Mystic Land: The Search for Maphaldo - Old school RPG inspired by W7 and EoB

[Ysaye]

https://www.megavision-software.com




https://af.gog.com/game/mystic_land_the_search_for_maphaldo?as=1649904300

Spoiler

This looks like something those Wizardry 7 fans would be into:

https://www.indieretronews.com/2023/07/mystic-land-search-for-maphaldo-old.html

 

[Dorateen]

Looks great. I wonder how massive they will make the game world, and if it will contain 600 hours worth of content.

 

[Lady Error]

This is literally Grimoire 2.0 right there:

We are a small indie software house currently working on retro-inspired RPG "Mystic Land: Search for Maphaldo". It all started back in 1993 when two best friends decided that they wanted to take over the world by writing the best MS-DOS RPG game called "The Mystic Land".

They worked on the game for several years, writing the story, the lore, creating a few tech demos in between, investing their hard earned money in order to create graphics and concept art for the game, and everything looked to be going in the right direction. Even legendary company Sir-Tech (publisher of even more legendary Wizardry RPG series) showed an interest to publish the game in 1994 and morale was high among the two developers.

Sadly though, they were both teenagers back then and life had different plans for them both. And so, Mystic Land project was "shelved" indefinitely.

But, after almost 30 years, the two got back together and decided that given they are both now at the wrong side of their 40s ... it's time to finish what they started. And so, here we are. We are now a group of 5, working tirelessly in order to finally, FINALLY bring Mystic Land to life.

And by the way... we are still determined for it to be the best old school fantasy role playing game ever.

https://www.megavision-software.com

 

[Dorateen]

Search for Maphaldo deserves its own dedicated thread. Although curious that the developers have never visited the Codex.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

Hey all!

I'm a programmer on Mystic Land (and one of those two fellas that tried to make this game way back in the 90s). I do lurk here from time to time, mostly on Cleve's threads - though I come in peace, big fan of Grimoire that I purchased on day 1 for "never to be discounted" price ... Don't shoot Cleve. The game's worth it anyway
I didn't want to create Mystic Land thread at the beginning, so it wouldn't be seen as only an advertisement tool, but if you guys want and are interested about the game (and the forum bosses don't mind), then I could create a thread about Mystic Land, explain a few things and post updates and answer your questions (if any) there.

So let me know if I should do that.

 

[Darkozric]

https://www.megavision-software.com/games.php

Welcome to MegaVision Software​

We are a small indie software house currently working on retro-inspired RPG "Mystic Land: Search for Maphaldo". It all started back in 1993 when two best friends decided that they wanted to take over the world by writing the best MS-DOS RPG game called "The Mystic Land".
They worked on the game for several years, writing the story, the lore, creating a few tech demos in between, investing their hard earned money in order to create graphics and concept art for the game, and everything looked to be going in the right direction.

Even legendary company Sir-Tech (publisher of even more legendary Wizardry RPG series) showed an interest to publish the game in 1994 and morale was high among the two developers.
Sadly though, they were both teenagers back then and life had different plans for them both. And so, Mystic Land project was "shelved" indefinitely.

But, after almost 30 years, the two got back together and decided that given they are both now at the wrong side of their 40s ... It's time to finish what they started.
And so, here we are. We are now a group of 5, working tirelessly in order to finally, FINALLY bring Mystic Land to life.

And by the way... we are still determined for it to be the best old school fantasy role playing game ever.

 

[0sacred]

the Grimwah Killer

edit: how many threads does this game have now

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

Ah, I see moderators created a thread, so we good.

So, yeah, as you probably all figured out, Mystic Land was (heavily) inspired by Wiz7 and a bit by EOB and M&M series. It's a FRP game with grid-based movement and fight that is very similar to Wiz7 fight (Ambush style), though we are trying to make a few quality of life changes in interface so it won't be so tedious after a few hours of play.
Interesting story (at least we believe so), lots of quests/side quests to complete and lots of different, we hope interesting, places to visit. If the first part will be received well, then the plan is to make a trilogy (with party import from saves).

The game was (really) started in the early 90s as written on the website, but was shelved for nearly 30 years after the "life" happened for me and my friend.

But we back now, hard at work on the game, team of 5, and we are planning to release it sometime next year for Win, Mac and Linux.

Let me know if you have any particular questions and I'll do my best to answer them.

p.s. If you have Twitter account, we twit a lot there (small bits of lore, screenshots, videos...) - it's worth following us at @megavisionsoft if you are interested in our game.

 

[MalcolmR]

It looks really impressive artistically, especially for a retro-style game. I like the color palette in the exploration scenes and the UI looks decent too. Looking forward to seeing the combat system.

 

[Lady Error]

Wizardry 7 and Grimoire are by far my favorite blobbers, so I am very much looking forward to this one.

What is your estimate how long the development is going to take?

