Game: Olivia’s World: Crystal Keep
Genre: RPG, Indie, Strategy
System: Steam (Windows)
Developer | Publisher: Chasing Magic Studios
Controller Support: Full
Price: US $11.99 | UK £9.99 | EU € 11,79
Release Date: March 8, 2026
Review code provided, with many thanks to Chasing Magic Studios.
Olivia’s World: Crystal Keep is a solo-developer-made RTS game for kids. It’s all about defending your home from the goblin invaders that are acting very strangely.
The Adorable Story of Olivia’s World: Crystal Keep
Olivia’s World: Crystal Keep is an incredibly cute version of a tower defence, RTS-style game. It has the sweet, colorful graphics of a Saturday morning cartoon made for girls. But the story of how it came to be is even cuter.
The solo developer behind this candy-colored tower defense game came up with the idea with his six-year-old daughter, apparently taught himself how to make a game, then put it together for the two of them to play. And the product is stunning for a self-taught coder and a small child.
In it, you play as one of several heroes. The starting hero is a girl all dressed in orange with flaming red hair named Glitter Brightspark, who was my favorite. You have to lay down spires to keep the enemy from getting through your defenses as goblins, trolls, orcs, and more try to push past you to attack defenseless towns.
There is a simple skill tree where you can upgrade your different kinds of attacks from melee to ranged to spells. You, hero, have a unique, powerful healing spell that you can activate with the Q key as well, which helps to keep you safe while the hordes are coming in. As the goblins continue their attack, you need to collect crystals on the ground that you can turn into spires to help you continue to fight and keep the people safe.
The Pros of Olivia’s World: Crystal Keep
Olivia’s World: Crystal Keep is a great game for kids. It has a pretty simple setup for an RTS. It’s colorful, cute, and filled with lore and a good story. The music is fine and the sound design is good. The heroes all feel unique and interesting; they aren’t the same character with different colored clothing and hair. They had different things to say and different styles of attacks.
While it is not as complex as some RTS and tower defense games I have played in the past, Olivia’s World: Crystal Keep is still fairly fun. It feels like baby’s first RTS a bit, but not in a bad way. It’s a great introduction to a massive genre with a fun story and sprites anyone could love.
The Cons of Olivia’s World: Crystal Keep
There are a few downsides to Olivia’s World: Crystal Keep. The first thing, and the one that bothers me personally the most, is the use of generative AI to make some of the characters. I understand that not all solo developers can afford artists or have the talent to draw themselves. However, since generative AI is causing a number of problems from rising electricity costs for everyone to environmental issues to the using of copyrighted material without permission, I would still rather see handmade artwork even if it’s less cute or appealing.
However, that aside, there were a couple of small issues that I had while playing. One is that I wish Olivia’s World: Crystal Keep had more of a tutorial mission. While I had no issues with the gameplay myself, I feel like the main audience for such a game would be children, and I think many kids would have a tough time reading through the text of the tutorial and grasping everything they need to know to succeed.
Another thing that bugged me (though it is admittedly quite a small thing) is the exit to menu button. While all the other buttons are on the screen, like the save button and all in the upper left-hand corner, the “exit to menu” button is off the edge of the screen. It’s a small thing, but it was a little annoying trying to exit out of the game when I was finished playing.
Conclusion
Overall, Olivia’s World: Crystal Keep is a simple but well-made game with a lot of love in it. I found the story behind this game to be heart-warming and the game itself to be cute and fun. I think that with a few tweaks, this could be the best RTS for kids I’ve ever seen by a wide margin.
If only generative AI had been left out, the tutorial had been updated, and the exit to menu button was where it should be on the screen, I think that Olivia’s World: Crystal Keep would have gotten a perfect score from me!
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot.
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