Originally published at: New Author Interview! Nic Vasudeva-Barkdull, “Magehunter: Phoenix Flame” - Choice of Games LLC
Wield ancient technology to overthrow your mage oppressors! Can your secret order of mage hunters save the kingdom, or will internal strife tear you apart?
Magehunter: Phoenix Flame is an interactive fantasy novel by Nic Vasudeva-Barkdull, set in the same world as Battlemage: Magic By Mail. It’s entirely text-based, 300,000 words and hundreds of choices, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
Choice of Games editor Mary Duffy sat down to talk with Nic about the world of Magehunter and Battlemage.
Magehunter: Phoenix Flame will be available on Wednesday, November 27th. You can wishlist it on Steam in advance of its release—it really helps!
We’re so thrilled to have another game from the author of Battlemage: Magic by Mail. Tell our readers about Magehunter and how its setting and characters relate to Battlemage.
Although it’s a standalone story, Magehunter takes place a few generations after Battlemage, but in the same kingdom. Knights and squires are a thing of the past, and the Kingdom of Jubai is undergoing a technological revolution due to the discovery of slipflame, a powerful new energy source. The most important difference is the oppressive rule of the mage class. The monarchy of Jubai is long gone, and Archmage Nylund and his mage council have ruled for decades. All these changes can be traced back to a war with battlemages—the events of which make up the plot of Battlemage. Of course, Battlemage has multiple endings, so the details of that war and its aftermath are unclear to the characters of Magehunter. The history has faded into legend, and it’s up to the player to uncover those legends if they so choose. As far as characters, I won’t give any spoilers but I will say there are Easter eggs to be found if you’re willing to look!
What did you find easier about the writing process this time around?
I think I understood what structure needed to be established to make a better story this time around. In these games, it’s not easy to fit all the character development, romances, and secrets alongside the main plot—which itself needs to include all the most crucial information regardless of which path the player chooses. Planning good stat systems is helpful because it’s the best way to track the nuances of a player’s choices and provide payoffs, but some details still need to be put into place by hand. Planning where exactly I would fit all those details from the start made things much easier this time around. That being said, I think I’ll do even more planning for any future games I make because those tiny but important details still tend to fall by the wayside if you’re not careful. At the same time, those are the details that are the most worth it for me. I love finding out when readers have uncovered my favorite branch or ending, and there are plenty to explore in Magehunter.
I’m especially excited about indirect sequels like this one, that let the player steep themselves in a familiar but new world. What inspired the shift to the future in Magehunter?
I honestly just wanted to write a world with alternate technology, but something unique from, say, steampunk. I was also inspired by the really interesting magic system in Foundryside, a trilogy in which a thiefy main character can change the properties of objects around her by arguing with the rules of the physical world. It’s a fascinating mix of hacking and magic, and there’s a bit of that in the “magic” system of my world in the form of Brutal Flame. I also love the classic Thief games, and I think The Metal Age is an amazing example of narrative design with its fantasy technology in the form of robots and surveillance cameras set in a medieval world. The inspiration of Thief on the dark fantasy setting of Magehunter is obvious from the start. Finally, in Battlemage, I wanted to bend the rules of the fantasy genre because I was always bothered by the hegemonic Britishness of the genre rules. With Magehunter, I wanted to continue that trend and lean toward my comfort genre of science fiction while maintaining the court politics of Jubai. Going to the future also gave me even more distance from the “thees” and “thous” of high fantasy language. I think more contemporary language helps with the fun, adventurous tone I’m looking for. All of these elements just clicked together while I was working on the ending of Battlemage, where the player’s actions literally become legend. I thought, why not build on that legend with another adventure?
Was there an NPC you particularly liked writing?
Honestly, it changed throughout the project. At first, I didn’t really like Gael or Embla, two fellow hunters, but I was determined to write characters outside my personal preferences to give players a variety of friends and romance options. By the end, I really fell in love with them and their respective arcs, and as a result, they are now probably the most fleshed-out characters in the game. Gael is hard to get along with in the beginning, but befriending him can lead the player on an entirely different, slightly nerdy adventure. And Embla is just a sweetheart. She can be a bit cheesy and saccharine at first, but hers quickly becomes one of the more valid viewpoints for the struggles of a divided world (in my opinion, anyway). On the other hand, I liked writing the mage apprentice Frey because his motivations are uncomplicated, but he’s deeper than most of the characters give him credit for. I also liked Rio, the self-declared people’s hero, for being an outlet of gender expression (for me and hopefully for the player too) in a world that’s much freer than our own society. Oddly, Xiaoxi, another fellow hunter, started out as my no-brainer favorite but by the end that was no longer the case—although she definitely redeems herself if you make the right choices.
Players will have a really enjoyable power mechanic in this game. Tell us a little about slipflame.
Slipflame comes in three forms, and it can do anything from manipulating the physical properties of objects (Brutal Flame), to siphoning essence from a living being (Living Flame), to sneakier things like tricking the mind (Silent Flame). The uses of slipflame are really only limited by the player’s slipflame supply. I try to add a unique mechanic to every game I make—it was the combat system in Battlemage, and in this game it’s the slipflame reservoir, which is a pool of slipflame that depletes with each use. But players shouldn’t try to hoard slipflame either, since it recharges over time due to the conduits throughout the city. Slipflame is a public good, and it’s used for everything from lighting up the city to powering small gadgets that citizens use. As useful as it is, mages won’t touch it because its network is maintained by the hunters—a sort of resistance movement/organized crime syndicate that is in a constant power struggle with the mage regime. Since the player is a hunter themselves, they get to enjoy the full power of slipflame, and its different forms allow for play styles that are big and explosive, supportive and peaceful, or cunning and stealthy.
What are you working on next?
I’m making a game called AAA Simulator, a satire of game industry follies. It’s a tycoon game and a roguelike, and I’ve kept that last part secret until just now. It’s also going to be driven by narrative choices similar to the Reigns series, with events inspired by actual game industry blunders (of which there are many). I’ve been dipping my toes into the world of video editing by making devlogs about it on a channel also called AAA Simulator over on YouTube. So far it’s been a ton of fun!