Crystalex

[myndzi]

Many years ago, when the Something Awful forums were a lot more active than they are now, a goon posted a link to a puzzle game he'd made. It was a fun thread, and indeed, it was a fun game. A couple of you may know that I much prefer certain types of mechanical puzzles - and with them, solving new things once - to playing the same thing over and over, which makes Tetris something of an anomaly for me. I suspect, however, that many of you would enjoy many kinds of puzzle games, and so I bring you this.

Download here.

The game, like most good puzzle games, offers simple mechanics with complex possibilities. Basically, you have a little ball that moves up and down on its own...

[!--ImageUrlBegin--][a href=\\\"http://i52.tinypic.com/ve880i.png\\\" target=\\\"_new\\\"][!--ImageUrlEBegin--][img width=\\\"400\\\" class=\\\"attach\\\" src=\\\"http://i52.tinypic.com/ve880i.png\\\" border=\\\'0\\\' alt=\\\"IPB Image\\\" /][!--ImageUrlEnd--][/a][!--ImageUrlEEnd--]



and you control its movement in the left-to-right direction. The levels center around breaking blocks, which you can do by hitting them from the top/bottom (and bouncing away when they are destroyed), or swiping them from the side (in which case you move through them instead of bouncing off of them).

You get points for breaking the blocks, and you get extra points for breaking them in rapid succession. Some levels are solved by breaking all the blocks, some by reaching a point threshold, and some have a time limit. There are different colored blocks, and in order to break any colored blocks, you must hit the appropriate key to "polarize" your ball to break that color of block. There are a few other components of the game, but the tutorial will go over them all.

The game is not entirely complete, so the UI is a bit glitchy, but all the levels work. I never encountered any problems playing the actual game itself.

The thing I like the most about this game (besides the mod soundtrack - go demoscene!) is the level design. I repeatedly found myself trying crazy things only to discover that 1) they worked and 2) that appeared to be the intent of the level itself. In addition to that, there are plenty of levels (96, I think?), and they progress nicely from simple to very difficult (even some levels that you come back to with tougher restrictions - a mechanic that I quite like when it works, and it is used sparingly enough that it works well here). In short, the game has all the earmarks of a well designed puzzle game, excepting the fact that the author apparently never completed the polish.

I encourage you guys to check it out, post your progress, or ask for help in this thread  I remember having a lot of fun doing the same when the author originally posted it, and hopefully some of you guys will have the same experience.