Devlog#25. Magic Battles

Hello everyone! 

Winter is in full swing, and Christmas and the new year 2025 are fast approaching.

Our artist is currently focused on creating new scenes for the next update, while our programmer is diving back into analytics and player feedback.

We've come to the difficult realization that the "Journey" mode hasn't integrated well into our game. While the concept has merit, traversing the maps quickly becomes a monotonous routine of repeating the same actions: travel to the nearest enemy, defeat it with a single click (after quickly maxing out spells), and then head for the exit. It's burdened by conventions, mechanics, and repetitive elements, leading to a tedious initial leveling experience and an equally dull resource grind.

While we could potentially address these issues by adding roguelike elements, simplifying progression, combat, enemies, and essentially creating a completely different game... it still needs to fit within our main storyline. Therefore, we've decided to discontinue support for "Journey" mode and replace it soon with a simpler, action-oriented alternative.

Many of you may be familiar with the style of gameplay we're aiming for if you've played games like Vampire Survivors, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, or Brotato. Yes, we're creating a survivor-like action roguelike within the Harry Potter universe (within our capabilities, of course).

Here's what you can expect:

• Adventures: Each adventure will consist of 5 to 20 levels.
• Scaling Rewards: The number of levels determines the value of rewards dropped by defeated monsters. Higher levels mean more valuable loot.
• Survival & Waves: Each level challenges you to survive on an arena for a set time or defeat a specific number of enemy waves.
• Resource Collection: Defeated enemies drop resources: Magical Dust for upgrades within the current adventure, and Magical Stones, Wood, and Iron for use in the main game mode.
• Interactive Environments: Arenas will feature various interactive objects that can help or hinder your progress.
• Automatic Spellcasting: Players select a set of spells that their character will automatically cast during combat.
• Upgrade Opportunities: After each level, you can upgrade stats, level up, enhance/replace spells, or purchase new items.
• Boss Battles & CG Scenes: Bosses serve as the final challenge in special adventures, and defeating them unlocks CG scenes.
• Unique Wands: Defeating bosses unlocks new wands, each with unique effects that alter combat strategies.
• Leaderboards (Planned): We're considering implementing leaderboards, but haven't finalized the ranking criteria yet.

Our goal is to create a simple, fun, and accessible mode with active gameplay that can be enjoyed even one-handed. 

Our programmer is finalizing the core mechanics and will soon begin integrating them into the main game. You can see a VERY EARLY prototype below:

Next, we'll focus on expanding game mechanics, finding suitable VFX, music, and sound effects. We hope to share the first playable prototype with our subscribers within the next few weeks.

Thank you again for your continued support! Your kind words and feedback are invaluable in helping us make the game better.

If you have any thoughts or ideas about the new mode, please share them here or discuss them with us personally on our Discord server