Love of Magic News

This build contains various small bug-fix issues:

1.2.6
- Fixed a bug that could derail the dialog if you used a character before the story-dialog triggered
- Fixed a bug where the Minotaur card background could fail to trigger
- Fixed a bug where people who continued play from a non-steam build could fail to trigger some achievements

1.2.5b
- Adds a hard guard to Dragon fight for people who somehow miss it

1.2.5
- Streamer mode now gets an image/background
- Streamer mode now handles censoring attachments and emails
- Fixed a couple of small typos / bugs

Book 2 of the Love of Magic is complete, and is going up for sale tomorrow (31st May) at a 20% launch discount. As such I'm putting Book 1 on sale, since they two of them are designed to be played back to back.

Book 1 (The Crown) takes the player from day 1 of the game to Day 115 (New Year's Eve). Book 2 (The War) continues with the player waking up on Day 116, and plays onwards from there.



Where Book 1 starts as a slice of life romance, gradually building towards an epic Urban Fantasy, book 2 incorporates elements of military scifi/fantasy, kingdom building, being able to upgrade the King's Dragon, and a large number of optional side quests. It's also darker and more moody; the days of being innocent and young are over... the war has begun.



Like with Book 1's development branch I'll be developing and sharing Book 3 on Book 2's development and Beta branch. Beta branch will have latest (stable) act, so it's suitable for people who just wants to play the latest content and see how it works. Development branch is what I test on (and what the Discord test gang uses), so it'll have the very latest content... but it's not yet content complete, and I may decide to edit events, add flags or logic I missed out on, or add content out of sequence. Don't play it with a savegame you treasure.

Book 3's right now at day 202 on the Development Branch of Book 2, so once you grab it you can see what I'm up to. Hopefully you've enjoyed the journey through Love of Magic, and will stick with me until Book 3 (The Return) completes the trilogy.

This is a small update that's primarily fixing possible bugs.

- I finally tracked down the bug that could cause some of the scripted battles to not trigger cleanly. It has (I hope) been eradicated for good.
- One of the card backgrounds (The Minotaur one triggering when you save Katie) didn't trigger correctly. Fixed.
- Fixed a bug where people playing a non-steam build, then switching to Steam, could end up with Achievements not triggering.
- Improved Streaming mode.

In other news, Book 2 has been submitted for Steam Review, and is on track for a release on May 31st. It's been almost 18 months since I started it... I hope you all enjoy it.

And with that, I'm done with Act XI: The Black Sun, and so with the story of The War. It's been a real rollercaster; I hope you guys enjoy it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1570980/Love_of_Magic_Book_2_The_War/

The full book is coming on the 31st of May; give it a wishlist if you'd like to help give it a boost at launch.

So what's new in this build?


The big thing is the final 12 days of the Book, eventually leading to the end of the story. This is a relatively short act (most acts are ~20 days), but it certainly took some doing to write. I hope you like it. It ends, of course, on the Spring Equinox.


I added in a bunch of the final touches that goes into making the game complete. All the memories are now set up, most of the quests complete (I have three more to do, which will go in over the next week or so), and I added 25 new collectible card backgrounds (which you can use for your poker-cards), which unlock as you play.


After painful deliberation I decided to axe the strategy gameplay; it wasn't fun, it was confusing, and making it fun would be at least another month of development, likely more. To replace it I introduced a new system of Military Points, which will change in small ways how various events play out. If it's something people enjoy I'll likely expand on it for Book 2. I also added some more kingdom events for players to enjoy, and made sure they're all playable.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

What's left?

I'm working on achievements; I'm aiming to have 50-60 achievements; they'll be a mix of story, side-content and the occasional hard to get ones you'll need to chase down yourself.

I've got a bit of work on Elsewhere to do; a travelling salesman, new gems and some additional enemies.

Finally, I need to finish up those last three quests, and fix any bugs testers find. If you want to help report bugs, the best thing is to join my Discord. They're an amazing bunch of people that've kept me sane-ish over the last 2 years, and who've been amazingly helpful at bug fixing and typo-checking the game.

https://discord.gg/NQrQrht

Hope you all enjoyed Act XI. Once I start writing Book 3, it'll show up on the Developer and Beta branch of Book 2, in the same way as Book 2 showed up on the beta branch of Book 1.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1570980/Love_of_Magic_Book_2_The_War/

Love of Magic Book 2: The War is closing in on story complete. With Act X now done, there's only 12 days of in-game story to go before the book is complete. As always you guys can play it here on the Beta Branch of Book 1 as I develop it. If you haven't had a chance yet do give the game a wishlist, it'll really help it at launch.

In Act X: The Destroyer of hope the story takes a turn for the darker. Much like the Act III/IV inflection point marked the end of the player's relaxing days of fun at the University, the beginning of Act X marks the beginning of a new central theme of the story.

It's also the first time I've tried writing any other characters than MC as a lead, with Katie getting to star in some sequences. She's a lot of fun to write; much darker, more introspective and more moody.

Hope you enjoy the sequence, and that you'll come along for the rest of the ride as we approach the end of Book 2, and the beginning of the final part of the trilogy. The Return.