If you're here, you may be wondering...what even IS Crystal Lakes?  Well, it's a Match-3 game with dating sim elements about a young woman who gains magical mermaid powers.  Not my normal fare, admittedly.

The concept is based on a dream I had many, many, MANY years ago.  I had discovered a series of novels about a woman who became a mermaid and then befriended/romanced a sea monster.  It was a weird concept, but it stuck with me.  I kept trying to find an excuse to bring that basic idea to life.

Then Magical Girl Game Jam 5 happened.  It allowed participants to pick from two genres to base their game around.  I had the magical girl idea already, and one of the genre combos was 'turn-based card game' (with RenAi as a bonus genre!).  At the time, I thought i wanted to learn how to make a card game.  So I have it a shot, starting Crystal Lakes development in Godot (because I felt I needed to branch out and practice with other engines).  Got the first cutscene coded, then tried to learn the card game part.  Was immediately overwhelmed and left the jam, shelving Crystal Lakes once more.  Which was a shame, because I really really really wanted to finish that storyline.

And THEN, Marathon Jam 2022 happened.  No theme for this one, just a request that people finish their games already.  Sure, I could give that a go.  I already had the beginnings of a mermaid game.  But what to do for the combat parts?  Card game was out of the question, but I still liked the mini-game idea.  What was a good minigame for Godot beginners?  After some research, I settled on Match-3.  It was apparently a fairly simple minigame for beginners to get a hold of, and heck I loved Match-3 stuff since I was in high school (long before Candy Crush made the genre popular!).  And with that, Crystal Lakes was back!  Here's to hoping I can successfully finish it.  I have over a month, and I've already started the hard coding parts and haven't had a panic attack.  So the future does, at this point, look bright!

My plan is to post weekly updates on this page up until (and some time after) release.  The game will be available directly in the browser!  If you want big weekly updates, keep an eye on this page.  If you prefer daily updates, check out my Twitter!  If you want to help me out financially as well, I have a Ko-Fi page where you can donate.

See you all on Wednesday for the first big update!