself, and possibly the whole world, in CT2 fails.

Stage: Twisted Tropics C
Quest: Return to the start of the stage!

About 80% of the way through, I had Double-Jump and Haste on, took a huge dive off a cliff towards the top of the stage...and JUST missed the ledge at the bottom which, if I'd landed on, would have put me within spitting distance of the Rainbow Gem.

My failure was so spectacular, the game froze on me! XD

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Well, loathe as I am to admit this...at 80.14% completion and, at time of post, 4th place on the scoreboard, I think I've done all I'm gonna be able to do. Every Rainbow Gem challenge I've got lined up has stymied me multiple times and, in more than one instance, induced ragequit.

Not that I'm gonna give up, but I think this may be where my game plateaus. :[



Still, God this game is brilliant. :D

[davidn]

Well, my congratulations on your progress so far :) I'm really glad that you've been enjoying it so much!

Perhaps the guide effort in the forums will help at some point ;)

[xaq.livejournal.com]

I'm not so sure. The ones remaining involve either not touching certain things (gems or enemies), or my worst nemesis so far, the leaky wallet.

[davidn]

Who's this finding more gems one day later? :)

I know what you mean about the "leaky wallet" missions, as well - I actually made a couple of them rather easier just before releasing the game! They're sort of unique in that you can't really do much with spells directly to make them easier - I find that actually taking them more slowly and calmly helps, getting everything possible rather than dashing past everything in the hope to make it to the end.

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Yeah, turns out I completely forgot that I'd unlocked Flying Fortress C...hehe, whoops.

Also, on a much prouder note:

Ironworks C - "Find all the chips without taking a hit."
Ragequits induced: 7.
Status: VENGEANCE IS MINE!!

EDIT: Oh! And that's just the gem I needed to open Azure Cliffs C! Final recipe, here I come! ^_^

EDIT #2: ...Aaand grabbed. O_o;

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to take a second to say something here:

Lava Tank?

BEST.
BOSS.
FIGHT.
EVER.

[davidn]

:D

(I'm still not fed up of that flying boss music, either!)

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Me neither. It's a pity there weren't more of them.