Laigen: VRML 2.0 Adventure Game

Note: Repaired two bugs and updated file format; download is now 9KB instead of 60KB. Textures to be updated soon to take advantage of the capabilities of the newest versions of the VRML plug-ins. New Laigen game file uploaded 08MAR2001.


Original graphics and game design by Jim Cullen - Copyright 2000, 2001. Laigen is an attraction exclusive to the Cullen Genealogy Homepage and all rights are reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any fashion without prior permission from the author.



Laigen is a VRML 2.0 mini adventure game in which you are required to find a number of red and green crystals in order to escape. The game takes place in a series of fully textured underground chambers which contain a number of animated puzzles you must solve in order to reach the exit. By the way, the flying black ball will open the door to the cathedral... have you been there yet? There are two versions of the game itself. One is a smaller viewscreen for those of you who own computers that may not be powerful enough to render the full-screen version. The second version is the full-screen version which, as my testing seems to indicate, should be handled well by most systems with a capable and up-to-date VRML plug-in.


A few notes on system requirements. The game was designed to run with a smooth frame rate at full screen on a P166 MMX system with 32 megs of RAM. You should have at least an average video card capable of Direct3D rendering. Software rendering or OpenGL rendering is just not fast enough if you're using Windows95. You may want to reduce your system colors to 16-bit since the game slows to a crawl if you try to run it at 24 or 32 bit color - especially at full screen. The Cosmoplayer VRML plugin seems to be the best all around player so the game was designed around that though other plugins are just as capable. If using Cosmoplayer be sure to set your right-click function to rotation mode. If you want an excellent current vrml viewer then I can't recommend Blaxxun Contact 5.0 enough. This latest version (Feb 21, 2001) of Contact is a vast improvement over Contact 4.4. You must have textures turned on since I did not make allowances for running the game without them - it just wouldn't be the same (and besides, it really looks terrible if you try).


The game file itself is only 59KB in size - unzipped. The zipped version your browser downloads is now only 9KB in size. There are also ten textures that amount to another 13KB so it should not take long at all to download the entire game (about 22KB). The game was coded by hand using Microsoft Wordpad and was written in a condensed style that allowed me to pack in twice the usual amount of code. The standard method of coding would have made the game well over 100KB in size. In addition, I've made use of the LOD node in order to turn off all the sections of the game except for the one you are in. This increases the overall speed significantly.


Need a few tips? There are two colors of crystals - red and green. You must collect all five red crystals in order to escape the chambers. The four green crystals will open other areas of the game and of course there are red crystals in those locked areas so you must find all the red and green crystals! Watch for the locked doors (they have keyholes - see image to the right) since important items will be stashed behind them. There are also short dark pillars scattered about the game and, if you hold your mouse pointer over them, some will give you extra clues. Some of these little pillars will have dark crystals on top of them. These are warps which will zip you to a point earlier in the game. This will come in handy since, at times, going back a few rooms is a necessity and the dark crystals are your only way to do so. Have you found the bonus room? Have you seen the flying black ball? Hmmm... there is more to come...


After you have played the game, I would more than welcome any comments or suggestions you may have. The game is not really complete - I have left myself the option to expand the game in the future and I am also considering sound if the format can be made compact enough. Your input is important here. Please send all comments, questions or suggestions to jtcullen515@bex.net. Well, if you've read this far, most of the textures have already loaded and the time has come to make your choice between the two links below. My suggestion is to try the reduced image version first. If you can run that smoothly then there's no reason not to try the full-screen version (highly recommended), just remember to turn off your toolbars on the full-screen version to give yourself a bigger and better view. Use your back button to return to this page. Well, whadd'ya know, the small version of the game is just about done loading now! Go ahead and try it out at the bottom of this page. Alternately you may...

Click here for the full screen version!


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Laigen: VRML 2.0 adventure game. Original graphics and game design by Jim Cullen.
Copyright 2000,2001. No material is to be reproduced in any fashion without permission.




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