2000 spirits and 10 specter be like, for a while I thought the second biggest ring was last but then another one appeared, now i'm just going till my browser tab freezes.
That's good to hear, but not exactly what I meant. This version is equivalent, from what I can see, to the Steam demo. Do you plan to have the full version be Steam exclusive? Because if you do, I won't be able to buy it.
cute but short. another incremental game that takes about an hour.
menus are somewhat awkward since they like to open outside the screen. otherwise no real complaints.
the spell swapping mechanic reminds me a bit of Orb of Creation, which is much longer and deeper. i'm guessing your intent with these is to just make something short and simple, and for that goal i say mission accomplished.
if you decide you want to try being even more creative, it might be worth exploring more "diagetic" menus for this kind of game specifically, instead of relying on raw text, to make it more mysterious and compact.
Really fun game! My first incremental and I feel a very good leap into the genre! Super fun and engaging and I never felt like I didn't have the tools to reach that next step. Prestige never felt bad and I loved unlocking all the new things faster and faster! The touch of being able tio change the color pallet was really nice too!
Good incremental game with cool pixel and sound. The touch with the wizards teleport to each of upgrade places really nice! Really like the game. Keep up the good work!
Made an account just so I could comment on this game, that being said, it was amazing and I'm looking forward enthusiastically to any updates and further development. The idea is creative and I enjoyed it a lot despite not usually getting so engrossed in idle games, the gameplay is simple enough but definitely addictive, and the bank and school elements were great features in adding to the gameplay.
I loved the pixel graphics and the little animation of the wizard moving around whenever I hovered over the different building sections. Personally, I'd enjoy being able to customize the little wizard but I understand it could conflict with the background and other sprites.
I'm excited for any progress and if continued, the final product of this game.
Absolutely incredible game. It reminds me of (The) Gnorp Apologue, in both art direction and gameplay mechanics. It's an excellent feel. You've absolutely harnessed all the tiny little details to make the game beautiful. The wizard's conversation with the orb is charming, and the way he teleports around the tower with an audible little (pop) is excellent. The animations for the study and the spirits work incredibly well with the art style and give something interesting to look at in the otherwise dull period of grinding that every incremental game has.
As for issues, they're all quite superficial.
I have a particularly large monitor, so the rightmost mountain and background sprites hid themselves before they left the screen. I could also scroll quite a distance to the right of the tower, giving the impression that the space would be used (perhaps for a small village that interacts with the bank), but it never was. The orb ended up quite small in my view after prestiging, as well, as it didn't zoom back in to it.
When the maximum of an upgrade was bought while "hide maxed upgrades" was on, the upgrade's description would remain on the screen until another upgrade was hovered, persisting through movement of the wizard. It could be fixed by showing upgrades, hovering one, and hiding them again, but it seems like an easy fix nonetheless.
As for gameplay, I very much enjoyed it. The different resources interact in lovely ways, and the spells are a good way of giving a method of interactivity after the idle generation of resources far outpaces the manual generation. Prestiging is satisfying, and it's nice that you stack each prestige's progress on top of each other so that you never truly feel that you're wasting time, even with a hasty reset.
For the gripes with the game itself, there's a few, most of which would probably be solved in the process of expanding this prototype to a full game.
The 3rd tower upgrade, which unlocks the prestige feature, is my first complaint. It's significant at first, the herald of a new layer of depth as those upgrades should be, and then in later prestiges you gain... not much, really. It has no functional effect on your existing run. Perhaps adding some effect that only activates from the third upgrade and beyond, like a bonus to magic based on your total accumulated prestige points? Something to make the milestone worth shooting for even when you know your run's going to go to the upgrades past it.
The academy and bank are interesting, and unique in their own ways. However, the bank is a bit inflated to begin with. Large numbers are fun, but it would be nice to start off with tens and twenties rather than skip straight to 500. The lack of any initial use for the bank until you accumulate 2k coins is also a little sad, especially when you then have to shut off production of knowledge or magic to speed it up to get the academy.
Of the sliders and spells, they're neat ways to allow you to focus the resources you need. However, they become a bit of a chore to manage, a problem I bet will be exacerbated by later content. Some control center that allows you to manage those sliders from one place, perhaps connected to the spells wing, would probably ease that burden in a later tower upgrade. I did like how the final upgrade allowed for the creation of multiple buildings; it's a good way to feel like progress is ramping up rather than slowing down.
One issue I had with the spell (and slider) system is that there's no incentive to do anything but crank them to the max for whatever resource you want in the moment. It's simply more optimal to specialize in one resource than diversify due to how the multiplicative bonuses work. In effect, that meant that more spell slots were just a multiplier on spell power.
