Love of Magic News

This is a bunch of little fixes rolling out, with no new real content.

- OSX framework rebuild using latest Valve code. Hopefully fixes the issue some people have reported on OSX. If not, let me know, and I'll continue to chase it.
- Added a Streamer mode for people streaming on Twitch/Youtube; should now auto-blur any sequences considered as too lewd for the internet (let me know if I missed anything, it's sadly a manual process tagging what's lewd and what's not).
- Added the experimental localization feature. There are partially hand-translated versions, with machine translation picking up the slack, for French, German and Russian. It's still very much work in progress, and does not localize the UI (just the dialog), but might be interesting for some people.
- Does a final (?) localization pass.

Lots of small fixes, most of which don't affect most players, so I tag it as a small update. Let me know if there's any problems in the comments!

I know I told myself I'd leave Book 1 alone, but I was working on a sequence from Book 2, testing out a new technique. I was originally going to just render a static image, then bring it into After Effects to add effects, then take a single screenshot and use ingame. Except I managed to get it to loop cleanly into a 2 min video, and it looked pretty awesome running in the background instead of just a static image.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Having done that, I started thinking about doing it to the rest of Book 2. And I will; it's a reasonably cheap way to add impact to cool magic sequences, without spending days and days like I do on the big cutscenes. But I always wanted people to play the full game from beginning to end, and I started to worry that by the time I finally finish Book 3, Book 1 will look terribly, terribly dated.

So I had a bright idea; why not go back and add in this kind of animating effects to some of the key non-animated moments in Book 1? (Here an experienced project manager would go "oh no, you didn't....", but... well, yes I did). There's 30+ new animations of this kind, ranging from small throw-away scenes like this one:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

... to entirely new videos replacing what was previously static images for umpf, like here. My favorite, which I also used as the Book 1 Remaster branding, was Treason's Reward. It's a shot from Act V's End sequence, where Emily states "I pledge to reward loyalty with trust. Service with Honour. Treason with Death". She feels a little more scary in this little animating clip than she did in the original still image.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Part of doing that involved replaying the game, and that's where my carefully laid plans went awry. I have (at least in my own mind) grown and evolved as a developer over the years, especially in terms of art and special effects. In the 2 years since I started Love of Magic I've certainly learned a LOT about what works visually in this medium. And some of the early stuff really hadn't aged well.

I ended up re-rendering a couple of dozen images, mostly for the early scenes, especially the erotic ones. Chloe's day 1 event in the bathroom, Strip MMA with Katie and Strip poker with Katie and Bella. While doing that I also added longer action animations for all three of them as a capstone. I also did a pass through to standardize aspect ratios, improve framing, color correct where it made sense, and add a proper background rather than just using whatever happened to be in the room.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

All in all I ended up touching about 80% of the story-telling images in the game. and cleaned up a bunch of little annoying issues (Molly, for example, was originally blue-eyed, and some of her early images were still blue-eyed). I also did a typo-pass, fixed a card background that didn't unlock properly, and tested the various other achievements. Hopefully the update makes Book 1 feel visually more coherent, and raises the quality bar a little.

I'm also taking Book 2 off the main-line as of now; you can still opt into it on the Beta line of Book 1; if you like it don't forget to wishlist it over on the main page, which makes a big difference at launch.

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

Hope you like it, and that it was worth the work involved. Let me know in the forum, or in the comments if anything's gone wrong (all too possible with the number of changes involved).

When I started working on Book 2 I removed a lot of the Edinburgh content; it fitted the story of a young mage finding his place in the world, but felt out of place for a young god finding his way through a war. As a result Edinburgh in Book 2 felt quite empty and unloved. With Act VIII+ I decided to change that. So what's new?

[h2]Story content[/h2]
I upgraded the computer, and added a bunch of new things to play with, including outfits for Chloe and Jenny. Jenny, in general, gets a LOT of love in this update if you've finished the Black Rose quest-line in Book 1. I didn't quite intend to make this the Jenny Update, but it sometimes feels like it is.


I also added some replayable content; some new events with Booker at the University, a special new book from Diana, and another from Dylan. There's also a new Kingdom event (Treasure Hunt) with it's own Questline and lore, and new special gems.

[h2]Strategy Gameplay[/h2]

So... the strategy game. I've been mulling on this problem for a bit; I wanted multi-first combat to be visualized. I tried faking it with videos at Malgareth (Day 124) and the end of Act VIII (Day 151), but it felt anti-climactic. So I sat down and started writing an alternative combat system for when MC's facing hordes of enemies. It's still very much in early development, and will remain optional in-game, but hopefully it'll be fun when it's fully done. It's integrated in day 124 and 151, and there's also a little test-menu where I'll be adding more as the Beta advances.

[h2]About book 2 [/h2]

Book 2 is now up on the storefront as 'coming soon'.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1570980/Love_of_Magic_Book_2_The_War/

If it looks interesting, do give it a wishlist; those help Steam knows that it's a real game, and will help it get a better launch.

