Magium - The mage tournament - Now available on Google Play and App Store

I guess it’s just a decision to make, would you let the reader decide what the MC’s name is or would you rather set a name that fit into the world you created ?
The MC having a name already set make it more memorable.
Sure, it might feel less like a COG game, but the game still is excellent, it doesn’t really matter if it feels like a COG game or not.

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First off i just want to say that I extremely love the Magium so far. I cant get enough of it, I haven’t closed the app for two days straight just from trying to find every little detail.I was so hooked XD.VERY COOL .I SWEAR
I created an account on this website because it seems to be the main place that you host your information updates and the only place to get into contact with you.I give my full support to you on the continuation of the chapters in the second book and all of the books to come. I hope that it will be released soon,thank you for sharing this to us.More power to you.

I don’t see how the name is so important. Probably I would understand it better if I’d actually play the game. In my opinion in a CYOA game it’s better to let the player feel like they are playing with their own character: as I see it that can happen in two way, letting the player to customize their character or giving as little information as possible about the protagonist and letting the players imagination do all the job with the customization. I’m still on the opinion that the fact that the player has to play with a preset character only shows the authors laziness.

I’m still on the opinion that the fact that the player has to play with a preset character only shows the authors laziness.

Listen, Cari-san… Role playing as a character with a predefined personality isn’t something that I invented. It’s been around since the dawn of roleplaying. Hell, the Witcher series, which is one of the most successful RPG franchises of all time has a main protagonist with a set gender, name and personality. Are you calling them lazy too?

One of the main reasons why you can’t change the name and gender of your character is because I’m aiming to make it as obvious as possible from the start that in this game you are playing as a predefined character. This way, people who don’t enjoy such an experience will know not to play it from the start. I even wrote the whole game in first person, to further drive home the fact that you and the MC are two separate entities. I am fully aware that some people dislike the idea of not being able to make their own character in an RPG or CYOA, and I would not recommend this game to any of them, including you, because I know that it can ruin the experience.

I see that you enjoyed the game Zombie Exodus. I haven’t played the game, but I’m going to assume that it offers a lot of character customization. The thing with zombie apocalypse games is that you can introduce any kind of character in that setting, and you’ll get the plot going. The zombies are attacking. What am I going to do?

Trying to survive a zombie apocalypse is something that anyone would want, so you don’t need a special kind of character for that. But how many scenarios do you think really work like that? I can think of a handful. For example, you can make a game where your main character has amnesia, and he finds himself on a mysterious island, or you can make a game where you are a prisoner somewhere, and you are trying to escape, or something else along these lines.

The premise of my game is that the main character, Barry, has dreamed of being a mage his whole life, and the only way he’s found to accomplish this goal is by winning a tournament against the most powerful mages in the world. Who in their right mind would do such a thing? No one. That’s the whole idea. You’re not supposed to play as yourself, or as a custom character. You’re supposed to steer this character in the right direction, while you are being offered choices that are consistent with his personality. If I went with how a normal person would react in this situation, then the first choice in the game would have been: Should I join this deadly tournament full of mages when I’ve got no power whatsoever? No? Game over, you win.

It’s the same for the Witcher series. The whole idea of the game is that you are playing as a Witcher, with no emotions, and that you are like a sort of mercenary who is getting paid to hunt for monsters. You are not playing as a cardboard cutout character, you are roleplaying as a Witcher named Geralt, who has his own backstory and personality. These things give the main character substance. You’re not going to get offered the choices of not hunting for monsters. It’s what your character does. But that doesn’t mean that you won’t get to customize your experience, throughout the game. You’ll just have to do it in a way that is consistent with your character’s personality.

It’s two different kinds of roleplaying. Roleplaying as your own character, and roleplaying as a predefined character. The disadvantage of making a game where you can roleplay your own character is that we’re not living in an ideal world, where you can offer infinite choices to players. Making widely different scenarios for a story takes time, and every time you offer a choice that splits the story into two, you double the amount of words that you’ll have to write by the end. I’ve seen countless WIPs on this forum die early because of this very reason. People think that it’s easy to provide countless choices because it’s a text game, but it’s not. Writing a book takes time. Writing a thousand books instead of one is impossible.