I hope that in the full version, there will be spells that have more complex and strategic functions, like perhaps increasing other spells' power or having a max number of any given spell.
The bank and academy also seem a little bit barren. I think the bank could do with the ability to see inside, revealing a few little goblins or perhaps a dragon wearing spectacles. Or perhaps both!
The academy similarly is still at the moment, but it's also very basic in its function. It's a simple toggle from knowledge to magic, albeit a flavorful one. A mechanic that rewards in some way not minmaxing, like giving a boost to gold or a different resource when the slider is at its center (after an upgrade) or allowing you to train apprentices that act as an alternative source of magic would add more depth of content to those areas.
It would be nice for upgrades to the tower to affect some of the previously created buildings, like adding new upgrades and the like. Locking the Gold spell behind the tower upgrade that unlocks the bank is a little quality of life change that can prevent unnecessary wastes of resources.
All in all, an incredibly charming game, worth playing through even in its basic state.
Wow, thanks for taking the time to note all of your observations! This is an incredibly insightful analysis and it does confirm some of the unease I had been feeling about specific parts of the prototype you mentioned. Appreciate your attention to detail!
This is a wonderful start for a game! You are really on to something good here, maybe add some form of end goal to work on like, cast the ultimete spell!
This is a beautiful simple incremental game. Please make more of this!
The style very pixel charming for how limit the palette is, and the fact you can change the color scheme is a nice touch. The sounds definitely feel cohesive to the rest of the game and add to the retro vibes. My personal favorite thing about the visuals in this game is how you imagine reading books with endless book banner, super neat!
I don’t play incremental games too often but this one feel great: I didn’t feel like I had to wait forever between upgrades and choosing which resource I wanted a boost via a spell is super fun. Can’t wait to see the next levels of incremental game play you come up with.
My only point of negative feedback, is I found it twinge annoying having to click the ‘hide maxed’ skills on each UI and after each prestige. I wish there was a single persistent setting for it as I never really looked at the maxed out skills.
I lowkey like you could make a new game, expanding this into a tower defense game or something like your apex machine one, where the academy wizards could be used to go on expeditions. All your games have so much potential.
How is the prstige bar calculated? Total magic for the run? Or I it Magic, Knowledge, and Coins? Also making a village house where you can buy boosts like potions with coin would be cool.
Feedback: In research tower, there are used 2 different names on magic boost/spirit boost spell. Tooltip text differs from spell name text. When I upgraded tower to level 3 and clicked on prestige building, it took me to choosing blessings and I couldnt return to game, I had to press New Run and lost my previous game.
I dont like these types of games, but I ended up here and played half an hour : D. Good job!
Thanks for playing! It is indeed supposed to reset your progress, so you can get further! But seems like I need to maybe make the explanation more obvious.
feedback: the tooltips/menus are a bit aggressive (i.e. no, i didn't want /that/ building, now i've got to move my mouse much further away from the building i wanted to use)
font is cool, but you have to zoom all the way out to manage things and even then .. just so much distance to cover and scrolling is still necessary. smaller font/icons maybe?
I would love to have a full resolution looping video of the end state with no buttons so that I could put it as an animated wallpaper, like the attached image, but an infinite looping video.
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Very fun! I love the economy sliders, do you have any plans to expand the economy into like, investing in the town or something like that?
I do plan to expand the economy, though not sure exactly how it will look like yet!
If our love is skibidi why are you my rizzedy
This is a fun little game! I'm curious to see how it can expand!
2000 spirits and 10 specter be like, for a while I thought the second biggest ring was last but then another one appeared, now i'm just going till my browser tab freezes.
This is fun. Hopefully the Steam release doesn't mean abandoning this version though?
I plan to update this version for a while
That's good to hear, but not exactly what I meant. This version is equivalent, from what I can see, to the Steam demo. Do you plan to have the full version be Steam exclusive? Because if you do, I won't be able to buy it.
Oh, I was not aware that there were people that could access itch, but not steam. In that case, I think I can do that.
Awesome, thanks! (and yeah, long story but Steam has been a *BIG* problem for some of us for a few years now)
What's your big problem with steam?
loved the gameplay
maybe spell power buff and spirit cost decrease is too strong?
skipped the last 4 prestige points and progress still felt surprisingly fast
Noted!
