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.
Comments
There are no comments yet.