That’s why most COG/ HG authors that have actually finished their games and that chose to provide the player with character customization have had to compromise in some way. Some of them compromised by making the main character into a blank slate. The character will have no personality, no backstory, no motivations, and there will be no consistency between choices. Is this a good thing? Arguable. Some people will like it better this way, because they have more freedom. Other people will feel like they’re playing a cardboard cutout instead of a real character, and they’ll get bored. There is no way in which you can provide the player with enough choices to really shape their character in the way they want. You can’t have the player choose all of the dialogues. At some point, the character will have to speak for themselves. And it is at that point that such a character will start to seem empty for some people.

Other Choice of Games have gone a second route, and have decided to add the choice of gender and a name in a game where you play a predefined character. They just switch the pronouns and the name around for different playthroughs, but they don’t change anything else. I preferred to make things obvious from the get-go.

Having a predefined character will allow for better interaction between the characters, and it will make your companions feel less like NPCs, and more like real people. Some people will gladly pay the price of less customization, for a more immersive experience. Other people will not be able to get immersed unless they are playing their own character.

You can’t just decide for others what is good and what is bad. If you don’t like the idea, then just move on, and play another game. There are plenty of options on the market, ranging from text games, to full-blown RPGs.

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Thanks for taking the time to explain this to me. And sorry for having called you and other authors lazy… Probably that was a bit too harsh.

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I just want to say that my friends are starting to love the Story.
They keep on asking me on how to get all the achievements everytime they see me,and now they want to say their greatest appreciation to the author because of the Magium he made.
We are giving our full support on the progress of the chapters.
More power to the Author
And I was wondering who is the person behind this amazing story…please tell me.

@Jean_Paulo

Sorry, I’m not interested in doing translations at this time.

@MagiumTG

I think you might be interested in this AMA(Ask me anything) that I did on reddit, shortly after I launched the game in August: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4x2v4w/i_am_an_indie_game_developer_that_has_been/

You can also check out my subreddit at https://www.reddit.com/r/Magium/ where I’ve answered some more questions about the game. That is another place where you can contact me directly.

Cheers!

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This Book is a Masterpiece !
I accidentally discover this book and I like it so much so i show it to my classmates and they like it too, now the whole class is reading it right now and we’re excited for the Book 2 Chapter 2 ! Thank you for making this masterpiece :smile: :smile: :smile:

Hi @Nemeean_lion, very good work.
My only problem is that I can’t review the previous pages and the choices I made in the past. I would really love to be able to read my previous pages like a book, so that I can remember something if I forgot.

This is important, because if we need to wait 1-2 months for each chapter, we might need to do some refreshing without replaying the whole adventure (because by replaying we can’t remember what choices we had made, so we may end up with a different story). I imagine that this is hard to do this for people who have already finished the book, but even if you do it for new games it would still be very helpful.

I see that not many people asked this before, but when time passes and players start forgetting the previous story, I imagine there will eventually be a problem.

@Nemeean_lion , I finally did it…

@Nemeean_lion
I started Magium a day ago and it’s been awesome.
Congrats and thank you for this game.
I have a question though.
Why would you give us the option to say to Kate that we love her and then make Barry,without our choice,say to Rose that his heart beats strongly for her?
I am a Kate-lover myself and that part where Barry tried to romance Rose on his own really set me off.
Also,I would suggest not placing the option to romance Kate towards the end of the whole series,in order to give us time to fully appreciate the relationship.

This has extremely good reviews. I’ll have to check it out. :slight_smile:

Anyone here think Barry is half StillWater?

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Book 2 Chapter 2 should be coming out soon,hopefully.
I wonder what will happen…

Великолепная книга! Спасибо огромное, автор. Присоединяюсь к ждущим новую главу и желаю удачи в будущем!! Привет из России с:

Translation? :confused:

Magnificent book! Thank you very much, author. I join those, waiting for a new chapter and wish you luck in the future!! Hello from Russia c:

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I just uploaded the 2nd chapter of the 2nd book to Google Play. It should be available in the next few hours, depending on your region.

Have fun!

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Great job.I loved the second chapter and I’m looking forward to the next.The time waiting was worthwhile.Keep up the good job,we all have high expectations now!
Ps.Are you hinting the romanceable character for this book in this chapter?

Maybe.

[ Insert filler here to bypass 20 character limit ]