Magi

First full in-game screenies with a visible GUI. It's still a bit rough around the edges, and most of the spell icons are obviously placeholders, but there you go. Feedback appreciated, of course.



And on a different (and unfinished) arena...



I'm also preparing a larger chunk of new screenies and other cool materials (like photos from the soundtrack live recording sessions ), so expect new stuff soon.

Could we get a key for what each bar on the screen is supposed to represent?

Sure. It's all very simple:



The GUI differs a bit on the two screenshots because it's dynamic. Parts of it, like the queue with its casting bar, appear only when necessary to prevent confusing new players. Additionally, icon slots vary in length depending on how many spells your character actually knows (not visible on any of the screenies).

Very cool . I see way more color than on the last ones. These place holder icons are awesome. you should keep them .

Yeah, the colors are more saturated than on those first screenies. Mainly because these are more polished assets, while the old ones were closer to being sketches.

And yes - the current icons just scream "style" .

Love the background on screenshot 2, love the heptagram under the witch, really like the fading effect on weakened shields.

On a completely unrelated note, one thing I didn't like about Magi 1's attributes are that Force and Communion pigeonhole you into specializing only two sets of spells. I don't know if the solution is adding four more attributes that complement different pairs, (like Evocation that boosts red and grey spells, Enchantment that boosts Blue and Green, and so on) or what. Just saying that room for improvement is there.

Sorry for the doublepost but just thought of something else.

I don't like the numeric indicator for the number of channels. The bead system in Magi 1 was easier to gauge at a glance. Maybe have the channel icons the same size, and have them extend down into the play area like an upside down tower of blocks. Looks like you have enough room for seven channels without obscuring the action below and it would even easier than the old bead system to tell at a glance that your opponent has 3 red, 1 blue, 5 green, and 0 silver.

Great, a feedback. Makes it worth to post unpolished wip screenies .

Love the background on screenshot 2, love the heptagram under the witch

The heptagram is the Key of Solomon. Actual magical symbols are the best .

really like the fading effect on weakened shields.

Actually, what's visible on the screenies is the shield forming up before being cast. It has a fading effect too (creatures have their own as well), but it's simpler and more economical.

On a completely unrelated note, one thing I didn't like about Magi 1's attributes are that Force and Communion pigeonhole you into specializing only two sets of spells. I don't know if the solution is adding four more attributes that complement different pairs, (like Evocation that boosts red and grey spells, Enchantment that boosts Blue and Green, and so on) or what. Just saying that room for improvement is there.

Hmm, interesting point. One thing for sure - I won't add more attributes. Actually, I was thinking of reducing their amount by aligning all spells to one stat and lowering its effect, but decided to drop that idea as well. Imho, it's all okay. Red/blue and green/silver schools represent two sides of one spectrum, and it's not like you can't have both. I'll think about it though, maybe there's in fact a room for improvement.

I don't like the numeric indicator for the number of channels. The bead system in Magi 1 was easier to gauge at a glance. Maybe have the channel icons the same size, and have them extend down into the play area like an upside down tower of blocks. Looks like you have enough room for seven channels without obscuring the action below and it would even easier than the old bead system to tell at a glance that your opponent has 3 red, 1 blue, 5 green, and 0 silver.

I've tried many approaches here, but it seems that digits give the best clarity in such a small space. Extending blocks would be a bit clunky (imagine having 4x7) and other graphical indicators would have to be significantly larger to be readable.
I'm still working on it however. Right now I'm trying to polish the looks of it - make the numbers fit the GUI better. I'm also thinking about ditching the indicators entirely and showing channels within the game somehow - like we did with the energy meters.

I don't understand what the numbers on the spell icons in the lower left and right corners mean. I can't figure them out. What do they represent? They look random.

They are related to the new card system. I'll write more about it eventually - for now we're still tweaking it.

On a completely unrelated note, your new forum layout cuts off the right side of those screenshots. I'm using Firefox on a 1680x1050 desktop.

I know, but in general I like fixed size forum layout more than strethcing one. It adds scrolling bars to posts with large images, which isn't very convinient, but it makes the normal text much more readable.

For future posts like this I'll just use resized images with an option to click for full size.

Depending on how the forum displays posts, you could just add a horizontal overflow. That might look a bit messy though but it would mean if an image went over the edge you could scroll along and see the whole thing.

You should be able to scroll the post even now. I have a scroll bar below it. Are you sure it isn't there for you?

There is already a scroll bar...
I'll get my coat.

On the other hand, you could add a script that shrinks the image to fit and then either opens it up in a Flash/Java window or in a new tab or just as they are now.

Yeah. I guess I could. I'll look into that.

I can make java applets... though, I think the most appropriate tool would be something with javascript. I'm no expert.

There's plenty of existing scripts and mods that do that nicely. I just need to pick one and find few moments to implement it.