We hope your journeys through the realms continue to bring you thrilling adventures and unforgettable memories. Welcome to 2025—a year that could be a game-changer for Realms of Magic! But first things first...
YES, ANOTHER UPDATE!
We’ve taken a moment to address some persistent bugs that have been bothering players for a while. While this is a smaller update, we hope it provides relief to those of you facing these frustrating issues. Here are the patch notes:
⚔️ Modified Stonebridge Merchant location to avoid a potential soft-lock; ⚔️ Fixed the issues with the Brawler skill; ⚔️ Fixed the issues with the Executioner skill; ⚔️ Fixed the issues with the Strike from Above skill;
⚔️ Prevent the player from using special symbols in save slot name and character name, which caused issues; ⚔️ Allow unsupported zoom levels in video options.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR REALMS OF MAGIC?
We’d like to take this opportunity to reassure you that our plans for Realms of Magic remain unchanged. Currently, our primary focus is on the development of our second game, Be My Horde, which is available in Early Access. We’re gearing up for its full release in the latter half of 2025. Once this project is complete, we’ll shift our efforts to active development for both the Realms of Magic remake and Realms of Magic 2. In fact, some conceptual work will start even sooner!
We know many of you are eagerly awaiting new adventures in the world of Realms of Magic, and we share your excitement! However, as a small team, we can’t tackle two completely different projects simultaneously. That’s why we’re focusing on wrapping up Be My Horde first. On the bright side, this journey has been incredibly rewarding—our team has grown stronger, and we’ve gained valuable experience that we can’t wait to apply to the next chapters of the Realms of Magic saga.
The Polished Games Collection at STEAM AUTUMN SALE
Hello, adventurers!
How’s it going? How are your journeys across the realms of magic treating you?
As for us, we’re doing great! Our grand plan remains unchanged—steadily working on Be My Horde, our game about the alluring and powerful necromancess. Once its development is complete, we’ll dive headfirst into Realms of Magic—both the remake and the sequel! For now, we just wanted to take a moment to let you know: we’re alive, thriving, and hard at work! :D
And what better reason to check in than this? The STEAM AUTUMN SALE is here! If you’re looking to expand your Steam library with some fantastic (and budget-friendly) titles, we’ve got a treat for you. Both of our games—Realms of Magic and Be My Horde—are on discount! That’s -70% and -10%, respectively. Want an even better deal? Grab The Polished Games Collection, where you can snag both at an even lower bundle price. It’s two games—sure, not a massive collection, but hey, more than one is still something!
That’s all for now. We’re diving back into creating more exciting content for Be My Horde, but don’t worry—our big plans for Realms of Magic are still alive and well!
How’s everyone doing? Recently, we had the pleasure of visiting Cologne, Germany, for gamescom! It was an incredibly exciting trip—our first time at such a massive event! We showcased Be My Horde there, but we also have a little treat for fans of our RPG. No need for lengthy introductions; we’ve got a few quick announcements, so let’s get straight to the point. We think one of these will be a big deal for some of you.
COMMUNITY ITEMS
Yes, after many, many months, we’re finally giving you the community items you’ve been waiting for. Steam enthusiasts, rejoice! Trading Cards, Emoticons, The Badge, and Backgrounds are now available. Enjoy!
NEW FIXES
While we’re primarily focused on the remake, rather than spending more time updating the current version of Realms of Magic, we’ve been made aware of a few annoying bugs in our not-so-polished game. We decided to take a short break from working on Be My Horde to address these issues, and below you can find small patch notes:
⚔️ Fixed the issue that prevented some players from getting Slayer achievements; ⚔️ Fixed the issue that sometimes caused the location reset window to not pop up; ⚔️ Fixed multiple language issues.
DISCOUNT
And, of course, we’re excited to announce that Realms of Magic is now discounted by 70%! If, by some miracle, anyone reading this hasn’t had a chance to purchase our RPG title yet, now’s the perfect time!
That’s all for now! As we mentioned in our previous announcements, we hope to bring you more news next year about the upcoming remake and sequel.
