Greetings, near-mages!
We are blown away by the positive reception Near-Mage has had on Steam. We’re currently at a 92% Very Positive rating, with over 100 reviews. Thank you for all the love and support!
But no launch is perfect for every player, and we always keep an eye on your feedback and do our best to listen to suggestions.
No Hand-Holding
A lot of players have said there is a bit too much hand-holding in the game.
We heard you, so we added a choice to not show objectives on-screen. You can choose this right at the start of the game, once Illy exits her room at home:
You can also toggle it at any time during the game, in the Options menu, under Gameplay:
What’s cool about this is that it effectively works like an easy / hard mode switch, and it turns the quest log into a sort of hint system.
You can turn objectives off and find your way around just based on the information the characters give you, and if you’re really stuck (or forgot what you have to do) you can quickly check the quest log.
Even if you beat the game once, since it’s designed to be replayed and try new stuff, it’s an interesting way to experience its world again in a more challenging way.
New: Keyboard Shortcuts List
These have always been in the game, but now they are neatly listed in a separate tab under Options.
We’ve also added a helpful on-screen reminder of how to bring up your spell wheel during the time you cast your first spell.
Steam Deck
The game is playable on Steam Deck!
Lots of people are playing Near-Mage on the Deck, and we're constantly fixing and tweaking stuff to make the experience smooth. Unfortunately we didn't have the time to apply for "Verified" before release, that's why it shows as "Unknown" on the page, but rest assured that it does work nicely.
Fixes & Known Issues
All achievements now working properly ("Kick in the Door" was the only one that didn't trigger).
With hundreds of NPCs that always cycle it was inevitable that some wouldn’t work properly. We’ve temporarily removed a few that caused more confusion (looking at you, Lurdan on Black Lake Shore) and will spend some time resizing hotspots and moving things around.
We wanted to push this update out as soon as possible (it took a while to make the above changes), so we’re aware of a few edge cases that we haven’t had time to address in this patch. One of them is certain characters refusing to interact if you’re flying. It’s being fixed and will be in the next patch; for now if it happens exiting and re-entering the screen without flying should fix it.
We're always checking the Steam Discussions forums, so if you have any thoughts or suggestions, we want to hear your thoughts!
This just in: Near-Mage got 5/5 stars on Adventuregamers.com: "Classic!"
We're so humbled to be held in high praise by one of the biggest adventure game sites!
E: Something weird has happened to the Adventuregamers website. Articles disappeared, the forums disappeared, and it seems like half the website is gambling now?! Really sad to see this happen to the former biggest resource for adventure games online.
Link to the archived article below, we will contact the website to understand why the review isn't visible anymore.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250608183822/https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/near-mage
Conclusion & Changelog
Thanks for playing and enjoying Near-Mage, and especially for your suggestions. We’re always listening, and doing our best to improve the game based on your feedback.
All our love and gratefulness for your support.
PS: If you loved Near-Mage, tell a friend who you think would love it too! We loved building the cozy, dark and colorful world of Rakus, Sighisoara and the TIM, and they always welcome new near-mages with open hands (and tentacles).
Liviu, Cami & Chris
Changelog below:
### 1.1.0
### Added
- Added contextual UI reminders about spellcasting
- Added feature to disable On-screen objectives
- Added "Controls" panel in the in-game Options menu, for easy controller reference
### Changed
- Updated translations
### Fixed
- Fixed UI scaling issue on Steam Deck
- Fixed some double whitespace occurrences in the dialogues
- Fixed garment cycling for some of the outfit pieces in the Wardrobe UI
- Fixed some instances in which Illy's stance would glitch while talking to an NPC while flying
- Fixed a softlocking progression during the "A Friend In Need" quest
- Fixed achievement not triggering when breaking in Daos' office during A Helping Hand
- Attempted to fix an issue that didn't trigger a Mitzkin notification at the end of the Glykon quest
- Fixed being able to talk about Furfur to Haralamb before actually meeting Furfur
- Attempted to fix a random occurring audio glitch that would crash the game upon arriving in Sighisoara the first time
- Fixed not being able to access the in-game map in Najil's Botanical Emporium and in the Mortar Coil
- Fixed being able to leave the Living Forest during the road to the end game
- Fixed a game-skipping bug that made it possible to visit the Hidden Camp before due time
### Removed
- Removed an Hotspot related to an NPC that was causing confusion and other issues in Rakus' Lake Shore