Thanks for asking, glad to know you’re interested. At least, since you’re reading this, I’m assuming that if you weren’t interested before, then I’ve at least tricked you into it. Here’s some more detailed answers to a few basic questions about the game.
“What kind of game is End of Magic?”
End of Magic is a game concept for a magic-based action-platformer. The idea here isn’t just filling the screen with spells (although that is fun and definitely has a place here), but being able to choose the best spells from a healthily long list to use in any given situation, and being able to execute them at the right moment.
Consider a fighting game character allowed to run free in a platforming world. He could run and jump just like a platforming character, but also has access to a lot more than just “shoot;” he has uppercuts, fireballs, and spin kicks at his disposal and can bust them out when each is the most powerful or most likely to hit in any give situation. The tradeoff is that the player controlling him must be skilled enough to execute the more complicated commands to take advantage of this.
Now replace his fighting moves with magical spells (lightning, healing, magic shields, maybe summoning a guy that does uppercuts, fireballs and spin kicks), and replace the fighter with a wizard (or “The Mage”), and you have a basis for End of Magic. In addition to this, there will be a levelling system to aid in pacing and smoothly curving the difficulty.
“So, what gameplay style can I expect?”
Obviously, telling you that you can cast spells doesn’t exactly paint a vivid picture. The base mechanics for this game are the platforming and combat aspects, but I could put that in a game and even give you something to shoot your spells at and it wouldn’t be very engaging, at least not for long.
The gameplay style is important; am I going from one level to the next, like an arcade game? Is it entirely open-world, and a magic arrow I shoot into the air from the summit of Mount Compensating could potentially hit and kill the annoying prophet in Startingtown? Does the game loop infinitely and slowly turn inside-out until I suddenly discover that the game was playing me all along?
In End of Magic, you will have a “main story,” so to speak, to guide you along to the game’s eventual completion. This plotline serves to give the player things to do at all times and to offer a reasonable difficulty curve with an engaging story to boot. There will still be plenty of areas to explore that are mostly or completely unrelated to this, though. Side quests can take you to places you would never go without attempting them, and good old-fashioned exploration will easily lead to areas that will reward you for skill in combat, a treasure-hunter’s keen sense of loot, and even for solving the occasional puzzle.
“Your game sounds a lot like [x].”
I submit that I have played video games all my life, and that however End of Magic turns out in the end, it will be as a result of all the games I’ve played before. This is not a bad thing at all. The positive experiences I’ve had playing the games I’ve played will all be mixed together to create something truly unique.
“Will there be some kind of character customization?”
No visual character customization is currently planned. However, the staff you give The Mage will be visible on his sprite in-game. In terms of mechanical customization, there will be a branching class system as well as a spell-learning tree, but more on those later…
