MageWorks is a virtual reality game developed originally in 2016 for PCVR. It is an exploration in game design built around players having a spellbook in one hand and a staff in the other, both of which are motion tracked. The player could craft their own staff and use it in combat while exploring different maps.
Many lessons were learned while building this project. With a light background story for the game pitched as a comical statement on education-related socio-economics, this project was both about school and itself a school. The exploration process during development led to a lot of ideas and prototyping, after which a lot of synergy started to form between parts of the game.
New User Experience Design in MageWorks
The open world environment design has changed. Each spell now has it’s own map. This design change opened up the opportunity to create unique puzzles that can be solved by each spell class and type. This also improved ux design to reduce the number of times a player needs to teleport or distance they need to move to engage in more spellcasting. When the game was originally built, a lot of off-the-shelf art was used to help prototype the environments. With this new approach, there was also an opportunity to create unique environment art.
Interacting with the world has also been simplified. Players only need to use their staff to interact with things. This made the controls more intuitive, and made the game generally speaking more accessible.
Finding that balance between pressing a button to automate the production of a crafted staff vs watching glue dry, there was a lot of exploration in the design of assigning an arbitrary set of physical motions with virtual staff construction procedures. The goal of this ux design was to reduce as many crafting steps as possible into single physical motions while using puzzle elements from the game as resources to fuel the staff crafting.
A unique look for the game is coming to fruition with enemies being designed into their environments creating immersive interactive spell casting engagements. The design of the spell effects are also improving to better reflect characteristics from the puzzles they were unlocked in, as well as the behaviors they exhibit.
On the Horizon
This re-build of the game will release on Quest 2 toward end of summer / early fall. The arcane magic spellbook is unlocked and playable to get a sense of the game's mechanics with another five out of thirty spells unlockable to discover in the exploration maps with each spell from different schools of magic. After this Quest port launch, groups of spells will continue to be unlockable over the next few months until all 25 have been overhauled and integrated. During this development period between now and the Quest 2 release, I’m keeping this development of the game available for play in the PCVR channels as well. The beta channels of Meta and SteamVR MageWorks product pages have access to the ongoing development. When the game is complete on Quest 2, the PC builds will be updated to match in their main distribution channels.
Thanks!
Thanks for supporting MageWorks! The game has been fun to share with the community, and all of the feedback has been really helpful over the years. Continued development on this project as of recent has been enjoyable, and I can’t wait to share all of these improvements with the VR community!
Tutorial Sequence Removed: The tutorial sequence was buggy and causing issues with entry into the game world, so I have removed it. In lieu of the tutorial sequence, there are large spellbooks floating around the mage quarters and workshop as a guide for spellbooks, staff crafting, and map travel systems.
Ink is now used to draw the top of your staff design: The old use for ink was spell empowering. However, I feel that feature was too ambitious given the resources available to me, so, requiring ink to draw a new staff design created a sense of equilibrium for crafting resources and assembly methods: Collect lumber to carve the base of your staff, collect flowers to draw the top of your staff, and collect crystals to shape your staff gem.
The mage quarters have been redesigned. The entry into the game was too complicated, so players now launch directly into their mage quarters and can choose where to head from there. Because of this new logic, the mage quarters is more of a home hub with many portals to check out for mini-games, training, and exploration.
Fixed a bug with Game Slot entries where slots could not be erased. Game Slots can now be erased or reset if you want to delete your old save game data and start over.
Cleaned up some bugs with staff crafting. Because the tutorial was sort of buggy, the crafting process would occasionally break as well (or not get configured correctly for normal play). So I have gone through and created a more user friendly gameplay method to craft staves. Ink is now required to draw a custom stave top design. When completing a crafting task, most ingredients are automatically moved to the next station in the sequence.
Staff gem locations are now fixed in place. This was needed to create consistency with staff collision with other objects in the game. So players can still shape their own staff gems, but they will always be placed in the same location on the staff.
