I totally 100% ripped off the Ace Attorney OBJECTION system for the “catching a contradiction” part, and the way the game is structured, you are very likely to start stringing a combo of OBJECTIONs towards the end of the game. That’s usually when people start stabbing their finger accusingly at the screen IRL.
Also, appreciate the kind words and glad you’re enjoying the game, I was afraid it was a little too niche with the mad mishmash of so many elements but I worked really hard to make everything link together. One design principle I had was to emulate Planescape Torment’s trick of having almost all side quests link to the main mystery, so everything you do (even on the side) advances the main story regardless.
@nerdook please let me ask, are you the sole or lead designer developer guy? Pardon my ignorance . . . and if yes, let me compliment. Monster Slayers, and Magister, have both given me the terrific gift of entertainment. I bounce off lots of games and these two have delighted and engaged.
Gosh, I know there was a a deck building card battler before Monster Slayers, I forget the name, but Monster Slayers was the first ‘big’ one for me prior to Slay the Spire, and now that is an entire genre. I do sometimes feel we could be referring to “Monster Slayer-likes” rathe than “Slay the Spire-likes”!
I am liking the Magister so much I kinda wish I could take the combat, overworld movement, tactical diplomacy and deduction and lift and shift them over to a bigger scale game, like Divinity II scale. It is just splendid as it is too :-)
I’m actually just a solo developer (design+code+part of the graphics), since Flash days til now! For Magister, I hired two external artists for the project, which is quite a financial risk for me because the sales are actually rather… meh at the moment. I wish I had the budget for bigger scale games!! But as they say: “if wishes were horses, beggars would ride”, so I make do with what I have :P
Seriously, I’m super glad you enjoyed the games, hopefully one day I’ll make something successful enough to start expanding my own studio~
If you haven’t already, get the game in the hands of YouTubers who feature such games, like SplatterCatGaming and Nookrium. I’m sure others here can recommend other YTers.
I think one of the issues is the same as before and before: Nerdook doesn’t manage to get his hardcore, “first day purchase fans” such as myself to know that he releases a new game :E
Lol come hang out with me on Twitter! I only have 600+ followers but I share footage of in-development games, some of which never see the light of day after they are scrapped for being NOT FUN ENOUGH~ ;) I also appear here from time to time :P
Not even you will lure me to the Twitter!
I started playing a bit. I was a little scared it was going to be wordy for the first… 30 seconds? Then nope, it’s just the usual “just… one more… click” Nerdookish action.
I must say in the little hour I spent with the game, I found the muscular approach much more FUN than the diplomatic one. I also deeply loved how the alcoholic trait had some social benefits at first, then I started noticing the drawbacks… What an accute simulation!
Oh, man, I’m really enjoying this. Just when I thought I was done with “card battlers”, this one delivers the perfect bite-sized amount of personality, gameplay, and randomness. I’m only on my second playthrough, but I can tell the progression system is going to get its hooks into me. Curse you, @nerdook!
There can be a fair number of modifiers to damage, but most of them are things you do to modify the numbers. I think the Cornered bonus might be the only one that isn’t documented once you’ve read the tutorial tooltip about it. Perhaps a brief “How To Play” entry in the pause menu would have been helpful with stuff like this. Even just a single page like the help system in Rift Wizard.
But in a similar vein, I think one of the main problems with Magister – at least, I see it as a problem, but @nerdook might feel this is part of the design – is that you can’t see this screen:
I mean, you can see it. There are specific times in the game when it pops up. But you can’t check it when you want to remind yourself how your character works and what’s the sum of your choices. I have no idea why Magister is so coy about such a fundamental part of its gameplay, so it strikes me as a bad UI decision. Why can I pore over clues, look at the investigation’s status in the journal, and freely examine my deck of cards, but I can’t look at the broader and arguably more important part of the game? Namely, how I’m playing, what I’m intending to do, what my strengths and weaknesses are as I work through the procedurally generated storyline? Why would that be locked up this way?
It’s such a weirdly frustrating omission that I have to think there’s some intentionality behind it.
I’ll be adding access to the “Skills & Perks” screens in a future update, the main reason it’s not there yet is because… I don’t know, really. Likely a huge oversight on the part of my part self. Whoops. :D
I tried playing the Windows demo with a gamepad before choosing: the controls were quite nice for the most part, but too fiddly on the tactical map (in docked mode, I am guessing the game supports the touch interface).
The computer version is so darn intuitive. Dare I say, satisfying.
I am suffering from a big “deck games” fatigue, and somehow this game didn’t even strike me as one in the tactical battles (the deck building aspect is much more apparent in the diplomatic game, which might why I prefer beating sense into things instead of talking to them). Oh you Nerdook you.
That lovely moment when I use my authority to get passage, then proceeded to punch people by gratuitously being rude toward them. This got more freedom of action than many crpgs!
I just bought this (on GOG) because the DOOK seems worth supporting (gotta love a passionate dev that will interact with people here on Qt3), and because after @tomchick 's pretty-much-a-recommendation comment above, I just had to. ;)
99% of the time, the nameless wandering NPC villagers are unimportant, they even walk right off the map through the exit (and a new one is generated walking right back in again some time afterward). The exceptions:
Sometimes they look exactly like a wandering NPC, but have the title Gossiping Villager, and (for certain cases) reveal very important hidden traits
If you have the Pickpocket perk, you can steal from exactly one of them per day for some extra trinkets.
@rhamorim annd @Charlatan : Thank you guys so much for the support, it really means a lot to me~ :D
@tomchick thanks again for the feedback: I’ve updated the game to 1.0.0.4 with the ability to view perks/skills at any time just by holding down TAB. :D
