Love of Magic Book 2: The War News

This is a small hotfix that resolves various issues players have reported.

Full changelog:

1.2.7f
- Fixed intro/exit animation of the top right element of the front-end being offset
- Added a one-liner to distinguish if the player had already met Cu on Book 1's NG+ branch prior to Day 134
- Gated What was Promised to after the funeral
- Triggering Emily showing up in the Great Hall is no longer a one-time event
- Fixed loading End of Book 2 save soft-locking.
- Updated the Linux launch parameters to fix it not starting correctly on linux.

For book 2 this is a smallish patch, consisting of the various updates that have accumulated as people played and tested Book 2; the big announcement is that Book 3's New Game+ mode is now complete, meaning the game can be played through from beginning to end as intended.



Full patch notes:

1.2.7e
- Re-encoding video files to remove issues

1.2.7d
- Typo pass

1.2.7c
- Fixed up some images with transparent backgrounds that looked bad with the new ultra-wide support.

1.2.7b
- Re-encoded all videos to WebM
- Re-encoded Akane's buttplug videos at 60fps instead of 10fps
- Fixed a dependency on the Bounty Hunter Questline in What was Promised.

1.2.7
- Fixed a flicker when transitioning between rooms while holding fullscreen images
- Fixed a possible double-click issue advancing dialog too fast
- Added black bars for ultra-wide displays
- Typos fixed up
- Fixed up some misplaced characters
- Added an explicit button to upload locally triggered achievements to Steam in the achievement UI, in case any have been triggered locally only

1.2.6c
- OSX Only build: Updated Steam SDK



With that done I'll be returning to Wings of Empire, my next game. A space opera set in a world where the Roman Empire never fell, it's currently closing up on the first Act of the game, and it's public reveal. If it sounds interesting, check it out here, and give it a wishlist (those are huge for helping it succeed at launch).

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3203710/Wings_of_Empire/



I'm developing and sharing it on the Development branch of Morningstar: Book of the Fallen, so if you've already got Morningstar, you can check it out there. Morningstar is also participating in the VN Sale, at 25% discount.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2396740/Morningstar_Book_of_the_Fallen/

This is a small bug-fixing release; it fixes the Achievement UI (which was previously broken), adds support for Spankbank (which auto-saves at the start of an erotic scene, and gives you hints on how to access them), and cleans up some smaller logic issues.

Thanks to all the people who helped report issues!


Full changelog:
Fixed Traitor's Point Convo having a dependency on BOUNTY_HUNTER2
Fixed up the achievements UI
Set up the Spankbank (for collecting sex scenes)
Repo-job 2 now lets you bring your friends
Fixed some typos in the Quests.

One of the core inspirations for the Love of Magic series was Persona 4/5, and one of the many awesome ideas they had was New Game+, where you can complete the game, and start a new game with the end-of-game save.

I had been wanting to do a New Game+ Mode from the very beginning, and a lot of little hints and foreshadowing was built into it. The first part of it was taking the final Book 3 engine (which has a bunch of quality of life updates built into it) and port book 1 and book 2 to use it. That unlocks a ton of new gems, new card backgrounds, new monsters, and improved graphics. It also meant that things like dialog rollback now works on Book 2.



The next step was adding a little bit of fan-service. The Kult of Kath gets another offering, if you completed the quest Huntress of the Highlands in Book 1, Kath will be back for another go in Huntress of the Hotspring. While writing it I got inspired, and the whole thing ends up with another event, and a threesome with Bella and Kath.



I hadn't actually planned on a new Emily event, but I had this gorgeous outfit I'd originally gotten for Lin (in Morningstar). Lin never got to use it, but Emily looks stunning in it, leading to a new event called the Dance of Veils.



Finally, Molly and Akane wanted in on the action, and it ends up as a threesome in the Dojo, called Scissors.



The final part of New Game+ is the subtle way the story changes, both little dialog events and in new storyline uipdates. If you've defeated Hel in Book 3, and started a new game+ in Book 1 with that save, Hel will contact you again in Book 2. She has a mission for you, in the questline What was Promised.




https://store.steampowered.com/app/2396740/Morningstar_Book_of_the_Fallen/

If you've got Morningstar: Book of the Fallen, you'll notice it also got an update today (I've had a busy couple of months), with a new event for Sophia and a threesome with Katie and Lin.


With Morningstar done, it's time to start looking at my next project. It's called Wings of Empire, and is a Space Opera set in a world where the Roman Empire never fell.


You were a Centurion in the Legion Special Forces when a critical injury benched you. Unwilling to take retirement you enrolled at the Naval Academy, graduating as a fighter pilot. Game starts as you board the Fast Attack Carrier Aquila, heading into the Dark.

The Steam Page just went live if you want to check it out. If you can, give it a wishlist to help it succeed at launch!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3203710/Wings_of_Empire/

If you have Morningstar, you can also play the first 13 days of the story by swiching the Development Beta Branch. There it'll sit for people to test until it enters Early Access.



Would you like to know more? Come join us on Discord, for behind the scenes content, build updates and fun theory-crafting.

I first started writing Love of Magic in September 2019, talking to the characters and trying to make sense of the world they lived in. I spent weekends and nights trying to learn Daz3D and After Effects.

I've actually been making games for a relatively long time; I first entered the games industry back in '99, but for most of that time I worked as a programmer; this was the first real chance to stretch my writing muscles writing for something other than a compiler.



Along the way I fell in love with my characters; an unwise practice for an author that occasionally has to do terrible things to them. There's still chunks of the game I can't revisit, even just for fixing typos, without getting dust in my eyes.

I DID want to make sure the Emily, Katie and the rest had their happily ever after; hopefully with Act XVI: Eternal Summer I managed that.

Book 3 goes on sale on Thursday 28th; if you haven't yet, a wishlist is an awesome way to tell Steam that this game's real, and deserves some support at launch ;)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1992770/Love_of_Magic_Book_3_The_Return/

Apart from the new Act, and the Epilogue, this update also contains the usual mad scramble that occurs when, after a year worth of kicking the can down the road, you run out of road. Bugs were fixed, typos squashed, and finally collectibles and achievements added.



There's also an update to Book 2 itself, which includes bug-fixes to achievements, an improved debugging interface, and fixing some possible bugs in the Texas path, and the Stag party.

So. What's next? I've got two things on my plate. First, there's Morningstar:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2396740/Morningstar_Book_of_the_Fallen/

Once the launch is over, and I can start breathing again, I'll return to Act II of Morningstar, working to continue that world. I

Apart from that, I've got dreams of doing a New Game+ update to Book 1/2/3, inspired by Persona (which remains one of the touchstones for the trilogy). Some of the events in Book 3 hint that there are *other* stories left untold in the world... eventually starting a new game in Book 1, using the final save from Book 3, will let you explore some of those.

But all that is the future. For now, I hope you've all enjoyed the journey, and the characters. Thanks for taking this journey with me.

Droid.