Love of Magic Book 2: The War News

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.

The development of Love of Magic advances at two speeds; the story updates (I, II, III, etc) and the world expansion updates (I+, II+, III+, etc). These flesh out the sandbox, add additional side-content, improve the combat system and move the game from a linear to a non-linear experience.



The star of this update is of course Molly; I'd completely forgotten her birthday back on day 210 (thankfully she handled that better than my wife would have done), and I went back to add it in. Molly remains the great enabler, and her character weaves in and out through pretty much every story in the game.



While rendering Molly I came across this old poster from the movie Showgirls and I couldn't *not* attempt to recreate it. I liked it enough that it became the motif for this update's images.

Apart from that, this is an update with a lot of focus on Elsewhere; new Kingdom events, new gems, new enemies and two 'epic' enemies that should provide a challenge for the most hardened poker player. It also adds character development arcs for two of the companions that were under-appreciated in Book 3, and both Katie and Dylan have fun new events.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

All in all, this is probably the largest world+ update in the game, which is fitting, since it's the last one. I'm now starting Act XVI: Eternal Sunshine, the final act of Love of Magic. I hope you've enjoyed the journey.

Act XV (The Return) is now complete, and out on the Beta Branch. The story of Love of Magic is nearing it's final chapter, after almost four years of development.



With Act XV done, I'm moving on to XV+, which will focus on Kingdom Events and Elsewhere events across Book 3, before starting work on the final Act XVI: Eternal Summer.



Once the whole Book 3 is complete, I'm hoping to do a pass to update all the three books to use the same engine, and making sure I port over stuff from Book 1 (like TTS support, and localization support) to the shared Book 3 engine. I'll also be looking into making a New Game+ feature.

As many of you know, Persona 4/5 were two of the biggest inspirations for Love of Magic, and I always loved the ability to start a new game, using the "end of game" save, with enhanced stats, enemies and some new encounters along the way.


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

Apart from that, I've started work on my next series, called Morningstar. It's another Urban Fantasy story, featuring many of the same 'souls' in a very different universe. I'm hoping to start Early Access of that sometime in late fall 2023, and develop it in a similar way to Love of Magic (with periodic act releases). If it looks interesting, do give it a wishlist; it's super helpful in giving it a good launch.