Mobile Game
Dianima: Crystal Bonds
A creature-collection mobile game built around crystal creatures, progression, mining and evolution systems.
Overview
Dianima: Crystal Bonds is a creature-collection mobile game built around crystal creatures — progression, mining, resource systems and evolution — built for iOS with an AI-assisted development and asset workflow.
The Idea
The idea is a collection game centered on crystal creatures across multiple families, where mining and resource systems feed into a progression and evolution loop — collecting, growing and evolving creatures over time, with summon mechanics bringing new ones into the collection.
My Role
Designing and developing the game end-to-end — game concept, product direction, the creature system and its multiple families, progression and evolution design, mining and resource systems, and UI/UX direction, plus the iOS implementation. Asset direction and parts of the development workflow are AI-assisted.
AI Usage
AI is used throughout the workflow — for ideation on creature designs and world details, for visual asset generation, for exploring UI concepts, and as coding assistance during iOS development.
Development Process
- 01Concept: define the crystal-creature world and core loop
- 02Systems design: progression, mining, resource and evolution systems
- 03Creature system: multiple creature families and summon mechanics
- 04iOS build: implement UI and game systems in SwiftUI
- 05Current development: iterating on systems and content
Challenges
- Keeping interconnected systems — mining, resources, progression, evolution — balanced and scalable as they grow
- Maintaining visual and tonal consistency across many creature designs and families
- Structuring a SwiftUI codebase that can keep up with expanding game systems
What I Learned
- Designing systems that interlock (mining → resources → evolution) needs the data model settled early
- AI-assisted asset generation speeds up exploration but still needs a consistent art direction to hold together
- Prototyping a game system in isolation before wiring it into the full loop catches design problems earlier
Outcome / Current State
In active development. The core creature, progression, mining and evolution systems are designed and being implemented in SwiftUI; the game is not yet released.