Academy of Arcana [WIP, Demo, Updated 22/04/2019] H*I*A*T*U*S (because: reasons)

Thank you so much!

One concept of the game is that, if you do decide to pursue the illegal art of Psychic magic, you would have the option to steal the gift of another student, granting you both gifts. This should usually be your development project partner, since, at that point, you’d have an understanding of how your crafts interact. You should also be able to steal a different gift, and work with your partner to see how the three gifts interact, if your partner doesn’t decide to report you to the authorities.

Necromancy is, in fact, not a forbidden art. Death magic, in this narrative universe, is practiced ethically. In brief, the concept of Death magic is to understand the creation of living things without life. Generally, I’ve tried to rework the thinking around the different kinds of magic in the game universe.

And, pretty much you should expect freedom to choose how you learn your craft. At point in time, the concept is to read up on magic in the Archives, go to the development areas and try them out. A practical example for a Runist of Fire would be:

  • Learn what kinds of runes there are (Sol - the rune of the sun, Mund - of the earth, Taar - of kindness, Vel - of water , etc.)
  • Go to the development areas and try them out. (The gift of fire reacts violently with the Sol rune, and an explosion occurs. The gift of fire reacts slowly with the Vel rune, and a stream of fire flows down to the ground, etc.)
  • Remember your experiments and try to base future experiments off them.

Thank you for your interest, though. Answering these questions gives me a platform to consider how I’ll approach the writing and hearing your opinions on the systems. :rose:

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I`m excited for this game, the demo was promising! I like the idea of a lot of freedom and especially all of those magic types! I know it sounds silly, but will it be possible to raise the dead and control them further on in the game if we choose necromancy, not just study them as A El said?

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@TimberWoolf
This is interesting :slightly_smiling_face: I just hope you not too overwhelmed with this since the coding seems complicated.

Anyway I found some minor things

Missing quotation mark after “own.”, if this intended

Erase this one quotation mark before “When”.


Missing one apostrophe(’) mark after “Picturebook.


Also, are there going to be index or lore or something like that? Because it’s almost impossible for me to remember what A’EI said :sweat_smile:

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Hypothetically, if you have the skills you should be able to do this. I’m not too sure about the supply of corpses though, and I think the concept of death magic is a little reworked in this game. It’s good to know what you’d expect though, so I can work at trying to include them. Thank you! :black_heart:

Oh, I thank you for the concern, but I’ve been working on numerous projects with dynamic worlds. I think it takes mostly dedication and a clear logic system, which I believe will pay off in the end.

Hmm, perhaps it’s my history with poetry, but I’m fairly certain that this is the correct convention for quoted text across paragraphs. I’ll look into it to make sure.

I also intend to include a tutorial-type of adventure where the player goes through the motions to learn how the game works. And, that file that the administrator gives you, as well as your own notebook, will appear in your stats menu once I get around to that.

But thank you for your keen eye. I really appreciate that. Having written and read the text so often, I naturally miss the small things. :rose::rose::rose:

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Would it be possible to animate skeletons from a graveyard for example or is it just recently dead?

These questions are fantastic. It’s really interesting to know the things you’d like to try, so I’ll definitely incorporate this into the game. Ardenia has a graveyard, and if Death is your gift, you should logically be able to try this. Please, look out for this in a future update. Thank you for the ideas. :rose:

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The King of the Undead has arrived at Ardenia! Lock up your deceased `cause they are about to be roaming!

Now i am looking forward to this game even more! TBH i would be happy with an undead bodyguard never mind an army.

To what extent, to be curious?

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I’m not really sure on the best way to explain it, so let me make a practical example:

The PC has the gift of Death, and the school of Numerology.
You can consider the value of 1 - Essence, 2 - Power, 3 - Ferality, etc…
Channeling Death through 1 yields the result: An unknown force drains from you and manifests itself as a pool of thick, yellow liquid. You now have ‘Death in a Jar’. I do not recommend drinking it.
Channeling Death through the relationship of 3 and 2: You feel a violent burst within you, and the people around you react immediately. They seem stunned and stand expressionless.

The PC has the gift of Death, and the school of Runism:
Channeling Death through the rune, a single a steady flow of yellow fumes emanates from the rune, and the bird drops. It’s heart is still beating, but otherwise it seems dead.
Channeling Death through another rune: The living dead bird rises and approaches the rune.

Things like that, if that makes any sense? At this point, most of the magical concepts are still very basic, and I’m working on them to give them depth and capability.

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So far this has been the most… Interesting way to end a demo. Demo itself looks really promising and I feel that full game is gonna be fun.

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Thanks for the explanation and it does make sense.

The question is…which rune is that?

I MUST HAVE IT

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Thank you. :grin:

I think the demo ends serve as a method of tracking updates. Sasha will get her therapy in due time, but after that there will be another unfortunate happenstance that brings your adventure to an end.

It’s great to know this response. Thank you, I’ll work super hard to deliver on your expectations. :rose::rose::rose:

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:rofl::rofl::rofl:

The Archives probably have something on that, when they eventually open.

I’ll also have to speak to administration and see if they’ll revoke your entry into the Academy. :neutral_face:

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No plez :joy:
Does anyone have a spare key into the archives?

On the topic of archives is there going to be seperate sections on each magic `cause i should just move into the Necromancy sections if so.

That updated demo was good! I did not find any grammar or spelling which was impressive

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This looks really interesting! I’m excited to see how it turns out :slight_smile:

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Magic can have a field related to science. As portrayed in the demo it is simply the pursuit of knowledge. Science is simply all about discovering how the world works through theory and experiment in order to collect evidence. It is quite easy to portray the use of magic working in relation to science, for it can cover a variety of fields such as alchemy, potions or even psychic abilities. To me the science area of magic for the MC will simply allow them to learn everything they can about the world and magic, even if they won’t be capable of using all forms of magic considering the combination of gifts and development of magic the MC is limited to.

As for the story itself this is fascinating, and I admire you for your undertaking. It takes the magic school concept and truly allows the MC to do anything. I already imagine my MC being the introverted scholar who is constantly snuggled up reading a book or investing hours working in the lab using their natural affinity towards science magic. Wanting to learn and write down everything about magic, collaborating with students who approach them and looking out for someone who shares their studious nature to have a relationship with. It’s good to see the school doesn’t shy away from letting students practice necromancy. I imagine the illegal arts simply being unethically using any form of magic. Death is obvious, the whole lynch thing has been done to death. Life it could be considered unethical to not let anyone die and make the old suffer because of their physical state. Water, flooding the earth. Fire, making everything burn. Earth, eternal earthquakes. Wind, complete destruction via tornadoes. Chaos, well anyone familiar with the character of Discord should be familiar with how that can be unethical. Science, using your power to blackmail others or conducting unethical experiments. Any of the forms of magic could become illegal if used in a malicious manner.

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For the disillusioned, impatient Mages:

Quite soon, I plan to update the arena and the archives so people can get magic-ing. As of yet, there are three available crafts for all the gifts of magic, which translates to 27 unique spells per gift and 324 total spells.

I’m just working on including some more schools (probably after the update). Right now Summoning, Numerology and Runism are done. Archives are still being filled with relevant texts.

The combat system is still primal and needs serious refining. So, whoop, that’ll happen someday.

Please don’t think I’ve left you forever. :broken_heart:

For the virtuous and patient mages:

Hi!

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A’El would like you very much.

… assuming you choose to uphold those ethics.

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My three fav!

Lol none of those here

Hi to you as well.

I look forward to meeting this A’El.