MageWorks

Community Showcase Game Development
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As the spell system becomes more refined, i’ve had to update the tutorial to walk the player through the process of when to use the appropriate spell based on enemy types, environmental conditions or whatever. Here are some snapshots of sketching the new level, planning the tutorial sequence, and roughing out the design for the level progression. This also included a bunch of preliminary voice acting for the tutorial bird to get a sense of time and segment transition between lessons.

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Hello ,

Just wanted to let you know I thoroughly enjoyed going from the beginning to the end watching all the videos and seeing the progress. Great work, its very unique. I wish you the best of luck on getting the game fully finished.

Sincerely,
Akim91

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Darn I really wish I had a vive right about now :smiley:

Very cool out of the box thinking with this project! Keep it up!

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@Akim91 & @Deathstick , i appreciate it! This project has been a roller coaster of emotion during development, so the encouragement hits at the right place and right time :slight_smile:

MageWorks v0.3.2 is now available!

For the most part, trying to wrap up this project in the next month if possible, after which i’ll start porting to PSVR! Have cleaned up the tutorials, and working on optimizing and cleaning up the exploration levels. Crafting seems to be in a more comfortable place now, but am open to suggestions.

What’s New

  • The crafting, combat, bookmarking and travel tutorials are now narrated and simplified - Originally I had wanted to avoid the use of narration and rely on illustrations and diagrams as much as possible, but after several demos with colleagues and VR meetups, I found that narration was really the way to go and works well with new players.
  • Bug Fixes - Have cleaned up a lot of code, but still lots to fix.
  • Continuing to integrate more art - The art is sort of all over the place at the moment. As the meshing process continues and evolves, am hoping to do a better job of blending and customizing marketplace art that’s been integrated to give the game a unique feel where possible.

On The Horizon

  • Community has requested enemy health indicators and spell hit damage to be displayed, so that will most likely be in the next major update
  • Breakables will be integrated soon - rewarding loot or spawing a “Ghoul”.
  • Spell damage increases and perks with crafted staves - ink injection is being tuned so that ink-empowered staffs will exhibit additional behaviors/mechanics when shooting a matching magic type. Certain crystal shapes will also increase spell damage depending on rarity.
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Quite amazing really, coming from a fellow game designer. Love what you’re doing, hope to try the game out when I pick up a Vive in the future.

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thanks @cm-gamedesigner , much appreciated.

brief post this evening…wrapping up the code/script for destructibles in the environments. each class of magic will have it’s own unique destructible types for players to find and destroy. they will be rewarded with a loot chest, or a ghoul which can also reward some gold. here’s a look at the nature magic version:

the remaining four types i’ll post in this entry hopefully in the near future.

[EDIT] managed to get a few more destructibles in play

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MageWorks v0.4.1 now available!

What’s new:

  • The arc and target for location based spells now reflect the color from the type of spell they are casting
  • Destructibles have been added to some environments offering more loot
  • Ink Injection is now available and empowers spells when staffs are injected with different ink types.
  • Empowered spell fx! With ink injection now available, some (and eventually all) spells have some sort of alternate effect when empowered
  • Combat text now appears when fighting enemies including enemy health and spell damage
  • Can only summon one pet of each spell class at a time (but you could have five different pets out at once)
  • 20 different quests to embark on! when the player finishes their tutorial quests, they can activate the chalkboard and receive a quest to complete. that quest entails finding a spellbook. The quest text hints at where that book might be.

Known Issues:

  • portal spells are currently bugged
  • not all spells can be empowered yet (working on it!)
  • the quest text is a bit cryptic, and will be a little more clear in the next build

On The Horizon:

  • Zombie Shoppes coming soon! Players will be able to buy different parts for their staves
  • The crystal caves may be going through a re-design to make the environment more gameplay friendly with regards to environment scale (it’s a bit big at the moment)
  • Portal spells will create a portal for players to walk into instead of auto-teleporting the player
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We are stuck upfront on the constellation. Can you’ve us a hint? crewe dialing in a constellation to match something on the wall or ceiling?