You forgot to put your name in the credits. ;-)
Imagion if a town came to raid your tower and you had to do a RPG type fight to fend them off and if you fail they take some of your stuff
cute but short. another incremental game that takes about an hour.
menus are somewhat awkward since they like to open outside the screen. otherwise no real complaints.
the spell swapping mechanic reminds me a bit of Orb of Creation, which is much longer and deeper. i'm guessing your intent with these is to just make something short and simple, and for that goal i say mission accomplished.
if you decide you want to try being even more creative, it might be worth exploring more "diagetic" menus for this kind of game specifically, instead of relying on raw text, to make it more mysterious and compact.
Interesting, thanks for the ideas!
Enjoyed Magic Archery, enjoyed this too. I like your idle games and I look forward to this getting developed further on Steam! :D
awesome game! I recommend more prestige levels that you have to unlock with prestige. also what @EveOfFrost said
Perhaps as a next prestige layer, you could add Ghouls, that need a hundred specters, and then a lich that you have to evolve
Really cool game hope it gets put on steam eventually
i cant play the game i cant scroll on my fire tablet
Really fun game! My first incremental and I feel a very good leap into the genre! Super fun and engaging and I never felt like I didn't have the tools to reach that next step. Prestige never felt bad and I loved unlocking all the new things faster and faster! The touch of being able tio change the color pallet was really nice too!
Good incremental game with cool pixel and sound. The touch with the wizards teleport to each of upgrade places really nice! Really like the game. Keep up the good work!
great game, don't know if this is a good time or not. keep up the good work!
great time burner nd just fun, update coming?
Loved it, just wow, from the old school graphics, to the sound, to the way the particles move, an absolute Joy of a game. Super duper great Job!!!
Fun game! Not to sound like a total loser, but the specter/spirit mechanics would be a great example when explaining valence electrons!
Such a fun game! I really hope this game gets more attention and updates
This incremental game was also very, very fun!
The sound of the spirit automatically creating magic was the most pleasant, meow~!
my playthrough
great game, hope to sed more!
absolutely enjoyable, great prototype
There's a great song exactly about this theme. Stargazer
so cool
really great game easy to play understand and complete
Made an account just so I could comment on this game, that being said, it was amazing and I'm looking forward enthusiastically to any updates and further development. The idea is creative and I enjoyed it a lot despite not usually getting so engrossed in idle games, the gameplay is simple enough but definitely addictive, and the bank and school elements were great features in adding to the gameplay.
I loved the pixel graphics and the little animation of the wizard moving around whenever I hovered over the different building sections. Personally, I'd enjoy being able to customize the little wizard but I understand it could conflict with the background and other sprites.
I'm excited for any progress and if continued, the final product of this game.
Absolutely incredible game. It reminds me of (The) Gnorp Apologue, in both art direction and gameplay mechanics. It's an excellent feel. You've absolutely harnessed all the tiny little details to make the game beautiful. The wizard's conversation with the orb is charming, and the way he teleports around the tower with an audible little (pop) is excellent. The animations for the study and the spirits work incredibly well with the art style and give something interesting to look at in the otherwise dull period of grinding that every incremental game has.
As for issues, they're all quite superficial.
I have a particularly large monitor, so the rightmost mountain and background sprites hid themselves before they left the screen. I could also scroll quite a distance to the right of the tower, giving the impression that the space would be used (perhaps for a small village that interacts with the bank), but it never was. The orb ended up quite small in my view after prestiging, as well, as it didn't zoom back in to it.
When the maximum of an upgrade was bought while "hide maxed upgrades" was on, the upgrade's description would remain on the screen until another upgrade was hovered, persisting through movement of the wizard. It could be fixed by showing upgrades, hovering one, and hiding them again, but it seems like an easy fix nonetheless.
As for gameplay, I very much enjoyed it. The different resources interact in lovely ways, and the spells are a good way of giving a method of interactivity after the idle generation of resources far outpaces the manual generation. Prestiging is satisfying, and it's nice that you stack each prestige's progress on top of each other so that you never truly feel that you're wasting time, even with a hasty reset.
For the gripes with the game itself, there's a few, most of which would probably be solved in the process of expanding this prototype to a full game.
The 3rd tower upgrade, which unlocks the prestige feature, is my first complaint. It's significant at first, the herald of a new layer of depth as those upgrades should be, and then in later prestiges you gain... not much, really. It has no functional effect on your existing run. Perhaps adding some effect that only activates from the third upgrade and beyond, like a bonus to magic based on your total accumulated prestige points? Something to make the milestone worth shooting for even when you know your run's going to go to the upgrades past it.
