Hey everyone, this is Zodiac GameLab. The incremental game Crystal Ascend has made some progress!
Before I knew it, I’ve already posted 11 dev logs. It’s quite satisfying to see the game gradually becoming richer in my own hands.
Enough small talk – the element finished this time is — Dark.
Since this is an incremental game where you absorb aether from elemental crystals to level up, the skill design revolves around elemental themes. The dark element brings to mind darkness, power from the abyss. So my idea is that when a dark crystal is broken, it tears open a rift from the void, instantly slicing through everything it touches. Visually, it looks like releasing a black blade flash.When that blade flash cuts through other dark crystals, it triggers another blade flash. If you prioritize increasing crystal density and dark crystal probability in the skill tree, then when the dark crystal density is high enough, the blade flashes create a domino‑like chain reaction.
The feeling of chained shattering is pretty awesome.You can also upgrade the tech so that after a blade flash is generated, it has a chance to spawn an extra blade flash.During the early development, I ran into a bug: the chain destruction happened instantly – nearly a thousand crystals with effects all blowing up in the same frame. The CPU nearly went up in smoke, and the whole system almost spiraled into the sky… Later, I tried adding a slight delay to the collision activation, and the effect started working perfectly!Enough talk – check out the video.
This won’t be the final version—there are still plenty of effects to add, but I’ll stop here for now.
A simple incremental game where you nurture crystal elementals by destroying floating crystals and harvesting aether. Upgrade the skill tree, unlock new abilities to gather resources faster, and build your ultimate crystal companions. If you’re interested, feel free to add to wishlist 😊