In our previous announcement, we shared some news about the future of Realms of Magic. While we are eager to create a remake and a sequel, it will take some time before we can provide you with more details. However, this doesn't mean that nothing is happening with our RPG. People still appreciate it because…
We’re thrilled to announce that Realms of Magic is part of the superb PixElated Festival! The event starts NOW on Steam. Dozens of amazing games with pixel art graphics are participating, all thanks to the Brave At Night developers who organized it. It's a great initiative, and we’re delighted that our title is part of it, alongside so many breathtaking games.
To celebrate the event, Realms of Magic is now 70% OFF! So, if you haven’t had a chance to play it yet, or if you were waiting for a great discount to recommend this RPG to your friends, now is the perfect time! Also, be sure to check out all the other games participating in the event. Fans of pixel art will have a feast for the next few days! The PixElated Festival runs until August 5.
It’s been a while since we last let you know we’re alive. Don’t worry; we’re safe and sound, and we’d like to share some information about what is happening with the Realms of Magic franchise. Where to start…
The last few months at Polished Games have been crazy but in a very good way! We’ve been hiring new people, learning new skills, and making awesome new contacts in the industry as we attended PAX East in Boston and Digital Dragons in Kraków. And, of course, we’ve been super focused on our new game, Be My Horde. On June 18th, we finally released it in Early Access, and the whole team was delighted with the warm reception from players and all the positive reviews. It gives us a lot of motivation to work even harder.
But where is Realms of Magic in all of this? Well, our plans haven’t changed.
We WILL develop the Realms of Magic remake, and we WILL make the sequel.
It’s our dream to continue this adventure. Everything we learned during the development of Be My Horde will greatly help us. We’re now a well-coordinated crew, understand each other, and are ready to dive into the bigger project. But first things first.
We’re still quite a small team, so we can’t work on two projects simultaneously. Be My Horde is still the priority, as it’s just in Early Access. We’ll deliver regular updates to this title in the upcoming weeks and months. However, we can assure you that Early Access won’t be very long. We don’t want to trap ourselves in an endless EA. We’re thinking of wrapping up the Be My Horde development at the beginning of 2025 - it’ll give us enough time to provide Moriana’s fans with as much content as possible and obviously polish everything the best we can. It’ll also mark the start of the acting development of the sequel and remake of the Realms of Magic.
While we were finishing the work on the first installment, FIVE PEOPLE were working in Polished Games. When we eventually begin working on the sequel and remake, there will be 15 of us in the studio. And so, we believe that with such a cool crew of developers and the knowledge we’ve gained over the last few months, the development of our next projects will be much quicker and easier than in the past. We will definitely keep you up to date and regularly inform you about what is going on with Realms of Magic. This journey isn’t over. To be honest, it’s just beginning!
In the meantime, you can support us by buying Be My Horde, which you can do through a bundle with Realms of Magic. If you already own our RPG, you can get Be My Horde at a discount. Check it out here:
We understand your eagerness to learn more about the Realms of Magic remake and sequel. However, in the meantime, after weeks of meticulous planning, development, and, well, polishing, we are thrilled to share more details about our upcoming project titled BE MY HORDE.
While we briefly mentioned it in one of our previous announcements, we want to make sure this message reaches everyone. Over the past few weeks, our team has significantly expanded (almost like Moriana’s army of undead warriors in Be My Horde). We decided to focus on a smaller project to help new members learn how to work together and find common ground. We believe we've already achieved that, as all developers at Polished Games are excited about collaborating on Be My Horde! Through this project, we've learned (and are still learning) a lot about cooperation. When we release the 1.0 version, we will be able to 100% focus on the Realms of Magic remake and sequel with a well-coordinated and experienced team of artists, programmers, and designers. Stay tuned for more info!
For now, be sure to check out the Be My Horde DEMO, which we’re releasing THIS MONDAY due to Steam Next Fest. Your feedback on this one is invaluable to us! We plan to release the game in early access on February 29th, with the full version coming later this year. Rest assured, we don’t anticipate an overly long, drawn-out early access phase.
If you have any questions, feel free to share them with us!
How are you? We've been busy lately, working hard on our next projects. For now, we're quite cryptic about it, but give us another month or two, and we should be ready to share more details. Thank you for your patience!