The academy and bank are interesting, and unique in their own ways. However, the bank is a bit inflated to begin with. Large numbers are fun, but it would be nice to start off with tens and twenties rather than skip straight to 500. The lack of any initial use for the bank until you accumulate 2k coins is also a little sad, especially when you then have to shut off production of knowledge or magic to speed it up to get the academy.
Of the sliders and spells, they're neat ways to allow you to focus the resources you need. However, they become a bit of a chore to manage, a problem I bet will be exacerbated by later content. Some control center that allows you to manage those sliders from one place, perhaps connected to the spells wing, would probably ease that burden in a later tower upgrade. I did like how the final upgrade allowed for the creation of multiple buildings; it's a good way to feel like progress is ramping up rather than slowing down.
One issue I had with the spell (and slider) system is that there's no incentive to do anything but crank them to the max for whatever resource you want in the moment. It's simply more optimal to specialize in one resource than diversify due to how the multiplicative bonuses work. In effect, that meant that more spell slots were just a multiplier on spell power.
I hope that in the full version, there will be spells that have more complex and strategic functions, like perhaps increasing other spells' power or having a max number of any given spell.
The bank and academy also seem a little bit barren. I think the bank could do with the ability to see inside, revealing a few little goblins or perhaps a dragon wearing spectacles. Or perhaps both!
The academy similarly is still at the moment, but it's also very basic in its function. It's a simple toggle from knowledge to magic, albeit a flavorful one. A mechanic that rewards in some way not minmaxing, like giving a boost to gold or a different resource when the slider is at its center (after an upgrade) or allowing you to train apprentices that act as an alternative source of magic would add more depth of content to those areas.
It would be nice for upgrades to the tower to affect some of the previously created buildings, like adding new upgrades and the like. Locking the Gold spell behind the tower upgrade that unlocks the bank is a little quality of life change that can prevent unnecessary wastes of resources.
All in all, an incredibly charming game, worth playing through even in its basic state.
Wow, thanks for taking the time to note all of your observations! This is an incredibly insightful analysis and it does confirm some of the unease I had been feeling about specific parts of the prototype you mentioned. Appreciate your attention to detail!
YES IT SAVES THE PROGRESS OH MY GOD YES!!!
This is a wonderful start for a game! You are really on to something good here, maybe add some form of end goal to work on like, cast the ultimete spell!
Noted!
This is a beautiful simple incremental game. Please make more of this!
The style very pixel charming for how limit the palette is, and the fact you can change the color scheme is a nice touch. The sounds definitely feel cohesive to the rest of the game and add to the retro vibes. My personal favorite thing about the visuals in this game is how you imagine reading books with endless book banner, super neat!
I don’t play incremental games too often but this one feel great: I didn’t feel like I had to wait forever between upgrades and choosing which resource I wanted a boost via a spell is super fun. Can’t wait to see the next levels of incremental game play you come up with.
My only point of negative feedback, is I found it twinge annoying having to click the ‘hide maxed’ skills on each UI and after each prestige. I wish there was a single persistent setting for it as I never really looked at the maxed out skills.
Loved it!
Thanks for playing! Also that is helpful feedback
I lowkey like you could make a new game, expanding this into a tower defense game or something like your apex machine one, where the academy wizards could be used to go on expeditions. All your games have so much potential.
How is the prstige bar calculated? Total magic for the run? Or I it Magic, Knowledge, and Coins? Also making a village house where you can buy boosts like potions with coin would be cool.
It is based on the amount of magic collected!
Fun game, great art and music/sfx.
Feedback: In research tower, there are used 2 different names on magic boost/spirit boost spell. Tooltip text differs from spell name text. When I upgraded tower to level 3 and clicked on prestige building, it took me to choosing blessings and I couldnt return to game, I had to press New Run and lost my previous game.
I dont like these types of games, but I ended up here and played half an hour : D. Good job!
Thanks for playing! It is indeed supposed to reset your progress, so you can get further! But seems like I need to maybe make the explanation more obvious.
I got stuck in the blessings menu, too :c
Interesting stuff! Would be nice if the browser version ran in a non-active tab.
Yep, wish it did too, unfortunately is a limitation with the engine i am using :|
I'm looking forward to this one's full release, any plans for Steam?
There is a decent chance i might take it further!
Please do
great game.
feedback: the tooltips/menus are a bit aggressive (i.e. no, i didn't want /that/ building, now i've got to move my mouse much further away from the building i wanted to use)
font is cool, but you have to zoom all the way out to manage things and even then .. just so much distance to cover and scrolling is still necessary. smaller font/icons maybe?
Thanks, I'll see what I can do. By the way, was it too large even after adjusting the UI scaling?
Noted!