Players can now view toggle their inventory while holding their spellbooks.
On the Horizon
New art! Much of this game has been built with off-the-shelf art. My goal is to get much of this game as customized / stylized as possible with a unique look. When everything is programmatically in place, the focus will shift to create buildings and environments that exemplify the theme of the game.
I plan to bring in the locomotion movement as well. Some players prefer continuous floating movement to get around, while others prefer teleporting. In this build, only teleporting is available. however, I will integrate locomotion into the controls options in a future build. (the hover drone was removed awhile back, and this may get re-integrated, but the future locomotion movement will be its own thing.
MageWorks 1.0.4 is Now Available!
So this project probably should have stayed in Early Access, because i still enjoy working on it, but it's hard to find time to do so. That being said, I was able to integrate a few of the community's requests in this last update.
The tutorial is now optional, and players can choose to run through the crafting workshop on their own, or the combat tutorial also on their own. If they don't feel like crafting, players can skip to explore the different worlds and mini-games in MageWorks like the "Mine to Five" roller coaster, the "Graveyard Shift" defending a mana fountain from zombies, or casually romping around the various magic themed worlds access through the observatory.
In order to achieve this, the Mage Quarters had to be rearranged a little, but should make it easier to access everything.
Anyhow, as sporadic feedback comes in, I'll continue to provide updates on this project.
MageWorks 1.0.0
MageWorks is an experimental project that explored different ways to interact with spell casting systems using books, crafting systems using virtual workshops, and the various ways these two features could interact.
The narrative involves the player playing the role of a mage that is graduating wizard school, and needs to pay off their wizard student loans, while learning a trade skill in the process. Pokes fun at a topical issue these days.
Over time, the project scope expanded, but in the interest of wrapping up the study, i've focused the game primarily on the crafting system, and the spell casting system.
We were able to present this project at a variety of festivals, libraries, and meetups, and enjoyed how people played the game, and 3d-printed their staff creations.
Thanks for everyone's support throughout this process and feel free to reach out with any questions or comments.
Cheers,
Hadar
MageWorks: An Update to say we're Updating!
It's been awhile since we've last posted an update, so today we're saying hello and that we're still working! The community has provided a lot of great feedback on forums, at festivals, and other events and we're working hard to include this feedback.
The direction of MageWorks has been sort of split in two throughout development. Our crafting system perked the interest of the educational community, so we're currently building a stand-alone application with that content. This means we can focus on creating a clear direction forward with MageWorks and how everything comes together which includes a story driven walk through staff crafting, stone shaping and ink making, and with a clear transition into the MageWorks system of combat and world exploration.
We've got a great narrative consultant on board as well as additional programming and artist support, and we're looking to release this Summer of 2018 out of Early Access!
We're incredibly excited to work out various design issues and bug fixes, and can't wait to see how our mage-staff shape recognition system starts influencing spell casting.
The new spell casting system with the floating book palette of spells seems to be working out well, and opens up a lot of opportunity for more art.
Achievements are underway and there will be plenty of them to discover and unlock.
Last but not least, sharing custom staff creations is an important part of MageWorks, and we're working on a way to share your designs with friends either through social media, or 3d printable objects.
Thanks again for everyone's support throughout this process, and we can't wait to release this summer :)
MageWorks v0.9.1 Now Available!
What's new:
Workshop tweaks - MageWorks needed an intro that was good for people new to VR. So, the workshop has become that welcome zone. After players learn to craft a staff, they export a 3d-printable file in the process of progressing to the next training level which is combat training.
Fixed a bug that allowed players to teleport during the mining ride
Added AI to the mining ride mini-game with a scoreboard at end of ride. Gold collected is increased based on kill count.
Fixed a bug where zombies would not attack the fountain at the Graveyard mini-game
New spell selection system. Spells can be selected quickly with only one hand.
Fixed a bug where player's could not teleport/navigate through boss fight
New travel method! when players find a constellation in the observatory, they can use their level warp skill to travel to the destination.