But for now, we're getting ready for a holiday break. Over the next week, we're going to recharge the batteries to get back to work in January and go full steam ahead. In the meantime, we'd like to once again thank you for your support and wish you a Happy Holiday! Also, thank you for your reviews here on Steam, both positive and negative. We learn a lot from them and hope to use this new experience in our upcoming projects.
The Steam Winter Sale is on, and with it, Realms of Magic is 50% off. Also don't forget about the 'Craft, Explore & Survive in 2D' bundle we've created with three other developers. You can check it out HERE.
That's it for today. Take care and stay tuned. We can't wait to show you what we're working on!
Joining forces with other developers and crafting a bundle!
Hello, adventurers!
The Steam Autumn Sale is behind us, and announcements about our next projects are still ahead of us. But we’re not going to sit quietly. Things are happening - perhaps already next week we’ll present you a small, minor update for fans of… hmm… ‘Steam features’ ;) But in the meantime, we have something different!
BETTER TOGETHER
We’re super excited to announce that we’re joining forces with three other developers to create an awesome bundle of four games! "Craft, Explore and Survive in 2D" is a collection of titles perfect for those who prefer a 2D graphics aesthetic and those who like to… well… craft, explore, and survive (everything is in the name!). In the package, you can get not only our beloved Realms of Magic but also Aground by Fancy Fish Games, Niffelheim by Ellada Games, and Rift Wizard by Dylan White.
Remember that by buying the bundle, you save 15% on the whole set. Also, even if you already have Realms of Magic, you can still purchase the bundle, and its price will be decreased by the price of our game!
We encourage you to check it out! Just click HERE.
Update 1.3: Final patch, Steam Autumn Sale, and something else...
Hello adventurers!
It’s been a while since we last let you know we are alive and well. But we can assure you that a lot is happening behind the scenes.
It may sound like a simple marketing slogan, but here at Polished Games, we're just a bunch of nerds making games we love <3. And we have finally started to formalize our passion by developing a real company out of it. We've hired new people and expanded our team. Although we're still a small team, we are working diligently on our next projects (yes, plural!) - more about what we're cooking right now can be found further below. Now, let us just say that, all of this is possible thanks to you and your support—each copy of Realms of Magic you bought, every review you left, and all the feedback you provided. It enables us to do what we love, and we couldn’t thank you enough. You’re the best, adventurers.
We have two gifts for you.
First, due to the Steam Autumn Sale, Realms of Magic is now available with a 50% discount! Let your friends and family know, and help them dive deep into our fantasy world. The sale will end on November 28th.
Second, and this may be the biggest surprise, another patch for the game is live! Yes, version 1.3 is here. We put a lot of effort into our next projects. However, we couldn't leave you without this one last update. We focused on necessary fixes, but also added a few new things to improve user experience and add more depth to the exploration aspect of the game. Check out the full patch notes below:
FEATURES
⚔️ Powerful Enemies in Caves From now on, you can encounter Powerful Enemies not only in predefined locations but also in sandbox ones. Of course, they are rare, so you won't stumble upon them all the time, but it'll make acquiring new Powerful Essences a little bit easier and exploration far more worthwhile. The same goes for Mysterious Essence, which is necessary to create the Scroll of Knowledge, as it will now sometimes appear in chests in sandbox locations.
⚔️ New recruitable NPC: Scribe However, that's not the only change in sandbox locations. The second one is a new NPC character - the Scribe. You won't encounter this person too often (it's even three times rarer to meet him than other NPCs), but it's worth looking for him. You can buy Scrolls from him, which enable you to increase your stats; they are no longer achievable solely through exploration. Just make sure to gather a sufficient amount of gold. This is not cheap stuff!
⚔️Improved Stats window Stats window now shows more useful information and all displayed values are now calculated correctly.
GENERAL CHANGES
⚔️ Improved Talent tooltips ⚔️ The Quick Stack button no longer moves items from the Potion Bar to containers; ⚔️ Added books used for a quest to merchant lootlists; ⚔️ Added buttons for social media in the title screen; ⚔️ Updated credits.
