Hey everyone! 

It’s devlog time again, and this one is quite exciting… At the end of this you’ll have learned about the next big update for Crystal Realms! Let’s talk about what we have been doing since the last devlog, and what are our plans for the future:

Combat update

The old combat system was in dire need of some improvements, the only difference between weapons was how much damage they dealt. Now, there is a lot more depth to the system, with some weapons being better depending on your play style and the enemy you are facing.

Do you prefer taking low risks or are you not that good at combat? Then the scythes, spears and shotguns are great at attacking enemies from far away. But if you are willing to get blade-first into a melee fight, swords or daggers might be a better option, letting you kill enemies quicker.

Groovy tunes

There were a couple of music related changes that we wanted to do, so we decided to release a full update themed around music! We had been hearing about issues with the old note block system for a while: not enough octaves, making long songs was hard, the note block sound wasn’t great, only one instrument to choose from, and there was a bug with the timing of note blocks… So we went in and fixed them. We also wanted to add more original music into the game: there are now 3 new songs composed by The Spiral Den. We are very happy with how they turned out, they add a lot more life to the game, so we will probably expand the soundtrack further in the future.

Character redesign

You might have noticed that the characters in the groovy tunes banner look slightly different… And that's because they showcase the new character design! On our discord we have been gathering feedback about it for a few months, and the base of it is finally done!

Our current character design is a common complaint we have seen from players, so we felt like we should improve it, and we are personally very happy with this new design.

Since we are redesigning the character anyways, we also added some very expressive emotes to it. We tried to reuse as many arm positions as possible, so it will be less time-expensive to animate shirts for these new emotes.

It will still take a while before you can see this new character design in the game. We still need to update all clothing items in the game to work with this new model, which will be a LOT of effort since we currently have over 200 clothing items inside the game. Luckily only 70 of those are pants or shirts, which are the hardest to do...

Halloween

Hear my word, Sir Squash I am,
Duke of all that’s grim but fun.

Sole protector of the hallow eve,
I bring a tale you must believe.

Monsters appeared, veiled by night,
They stole the candy! I'm filled with fright!

With no candy left, this life is grim. 
Will you help me save this Halloween? 

And now, the big reveal…

For the last two devlogs we have been teasing this big update that we are working on, and we are finally ready to reveal it. The next progression system added to the game will be…

THE FARMING UPDATE! 

This will, of course, not be like the now-available flower or mushroom farms, it is going to have a lot more depth. It will include all your favorite farm-related mechanics: Plant growth, tilling, watering, fertilizing,… There's more to it than that though! But we will talk more about the details in future devlogs.

We are still aiming to release this super-sized update later this year or early 2026. We can’t give a more specific time window just now, but be assured we are working super hard on it!

Conclusion

That's it for this month's devlog! The next update will of course be the Halloween event and we are very excited to share it with you guys! 

- Anubis, David and PIEMEN