Cyberpunk Java phone game Crystalides coming to iOS, Android

I’ve been pretty hot on Onipunks’ Crystalides for a while now. It was one of my top picks from the hundreds of IGF 2012 finalists, and for good reason. Let me remind you again that the amazing looking game you see in this new trailer was designed to run on a java-enabled Nokia handset. Wonderfully animated pixelart abounds with more RPG systems than the entirety of Final Fantasy combined all themed around a cyberpunk world.

But the best news that came out of this latest look at the game was a little back-and-forth I had with Onipunks on twitter. After being called out as “Shawn of GameLuv?” — the first time anyone has done that in this site’s six years — the team confirmed that Crystalides would be coming to Android and iOS. They even specified Winter for Android but we know how slippery release dates can be on mobile platforms so I’ll just be happy knowing I don’t have to buy an old Nokia phone to play the game.

Why develop for an archaic platform like java-based phones in the first place? In the spirit of the demoscene where coders cram as much gameplay, animation or graphic pizazz into as few kilobytes as possible, Onipunks says “we made Crys[talides] on Java phone just for challenging”.