FIXES
⚔️ Fixed the issue that caused Husbandry Pens not to work while the player is in other locations; ⚔️ Fixed the issue that caused UI sliders to be able to set incorrect values; ⚔️ Fixed the issue that allowed the game to set invalid values for Zoom and GUI Scale; ⚔️ Fixed the issue that allowed friendly NPCs in Blackwall Fort to attack each other; ⚔️ Fixed the issue that caused Batharon in Inferno Spire to sometimes become invulnerable; ⚔️ Fixed the issue that prevented summons from despawning; ⚔️ Fixed the issue that allowed the player to craft 0 items; ⚔️ Fixed the issue that caused Hoe sounds to not play in some cases; ⚔️ Fixed the issue with buff duration showing 0 seconds; ⚔️ Fixed the issue that allowed the player to obtain multiple copies of the quest books; ⚔️ Fixed the issue with dialogue with Percy.
WHAT'S NEXT?
That’s it for now. Play Realms of Magic and have fun. In the meantime, we are diligently working on our upcoming games. Our top priorities are, of course, the remake of Realms of Magic and its sequel. These projects are our flagships, and we are putting in a lot of effort to make them exceptional. Simultaneously, to establish a proper workflow and foster relationships with new members of our team, we have decided to develop one more, smaller, but very cool game. More details about it will be revealed soon, so stay tuned! We hope you'll join us, so we can embark on this adventure together.
It’s been exactly one year since Realms of Magic was released as a Full Version. To celebrate our first anniversary, we are excited to share our plans for the future!
How it all started
Quite a long time ago, we had a dream - to create our own fantasy sandbox RPG. And we had absolutely zero skill, knowledge, or experience to pull off a project of that scale. That didn’t seem like a reason good enough not to try anyway, so we did… aaand it took us 8 long years to finally create something we could call a complete game.
The game turned out pretty decent, considering our lack of resources. Despite being very janky and lacking in many aspects, it sold over 50k copies, earned 80% positive reviews on Steam, and, most importantly, showed us the potential for this game idea.
Realms of Magic is a clear example of a game that is better than the sum of its parts. It doesn’t have great platforming, combat, story, or sandbox mechanics - each part of the game is mediocre at best, yet mixed together, they create a magical experience.
When we were getting close to finishing the development of the full version, we started wondering what kind of game Realms of Magic could be if all of the parts were actually well made: precise and responsive platforming, dynamic and juicy combat, captivating story with memorable characters and diverse sandbox mechanics with depth. Well, our next goal is to find out exactly that!
The best way forward
To continue working on the Realms, we had to make an important decision on which development model to pick: smaller updates, an expansion pack, or a sequel.
The most common way to further develop sandbox games is through smaller incremental updates. But Realms of Magic is not only a sandbox game but also an RPG. Do we want to stay in the Old Kingdom and replay the same story over and over again? Or do we want to explore different parts of the Ezran continent and experience new storylines? We decided on the latter, so an expansion pack or a sequel would make more sense.
While we had a complete and working game to build upon, the development in recent years significantly slowed down due to the game’s code and data being what you call spaghetti. But no ordinary spaghetti. More like barbed wire spaghetti. It was really painful and slow to get any major changes done. This mess resulted from an inexperienced team making a game that was way out of their depth.
We started analyzing which parts of the game we wanted to improve drastically. And the answer was… all of them. That made it clear, instead of trying to fix our mess, starting from scratch would be more efficient since we want to remake every system anyway. So a sequel it is.
But this time, we want to do it properly. No more jank, each game element must meet certain industry standards. No more skimping on refactoring and proper development practices, we want to create a foundation we will be able to efficiently build upon in years to come. As developers, we grew and learned a lot over the years and are confident in our skills to pull it off properly.
The next chapter
So it’s official, we are making Realms of Magic 2. But what kind of game will it be? Our goal is simple: the same idea but much better execution.
