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[Nate Kling]

Congratulations on making it in the article!

[Guert]

Congrats mate! So... When is a real competition gonna be organized?
Seriously, what's next in your marketing plan? And how about dev? How is it going?
Later!

[frosty]

Congrats on the review!

"Thanks to its intuitive interface..."  I'll bet you're glad to hear that. =)

[Guert]

Ha ha! Yeah! :D

[TeeGee]

Thanks guys.

Yeah I'm very happy about the GUI part . Nice to know that someone appreciated my efforts at making the game more accessible. I'm also happy that it prooves that I took the right aproach - gonna be useful in the feature. However, I myself think that the UI is far from being perfect. Generally, I'm happy with the game as my first attempt at shareware, but my ambitions aim higher .

About the competitions and other plans... well, for now I don't plan anything like that for MAGI. The game is selling pretty well, I think I've learned as much as I could from it and I want to focus on my next project. This time with some budget behind it. I consider MAGI a nice game, but a bit rough and edges and with some obvious beginner's mistakes. Now I want to make something really kick-ass . And then I will make some competitions as the general idea is awesome.
I'll give you some more info when I'll get to the development phase. Currently I'm finishing the process of hiring a nice, imaginative and dedicated artist that would like to participate in the indie-dev fun. I've got two great candidates that I really put some hope in. Unfortunately we're all currently working on The Witcher and it takes virtually all of our time. The development won't start till the master is approved. Of course, I still plan to update MAGI every now and then. I love my gamers and I don't want to dissapoint them.

Tr00jg, they contacted me and asked if they could review the game. They were also so kind to send me a copy of the magazine once it came out. I wish that every gaming magazine would be like that.

Thanks again.

[Tr00jg]

That's just plain awesome TeeGee! Its PC Zone right? Ill make a mental note to buy it more often.

You know, you are just where I want to be a year or 2 ahead of me: Aspiring indie selling his 1st game, got some work in the professional industry, and now getting a bigger budget and taking a bigger step with each game.

 

Good luck man! Ill be waiting for your next game.

[TeeGee]

Just a quick and joyful (especially for you ) note:

MAGI is today available for free at GameGiveawayOfTheDay!

Have lots of fun. And remember to leave your thumbs up .

[Tr00jg]

Just a quick and joyful (especially for you ) note:

MAGI is today available for free at GameGiveawayOfTheDay!

Have lots of fun. And remember to leave your thumbs up .

That's neat. I snooped around on the site to see how it works. I am not totally sure. Do they pay for each copy that gets downloaded?

[th15]

I don't know about their business model but I've gotten stuff from there before and it's clean. It's no scam or trick to install malicious software.

I guess the games are given away just to get them out there in the hopes that the secondary publicity it generates (in the form of someone playing the game from there for free then persuading another friend to buy it later on) pays off.

[Melly]

I remember something about them paying the game creators for the right to give it away.

[TeeGee]

They do pay a fixed amount of $$$ for featuring a game on their website. It's nothing big (although, it's a nice extra here - in Poland), but money is not the main value you get from them. For me it's a great way to wake the game up (I' haven't promoted it for some time - busy at work) and to get some fresh blood on the forums. And it's just a nice gesture - money and marketing are not everything when it comes to game-dev. It's also about making people have fun, right?

Anyway, enjoy the game...

[jeb]

Please upload a movie on YouTube with the ending... I lost vs Death, and there wasn't a "retry" option (which I had expected). Don't want to play through the game again :/

[TeeGee]

I'm once again looking for your feedback.

I'm preparing a HUGE update for MAGI. With loads of gameplay improvements, pimped character sprites (they even have some casting animation now ), new game modes... and a new main menu. The old one just wasn't consistent with the rest of the game. Here's what I've got so far:



There's some dynamism to it as well - the main panel slides in and out when you enter options/character creation, the mist behind it animates, the gem creates light and the whole thing pulsates with different colours at times.

What say you? Anything that hurts your aesthetic sense? Anything that I could add/remove? First impression?

[moi]

It looks very nice, but why don't you just start writing a second game?
Is it really worthwile to release another update so long after the initial release?
I think the players who enjoyed Magi (the target for your update obviously) would probably be more interested in a second episode with maybe a deeper story and more magic options, and that would make you more sales.

[TeeGee]

Yup, but making a sequel would (will) take me a few months. An update can be done in few weeks and always brings some extra money... and satisfaction.
I'm waiting for the outsourced work for the new game to be done and my free time is running short due to my recently-got job as a designer in a casual-gaming studio. Making updates for MAGI is just a good way to spend the spare moments I've got.

Another thing is that I'm planning to hit harder with this update. I feel that I haven't got everything out of MAGI yet.
So far, each update results in many more sales and a higher conversion rate. Which means more money for the next game, more poeple waiting for it and a better reputation as the game is better.
I'm going to use the money I got for adverts and banners and I'll send few more press releases. So the target is not the old MAGI fan-base (although they'll enjoy the changes for sure), but all the other people that could be interested in a game like this. With all this in mind, I want to add as much value as possible to MAGI. I hope that it'll fund the next game, and I want to feel that I've learned and got as much as possible from this one.

Also I don't want to feel ashamed, because my main menu sucks so bad .

[frosty]

Indie games aren't like AAA games where you reach your potential audience all at once.  I've seen stats for indie games that built up an audience over a period of years.  Dwarf Fortress is probably a good example of that (maybe not years, but in general.)

A big update like this provides another reason for people to talk about it, including another press hit. It's a chance to reach people that missed you the first time, and to win over some of those that were previously interested, but not enough to try it.  Sometimes they have to hear about it 5,10, maybe 20 times before committing the time. 

For instance, I've been meaning to try Determinance for months, but only played it for the first time yesterday after seeing it mentioned it on a forum.

[Soulliard]

Ooh... I like the direction of the new title screen. You should post it on Magi's forums. It might revive them for a bit.

The only thing that doesn't fit is the brown border of the letter's. I don't like the color, and it doesn't go well with the shiny blues and reds of the main game.

[Melly]

Also I don't want to feel ashamed, because my main menu sucks so bad  .

Oh yeah, I know how that feels. I once made a game that had a horrible main menu. My girlfriend dumped me and my dog bit my balls over it.

Terrible, oh so terrible.

[TeeGee]

Yeah, a bad main menu can totally waste you life. I also heard that Santa doesn't visit folks who happen to produce terrible menus. And Christmas is coming! And I want my gifts! So you see, the update is n-e-c-e-s-s-a-r-y! It's about the Christmas spirit!

It's a chance to reach people that missed you the first time, and to win over some of those that were previously interested, but not enough to try it.  Sometimes they have to hear about it 5,10, maybe 20 times before committing the time.

Exactly my thinking, frosty. And my up-to-date experiences seem to prove it true. Especially that I'm a new face on the indie scene and every opportunity to tell the people that I exist and make strange strategic games is good .

Nightshade, thanks for the feedback. I'll try to fix the colours. I'll post this thing later on MAGI forums.

[th15]

I don't think the main menu is really an issue. Your in-game UI could be better. That massive block of buttons can be pretty scary.

I would suggest making elements of the UI transparent. For example, spells that are not active could be completely invisible (unless the player clicks a button to preview what else is on that tree perhaps). I think your buttons could convey more information too. Perhaps each spell can have a number of coloured dots to indicate its casting time. I thin you should definitely try to move information out of help boxes and into plain sight.

I enjoyd Magi plenty, the interface doesn't really bother me personally, but I'm sure you'll agree that it can intimidate some.