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There is a view finder in the observatory, so when the player rotates the observatory left and right, you’ll see the viewfinder also scan through the stars. When a constellation appears in the view finder, you’ll hear an audible cue and the teleport pad next to the observatory will become active to send you to that location. The tutorials sorta walk you through this when you activate the chalkboard in the campaign, but maybe i can look into some alternatives that are a little more direct or intuitive :slight_smile:

and…MageWorks v0.6.0 is now available!

https://i.imgur.com/7ocKxAd.jpg

This build of MageWorks includes a Study Hall! Study Hall is a place where players can practice the spells they have unlocked/discovered. Additionally, there are five cauldrons of ink that players can dip their staves into to empower their weapon during study hall. This cauldrons are limited to 10% potency, but are infinite. When a player creates their own ink, the potency varies between 20 percent and 90 percent, are consumed on use, and last only throughout the game session. The more potent the ink, the more damage the spell does as long as the spell cast matches the type of magic from the ink that’s applied to the staff. A few spells also have a couple additional mechanics that activate when the staff is empowered.

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**http://store.steampowered.com/app/494780/MageWorks/

What’s new:**

  • Observatory has been updated. When a player aligns the telescope with a constellation, there is also a piece of the telescope in the observatory that will align with the map on the walls. This will help players direct the telescope in the right direction.
  • New spellbook designs! The community asked for improved spellbook art and faster spell access. Now, when spellbooks are opened, players can quickly choose which spell they would like to cast from the icons presented. Whichever icon is selected will remain active until another is chosen regardless of whether or not the book is open. The whole “flipping through pages” was fun and all, but it just wasn’t practical in combat.
  • New bookmarking system! with the new design of the spellbooks, it was necessary to rebuild the bookmarking system as well. The new system is easier to use! When a player bookmarks a page by pressing the bookmark button, a ghost book opens up where you can assign the spell to any slot. This configuration is used in the player’s custom spellbook.
  • Some art fx have been added to the vault fight to clearly indicate that the area where Magister Draco walks will cause damage to the player.

Known Issues:

  • not all spells can be empowered yet (working on it!)
  • still working on the quest text

On The Horizon:

  • bug fixes
  • more crystal types and shapes will be available in a future build
  • more staff shapes to purchase at the zombie shoppes
  • When players purchase a staff design, it will be stored in their collection.
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MageWorks is designed for lock and key progression with re-playable back travel. So i needed to build a lock and key system where certain portions of environments were not accessible. Once players discovered the gate key spell, they could then activate each key which would unlock their respective gate. Here is an example of the gate in the nature themed level being unlocked.

One of the challenges of designing the system was to create a blueprint for a key and a gate that i could drag and drop into levels and have them just “work”. So building a modular portable blueprint was important in this case. The same key blueprint is used at all locations. when placed in the persistent level, they are associated with a gate that they will unlock. This is an example of the electricity themed level.

This is an example of the lock & key in the ice themed world.

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Cool! Very Original!

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thanks! hoping to wrap up the project soon. i appreciate the good words :slight_smile:

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**MageWorks v0.9.1 now available! **

What’s new:

  • Workshop tweaks - MageWorks needed an intro that was good for people new to VR. So, the workshop has become that welcome zone. After players learn to craft a staff, they export a 3d-printable file in the process of progressing to the next training level which is combat training.
  • Fixed a bug that allowed players to teleport during the mining ride
  • Added AI to the mining ride mini-game with a scoreboard at end of ride. Gold collected is increased based on kill count.
  • Fixed a bug where zombies would not attack the fountain at the Graveyard mini-game
  • New spell selection system. Spells can be selected quickly with only one hand.
  • Fixed a bug where player’s could not teleport/navigate through boss fight
  • New travel method! when players find a constellation in the observatory, they can use their level warp skill to travel to the destination.

