Making every hit feel good in Crystalbound Saga
Painted slashes, lightning and shockwaves, screen shake, and a lot of sound.
A match-3 game lives or dies on how a match feels. Over the last few weeks most of my time on Crystalbound Saga has gone into the moment of impact.
Painted effects
The slashes, lightning, halos and shockwaves are painted images drawn with a screen blend, which makes the black background vanish. A Burst sweeps a slash along its line, tinted to the tile colour. A Crest sends out a shockwave. Skyfall brings lightning down on each cell, and Riptide pours water down the columns.
Juice, on purpose
Smashing a relic cracks the whole screen, with a freeze for a split second and a boom. Winning stages a short celebration, then every special left on the board goes off one at a time. Damage dealt after the last foe falls is not wasted: it counts as Overkill and goes into your score.
Sound
There are recorded sound effects for slashes, impacts, victory, stars, the forge hammer and more. The villains also laugh and roar, with a few takes each so you do not hear the same one twice in a row. Music and effects have separate switches, because some people want one without the other.