A significant part of the sequel will be the brand-new content. We will leave the Old Kingdom and explore new parts of the Ezran continent, discover new biomes, meet new cultures, fight new creatures, gather new resources, craft new items, and experience a new epic storyline. While we won’t share any more details today, all we will say for now is that work on the new setting is in pretty advanced stages, and our entire team is really excited about how it’s shaping up. We can’t wait to share more!
One of the fundamental parts of the game is the physics system, which is especially important since we are not only a sandbox, an RPG, but also a platformer. To achieve smooth and precise platforming gameplay, we wrote our custom character physics, and we are quite proud of how it turned out. After getting used to the new system, getting back to the original game is really painful, the difference between RoM 1 and RoM 2 physics feel is massive.
Another fundamental part is the animations, which in the original game were stiff and robotic. Most pixel-art games use handmade sprite animations for better quality. We can't do that because we require a lot of different parts and animations, and drawing a frame for each part and animation combination is not viable. We'll stick to skeletal animation, but we're working on a solution to give them depth and make them look more like traditional frame-by-frame animations.
The next element we will be reworking is the combat system. Combat in RoM 1 lacked impact, proper pacing, and juiciness. The enemy variety was lacking, and their AI was simply bad. Character progression was very linear, lacked depth, and the build variety wasn’t great. And there weren’t any range weapons. All of the above will be improved in the sequel.
Another core element that will be improved is sandbox mechanics. The main issue with sandbox in the original game was that all mechanics were frontloaded from the start, overwhelming new players and not introducing new mechanics later on, which resulted in a lack of depth and a repetitive experience. We will be solving that by proper progression and adding more complex mechanics at later stages. Oh, and we are making talent trees for profession skills!
One of the areas that were lacking in Realms of Magic was the narration. Instead of all dialogues happening in a small box while the game is paused, we want to create a more cinematic experience. When you initiate dialogue, the camera will zoom in, and characters will animate their faces and can perform movements and gestures. We will also be focusing on creating more choices and their consequences. And we will be moving away from filler quests, a quest that doesn’t tell an interesting story won’t have a place in Realms of Magic 2.
The final major part of the game that will be improved is the interface and user experience. We want it to be more intuitive and more convenient to use. We will improve inventory, building experience, quest tracking, and more. And we will be adding full controller support!
One of the heavily requested features is localization for additional languages. We will be adding support for localization, and we plan to create professional translations for a number of the most popular languages (details to be determined later). But even if your language won’t make it on the official list, we will be adding support for community-made translations.
Another fan favorite is mod support. And we are happy to announce that Realms of Magi 2 will feature official mod support! We are designing the game with mods in mind, we want as much content to be as easily modifiable as possible. We can’t wait to see what our community will create!
Finally, let’s discuss that one feature everyone asks about - multiplayer. After deep research and analyzing all our options, we concluded that we wouldn’t be able to deliver it with our resources in a timely manner without seriously compromising the game’s quality. Realms of Magic 2 will be a singleplayer only game. If you are waiting to journey through the Realms with friends, do not lose hope, and please be patient. After we create solid foundations in the sequel, multiplayer will be the next major step we want to explore in the Realms of Magic series. When we’ll do it, we’ll do it right.
But wait, there’s more
Realms of Magic 2 is not only a singular game but the start of a series of games in which we want to build and expand upon previous entries instead of throwing everything away and starting from scratch each time. Following this principle, we have a second major announcement: Realms of Magic Remastered.
What is Realms of Magic Remastered? Basically, it’s the content from the first game running on the sequel codebase and mechanics. We are not planning on adding any major content or features to the remaster (those will be available in the sequel), but it will take advantage of all new updates to the mechanics, such as physics, animations, combat, narration, interface, etc.
What does it mean for updates for the original game? We are not planning any significant updates besides potential fixes to high-priority issues. To fix all the problems with the game, we would need to completely remake the game - which is precisely what we are doing.
All Realms of Magic owners will receive the remastered game for free.
Final words
We hope you are as excited about the future of the Realms as we are!
In the upcoming months, we’ll be focused on recruiting and expanding our team size. We plan to provide more regular development updates once new team members are up to speed and the dust settles.
In the meantime, join our official Discord, where we created a channel on which you can discuss your ideas and suggestions for Realms of Magic 2 with us!