With Book 2's store-front available, how does that affect Book 1's access to the content? I know the way I put Book 2's beta content available in Book 1 confused some people; as such I'll be removing it from the main line once this Event / sale is over.

It will continue to be available on the Beta branch, including all daily and major updates. Players from other storefronts get to see the game as it's been made, and it doesn't feel right to prevent Steam players from having the same access.

So, that's it for VIII+. Next up is Act IX, which will again advance the timeline. Thanks for the support, and hope everyone enjoys the game!

I continue to work on Book 2, and hope to keep sharing it with all of you here as I do.

Where the heart of Book 1 was a college romance slice of life, Book 2 tries to add themes of military fantasy into the mix, and it's one of the key themes for Act VIII. It adds ~2 hrs of additional story content, new companions, new abilities and several new erotic scenes.



The Love of Magic story is (like all good Fantasy) planned as a trilogy; the Crown, the War and the Return. With Act VIII complete, I'm more or less exactly halfway through the full story, which will end up being 16 or so Acts. Once I'm done with Book 2, it'll go on sale on Steam. So why on earth can you still play Act VII and VIII even though you only bought Book 1? There's a couple of reasons for that.

The first is simply because hearing from happy players who enjoy the game is one of my key motivations. If I'm feeling tired or burnt out I'll often grab a drink and spend some time reading through reviews and posts about the game. The best way to keep players engaged is to keep putting out substantial updates pretty regularly, so that's what I try to do.

When I first started Love of Magic, almost 2 years ago, I planned it purely as a hobby. I shared it for free on a couple of sites, and mostly just enjoyed watching people play and gathering feedback. Because that was the initial approach, interacting with players, hearing their feedback and thoughts has been a key part of my development process, and I'm pretty sure Love of Magic wouldn't be the game it is if it hadn't been for all the amazing players, and the questions they ask.

Then 2020 happened, and our family finances took a tumble; that left me either finding a job flipping code somewhere else, or seeing if I could make money on my hobby. I ended up betting on Love of Magic, set up a Patreon and focused pretty much every free hour I had on the game. I also ended up setting up a Steam page for it, intending to release Book 1 when it was done. Optimistically I planned that for Summer Solstice, but it was almost Winter Solstice before the full book was finally done, and in the store.

Why didn't I just make it Early Access? Well, for starters because I'm dumb. I've had some bad experiences with Early Access myself, and I wanted Book 1 to be *done* before I put it up. I still think that was the right decision, especially for a story-centric game. I could then have just built Book 2 exactly the same way as I did book 1, and put it up on Steam when it was done. But because I wanted to keep letting you guys play Book 2 as I was developing it, I added Book 2's depots to Book 1's Beta and just kept going.

As long as it was just on the Beta branch, people didn't stumble onto it by accident; where it got confusing was where I promoted it to the main branch of the game. Players could now end up playing Book 2 without knowing that it wasn't done, which could be an unhappy experience.

With Act VIII now done, I'll be front-loading the work on Book 2's Steam Page, and get that ready. Once the store page is done and accepted I'll probably shift Book 2 back onto just the beta branch of the game, so people don't accidentally stumble over it. I will continue to update it until the whole of Book 2 is complete, and do the same with Book 3.

So why would anyone buy Book 2, if they already have access to it on Book 1's beta branch? Well, you do get collectibles and achievements that way (both of those have to be tied to a new App ID to work). You also get a cleaner way to launch it, without the weird little menu you've got to use now. And you get to support development, helping keep me supplied with instant noodles.

So... probably a longer update than most of you expected; it's a topic I've been banging my head off for a while, and I don't know if I have all the right answers. Let me know in Discord or in the comments if you have any thoughts.

But for now; I hope you all enjoy Act VIII.

I've traditionally leapfrogged development; first I'll do the main Act, which advances the calendar and timeline, then I do an Act+, which expands on the world, and add content that can be enjoyed across the entire book.


This update marks the first Act+ of Book2 , and it's probably the biggest one I've done.



A lot of love has gone into King's Dragon; there's two new Questlines, one of which ends up giving you an ingame pet that can be found playing in various locations in the pub. Both questlines can be triggered from drinking at the King's Dragon (first one after day 124, second after day 130). While I was at it I also expanded Molly's replayable Late Night sequence with more positions; I'll keep doing that (and maybe adding replayable Akane, Bella or Katie events) as I continue to build out the game.

There's also a couple of non-Kings Dragon events; I've added a new quest-line for hardcore poker-players; Snowdrop will tell you about them if you shower at night in Camelot.

I also didn't want to leave Edinburgh totally behind; there will be events that trigger by drinking at the Crowley, including any time you watch news on TV, and old friends come to visit.

Finally I added a whole bunch of small fixes; new enemies, keyboard shortcuts for map navigation, a player PC at Pendragon Inc, and many more.

Hope you like it... now it's on to making Act VIII. The Gathering awaits.