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Magpie: a small update

Sunday, 22nd October 2023 ◆ German endlessly passionate in the park (6)

I've just released a micro update to Magpie which you can play over at Itch.

I'd been wanting to neaten the edges since I submitted the game to 7DRL earlier this year, but I didn't have time or energy to work on it that much until now. Still, I'm very happy to finally have done it! I've reset the leaderboards, because the game has changed a little bit and I figure this is fairer.

What's new

You can now play as the Crow, the Robin or the Wasp, in addition to the classic Magpie. Each character brings a slight twist to the rules which will hopefully up the replayability a little.

I've added 18 new trinkets, my favourite being the Mirror and have tried to balance the old trinkets a little too.

I've tried to make complicated trinkets less dangerous by highlighting unusual situations on the board. If you can't move in a direction (for example, when you have an enemy behind you and a safety pin equipped), then a red exclamation mark is displayed on the board.

One of the biggest changes (which I'm still not sure about) is how targeting works. Previously, a hedge would block you from moving or using a trinket. Now, hedges only stop you from moving. This means that you can, unlike the enemies, attack through a hedge. I changed it because some players were unhappily surprised at not being able to attack with items like glasses if a hedge blocks you, even if you would have valid targets. Now you can...but the consequence is that you can also attack through hedges; it seems that players may not even realise you can do this, so perhaps it will be a pleasant surprise when the situation occurs.

I've also added some secret things for people who manage to get quite far into the lategame!

A small scope

I had initially planned to polish the game a lot more, and create a mobile app with IAP (similar to Square Worlds). However, earlier this week I decided to forgo an official mobile app, and just release the game on Itch with whatever improvements I'd made up until now.

This means that:

• there's no barrier in front of the new content, and more people can enjoy it
• there's no pressure to make something which is worth money
• I don't have to spend any time trying to wrestle with the various App Stores

I don't rule out trying to make other mobile apps in the future, but in this case it was a huge weight lifted to accept the shrinking scope.

Archive

In order not to rely solely on Itch, I've also hosted the game (and previous versions) here.

• Mini-update
• Jam version, with bug fixes
• Jam version