 

[Anthedon]

Looks interesting, let's just hope it's not going to take another 30 years of development time.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

Wizardry 7 and Grimoire are by far my favorite blobbers, so I am very much looking forward to this one.

What is your estimate how long the development is going to take?

We are hoping for release sometimes next year (so 2024) for Win, Mac and Linux.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

Looks interesting, let's just hope it's not going to take another 30 years of development time.

The project was "shelved" for 30 years, not worked on.
We restarted the project late last year - and we are really hoping for the release sometime next year.

 

[luj1]

same UI as Grimrock here

why not go with something different

 

[Grauken]

Looks like a standard GUI for an RPG, and not very much like Grimrock either

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

same UI as Grimrock here

why not go with something different

I don't think artist who drew this ever played Legend Of Grimrock to be honest
We gave the artist the options we need and general placement of the "modules" (so equiped items top-right, backpack botom right, crafting between stats and backpack, and so on).
We never intended to "copy" LoG.

 

[Dorateen]

What is the stat SDE? It appears to be a replacement for Piety.

 

[Butter]

I see "inspired by W7", I get hard.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

https://www.megavision-software.com/games.php

Welcome to MegaVision Software​

We are a small indie software house currently working on retro-inspired RPG "Mystic Land: Search for Maphaldo". It all started back in 1993 when two best friends decided that they wanted to take over the world by writing the best MS-DOS RPG game called "The Mystic Land".
They worked on the game for several years, writing the story, the lore, creating a few tech demos in between, investing their hard earned money in order to create graphics and concept art for the game, and everything looked to be going in the right direction.

Even legendary company Sir-Tech (publisher of even more legendary Wizardry RPG series) showed an interest to publish the game in 1994 and morale was high among the two developers.
Sadly though, they were both teenagers back then and life had different plans for them both. And so, Mystic Land project was "shelved" indefinitely.

But, after almost 30 years, the two got back together and decided that given they are both now at the wrong side of their 40s ... It's time to finish what they started.
And so, here we are. We are now a group of 5, working tirelessly in order to finally, FINALLY bring Mystic Land to life.

And by the way... we are still determined for it to be the best old school fantasy role playing game ever.

Slobbering while viewing these shots of the blobber artwork.

DAY ONE for me. I hope they are not charging $99.95 but if they are I would probably pay for it anyway.

Love those pastel muted tones. The artwork is sheer perfection. The portraits have a certain charm as well. Screams retro old school. Remember when games used to be this good?

That frame around the blobber window is awesome and evocative of Wizardry 7.

If it is backed with a good story this would be the greatest thing to happen to RPGs since Grimoire.

Actually I will buy this no matter what shape it is in, I can tell just from these brief clips it is going to be engaging.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

What is the stat SDE? It appears to be a replacement for Piety.

It's Study Devotion
Not only for mages - it directly affects ability to develop and improve new skills and learn new spells.
Affects the number of new skill and spell points character gets each time he/she gains a level of experience.
And affects how quickly character can restore mana points (in combat, while adventuring and while resting).

Hope that explains it

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

It looks really impressive artistically, especially for a retro-style game. I like the color palette in the exploration scenes and the UI looks decent too. Looking forward to seeing the combat system.

Combat system is very much just an upgrade (at least we hope so) on Wiz7.
It's "ambush style" (so no wandering monsters visible on the map), it's turn-based (with commands like "Fight", "Go berserk!", "Cast magic", "Throw"... you know, the works).
And there are special actions for special professions (like fortify for pikeman that gives instruction to use spear/shield combo to focus only on protecting one party member - and thus greatly enhances defence of that party member - usually someone weak like Mage, Priest, etc...).
Pikeman, for example, is also the only profession that can combine and use a 2H spear/lance/... with shield in combat.
We will include stuff like remembering last action, so no need to click that "Kick!" command for ninja each turn. Also planning a "quick auto fight" option (to be used when you encounter really weak monster group and just don't want to be bothered).
And I think that's about it to be honest.

 

[ManaJunkie]

Damn! I am actually hyped.
Automapping? Option to turn it off? Or a skill like in Wiz 7?

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

Damn! I am actually hyped.
Automapping? Option to turn it off? Or a skill like in Wiz 7?

Automap on top right of the screen. Can be zoomed in over the viewport.
Skill "mapping" determines the amount of details you get on the map. The map on these Twitter videos is the basic you get if your most skilled character has only a few points in mapping. If one of your characters is very skilled in mapping, then the option to put text/notations on the map also opens up (only in "big map view" of course)
Map is not showing at all if all your characters have 0 points in mapping (also useful for those hardcore players, that like to map areas themselves using pen and graph paper)

 

[Darkozric]

GUI looks fine to me, it's pleasant to the eyes without being over-designed and it's quite different than LoG.

Also skill mapping is pure incline, unlike some other pretentious shit like Jettatura.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

UI looks very good. The colour palette has a retro vibe without being over the top.