Known Issues:

  • Attack distance on skeleton warriors is a little too far
  • Aiming on skeletal mages is off a bit, and will be more accurate in the next build
  • Quests are obscure, and will be improved on next build with helpers that direct players in the right direction to find their missing spellbooks.

On The Horizon:

  • bug fixes
  • more crystal types and shapes will be available in a future build
  • more staff shapes to purchase at the zombie shoppes
  • considering a staff collection area where players can store their designs or purchased shapes
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It’s been awhile since we’ve last posted an update, so today we’re saying hello and that we’re still working! The community has provided a lot of great feedback on forums, at festivals, and other events and we’re working hard to include this feedback.

The direction of MageWorks has been sort of split in two throughout development. Our crafting system perked the interest of the educational community, so we’re currently building a stand-alone application with that content. This means we can focus on creating a clear direction forward with MageWorks and how everything comes together which includes a story driven walk through staff crafting, stone shaping and ink making, and with a clear transition into the MageWorks system of combat and world exploration.

We’ve got a great narrative consultant on board as well as additional programming and artist support, and we’re looking to release this Summer of 2018 out of Early Access!

We’re incredibly excited to work out various design issues and bug fixes, and can’t wait to see how our mage-staff shape recognition system starts influencing spell casting.

The new spell casting system with the floating book palette of spells seems to be working out well, and opens up a lot of opportunity for more art.

Achievements are underway and there will be plenty of them to discover and unlock.

Last but not least, sharing custom staff creations is an important part of MageWorks, and we’re working on a way to share your designs with friends either through social media, or 3d printable objects.

Thanks again for everyone’s support throughout this process, and we can’t wait to release this summer :slight_smile:

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MageWorks update for Oculus now available. (This update should be available for Vive on Steam this weekend)

wow…the past two years between the last update on this thread and this current entry…mind boggling…

anyhow, finally have some updates on MageWorks to address some players comments and generally to continue improving the concept.

What’s New

  • Tutorial Sequence Removed: The tutorial sequence was buggy and causing issues with entry into the game world, so I have removed it. In lieu of the tutorial sequence, there are large spellbooks floating around the mage quarters and workshop as a guide for spellbooks, staff crafting, and map travel systems.
  • Ink is now used to draw the top of your staff design: The old use for ink was spell empowering. However, I feel that feature was too ambitious given the resources available to me, so, requiring ink to draw a new staff design created a sense of equilibrium for crafting resources and assembly methods: Collect lumber to carve the base of your staff, collect flowers to draw the top of your staff, and collect crystals to shape your staff gem.
  • The mage quarters have been redesigned. The entry into the game was too complicated, so players now launch directly into their mage quarters and can choose where to head from there. Because of this new logic, the mage quarters is more of a home hub with many portals to check out for mini-games, training, and exploration.
  • Fixed a bug with Game Slot entries where slots could not be erased. Game Slots can now be erased or reset if you want to delete your old save game data and start over.
  • Cleaned up some bugs with staff crafting. Because the tutorial was sort of buggy, the crafting process would occasionally break as well (or not get configured correctly for normal play). So I have gone through and created a more user friendly gameplay method to craft staves. Ink is now required to draw a custom stave top design. When completing a crafting task, most ingredients are automatically moved to the next station in the sequence.
  • Staff gem locations are now fixed in place. This was needed to create consistency with staff collision with other objects in the game. So players can still shape their own staff gems, but they will always be placed in the same location on the staff.
  • Players can now view toggle their inventory while holding their spellbooks.

On the Horizon

  • New art! Much of this game has been built with off-the-shelf art. My goal is to get much of this game as customized / stylized as possible with a unique look. When everything is programmatically in place, the focus will shift to create buildings and environments that exemplify the theme of the game.
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A massive UX overhaul coming to MageWorks in prep for a launch on Meta’s Quest. Have also been enjoying 5.2 in-situ modeling tools and level instancing which has streamlined whitebox production with real-time feedback on various design approaches without needing to bounce between several different programs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89iwfMEr3Gs

Enjoyed working on this project over the years, and am thrilled to continue production on it in a variety of lights.