2025 Progress Update!
Hello my beautiful followers. This year so far has been very exciting and encouraging for Magicland. Without further ado, I present to you: CONTENT (also peep those image carousels for more)
Magic City: 70% complete (!!!)
Farm Town: 60% complete
Enchanted Forest: 40% complete
Desert: 1% complete (barely started)
Swamp: No change from last update (30% complete)
Other Areas: ???% complete
Wow! Look at that progress. I really focused in on the areas that I was the most excited about and had ideas for, like Magic City. That area is definitely the most ambitious so now that it's the most "complete-feeling" one it's definitely a huge weight off my shoulders. Every major area got at least some attention... except the swamp. Sorry swamp! You'll definitely be on the docket in the later half of this year.
The really good news is now I have a loose vision of what the goals in each area will revolve around. Here's a little teaser of that:
Swamp: The town elder is trapped in the great tree since the bridge was destroyed. Save him! And maybe encourage the downtrodden townsfolk along the way
Farm Town: You're the new kid in town, and are looking for love! Well, at least according to the town priest. Pick your favorite single and shower them with gifts, just like in your favorite farming games. But what's going on with the animal residents?
Enchanted Forest: Become the next hero of legend! Find the hero sword (again?) and defeat the dragon, or whatever. Yeah, that sounds about right. This sacred and mysterious area has become quite the attraction for Magicland visitors.
Magic City: Welcome to the city of dreams, where everyone wants to make a name for themselves and show off their magic abilities. You become acquainted with an unlikely successor to a professorship at the highly regarded magic school, but he feels lacking in his abilities. Apparently there's some really powerful magic hidden at the top of the Wizdome that could help you both in your goals...
The other thing I want to note is the desert area. Previously, I called this place the "Cyber Desert", but now I'm changing course. It's going to be something a lot more... interesting. And secretive ;) It will be one of those "woah, what the heck just happened?" moments that all of the great games have these days.
With that out of the way, though, I will be answering some questions that I ask myself often while developing.
Is this still on track for an early 2027 release?
Maybe! Probably. I don't know. 2026 will be the true determiner of where I land. This year I feel like I'm on track to hit my end-of-2025 goals, which is to have every area nearly fully fleshed out and ready to start implementing quests. There's still a big question mark on if doing that will be possible in 1 year, but we'll see!
What are the other magic spells that will be added?
Oh yes... the "magic" part of the title of my game. Well, I've been feeling surprisingly uninspired on that front, mainly because I want the worldbuilding to come first. Since these will just boil down to mechanics that have to be designed to gate progression, I haven't been all that interested since there's no progression in the world to gate yet. But I have had some inklings of ideas, such as:
Swimming in water (partially implemented)
Dashing (Implemented)
Teleporting between waypoints
Negative vision to see invisible characters
Bring things back to life
Fill any container with fluid (this was just in my notes, not sure on this one)
Also, I might get rid of the lightning attack from the demo... I just don't like the design implications of the way it works currently. I'll have to wrack my brain on how to redo or revamp it - yet another challenge!
Any plans to update the Demo before release?
Yes! I want to take some time to get a demo anniversary update out in late august. This would introduce the improved questing systems like a visual that shows which characters want an item, which would reduce the drag of brute-forcing though all the trade quests.
Any other things that could be added?
Oh yes, I've been mulling around on 2 ideas: a currency/shop system and a quest book. For the currency, it would have to be highly controlled (can't just farm gold forever, there's a set amount in the world) to work with the game, and that would take an intense amount of design and testing. And for the quest book, I'm just scared of the work it would add. but it would be so nice! Wouldn't it? Alas.
Once again, you can follow me on Bluesky to see more frequent updates.
Until next time stay magical, and thank you for reading!