Known Issues:
Attack distance on skeleton warriors is a little too far
Aiming on skeletal mages is off a bit, and will be more accurate in the next build
Quests are obscure, and will be improved on next build with helpers that direct players in the right direction to find their missing spellbooks.
On The Horizon:
bug fixes
more crystal types and shapes will be available in a future build
more staff shapes to purchase at the zombie shoppes
considering a staff collection area where players can store their designs or purchased shapes
MageWorks v0.8.0 Now Available!
What's new:
Crystal caves have been updated to improve gameplay. Props have been added to scale down the environment and certain parts of the assault points have been reduced in size to better meet the scale of teleporting.
Hover drone instructions are now included in the hover drone spell (book of drones)
Lock & Key progression now implemented. Players will need to find spells that are the key to unlocking gates & vaults
Known Issues:
not all spells can be empowered yet (working on it!)
still working on the quest text
On The Horizon:
bug fixes
more crystal types and shapes will be available in a future build
more staff shapes to purchase at the zombie shoppes
considering a staff collection area where players can store their designs or purchased shapes
MageWorks v0.7.0 Now Available!
What's new:
Observatory has been updated. When a player aligns the telescope with a constellation, there is also a piece of the telescope in the observatory that will align with the map on the walls. This will help players direct the telescope in the right direction.
New spellbook designs! The community asked for improved spellbook art and faster spell access. Now, when spellbooks are opened, players can quickly choose which spell they would like to cast from the icons presented. Whichever icon is selected will remain active until another is chosen regardless of whether or not the book is open. The whole "flipping through pages" was fun and all, but it just wasn't practical in combat.
New bookmarking system! with the new design of the spellbooks, it was necessary to rebuild the bookmarking system as well. The new system is easier to use! When a player bookmarks a page by pressing the bookmark button, a ghost book opens up where you can assign the spell to any slot. This configuration is used in the player's custom spellbook.
Some art fx have been added to the vault fight to clearly indicate that the area where Magister Draco walks will cause damage to the player.
Known Issues:
not all spells can be empowered yet (working on it!)
still working on the quest text
On The Horizon:
bug fixes
more crystal types and shapes will be available in a future build
more staff shapes to purchase at the zombie shoppes
When players purchase a staff design, it will be stored in their collection. The staff collection will be available in the Mage's home, next to the altar where players can export their staff for 3d printing
MageWorks v0.6.0 Now Available!
What's new:
More spells have been empowered
Study hall! Players can now practice their spells in the mageworks study hall giving them the opportunity to face against each type of enemy
Ink empowering overhaul! Because players can purchase new staff parts, those parts should be able to be empowered. so, the ink system has been overhauled. Bottles of ink have been removed, and players can now dip their staff into their ink mixtures to empower their staff. Each mixture will have a different potency during every mixing session.
the workshop tutorial has been rebuilt to address the new way of creating ink and empowering the staff
ink empowering has a time limit now and lasts only as long as the game session. exiting the game will require players to create to new ink mixtures
Known Issues:
not all spells can be empowered yet (working on it!)
still working on the quest text
On The Horizon:
bug fixes
more crystal types and shapes will be available in a future build
more staff shapes to purchase at the zombie shoppes
MageWorks v0.5.0 Now Available!
What's New
The Zombie Shoppe is open! Don't feel like crafting? stop into the Zombie Shoppe to buy a new part for your staff. new parts are rotated in every day.
More ink injection! More spells now include empowered damage and fx when empowered with ink of the similar type.
New portal spells! The portal spells are now fully functional and create portals to their respective location when summoned. (i.e. portal to nearest fountain, gate, or home).
Known Issues
not all spells can be empowered yet (working on it!)
still working on the quest text
On the Horizon
The crystal caves may be going through a re-design to make the environment more gameplay friendly with regards to environment scale (it's a bit big at the moment)
