Indie The Blood Mage

[Moaning_Clock]

Spoiler

My new game, The Blood Mage, will be released in about 2 weeks on May 18!

The game is a puzzle/rpg-hybrid and inspired by Myth Bearer and Deep Rune which are fixed-value-strategy games, rpgs with deterministic combat, tower-of-the-sorcerer-likes or however you want to call this niche genre.

You play as the titular blood mage which means that every spell you cast, drains your life essence; your health functions also as a mana pool.
The path you take through the game matters a lot and it is normal that you will reach a dead-end and need to restart a few times before you make it through the game. The order in which you fight enemies, use potions, learn spells decides if you win or fail. In the beginning you will have a trial-and-error phase until you know more about the environment and can use it to your advantage and plan accordingly.

It will cost 1.99$/€/£ and will be available on Steam and Itch.

The playtime very much depends on how quickly you solve the underlying puzzle but I suspect that most people will need around 1-2 hours.

The Blood Mage is mostly done but still needs some tweaks to polish it further.

Screenshots

 

[agris]

 

[whydoibother]

 

[Moaning_Clock]

As some of you might know, the game is based on my entry for the Dungeon Crawler Jame 2023 but more fleshed out. I made the original game in Godot 3.5.2 and ported the game to Godot 4.0.2 to try out the new engine capabilities.

Here is a direct comparison of the look of the original jam version and how it looked after I ported it and improved the visuals a bit.

Jam Comparison 1

Old

New

Jam Comparison 2

Old

New

Jam Comparison 3

Old

New

Jam Comparison 4

Old

New

In a way you could call it The Blood Mage 2.0. Here is a list of all the changes as of right now to the jam version.

Changelog

- Ported from Godot 3.5.2 to Godot 4.0.2, the game now uses Vulkan instead of OpenGL
- Improved visuals
- A few textures/sprites were improved
- New and improved levels
- Bigger area to explore
- Two bug fixes
- Added a new enemy
- Added a special key and special door
- Changed a few stats
- Got rid of the lag after you played for a few seconds (I had applied subsurface scattering to one texture which took a lot of resources, this is now removed)
- Improved one audio file (cutted an children's laugh out of it at the end, since it didn't make sense)
- A few changes/improvements to the text
- Added three graphics settings (low, medium, high)
- Added a language selection at the start
- Improved the options

 

[agris]

that's cool you're making something Moaning_Clock but why do the piles of poop feature so prominently?

 

[Moaning_Clock]

They are meant as sand blob thingies but it seems that they get associated pretty fast with (sparkling) turds ...

 

[Moaning_Clock]

The game will have an European Portuguese localization when it is released! I didn't implement it yet but the text is ready.
Also, I finally implemented the reload system. You could always reload the game in the jam version but needed to quit the game and open it again. Now it works through the death screen. I'm using arrays more and more for developing my projects since they are pretty handy. That they are passed by reference and not by value took me a little while to wrap my head around (had a few bugs because of this) but now I know how to circumvent this.

Uploaded a build for Steam to check and some gameplay footage on the Steam page!

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Somehow the rendering resulted in a couple of artifacts. Reuploaded the gameplay footage, it's now a tad shorter. I also removed the name of the trailer which was displayed after the "Gameplay" and hid even more of the UI.

There are three available graphics settings, low, medium, high. My AMD card has issues with the highest setting (since it enables SSAO (the darker corners etc.) but it works fine with medium settings (and low). The problem doesn't seem to be on Linux, so it's a driver issue. Nvidia and Intel are fine.

For anyone who's interested:

• Low: Renders the game internally at 64% of the resolution and has MSAA 2 enabled, no SSAO - for older integrated graphics or laptop gaming
• Medium: Renders the game internally at 100% of the resolution and has MSAA 4 enabled, no SSAO - newer integrated graphics, weak dedicated graphics
• High: Renders the game internally at 144% of the resolution and has MSAA 4 and SSAO enabled - midrange hardware (the GTX 960 of my fiancee still got 28 FPS on High on 4K resolution)

I could make every setting individually accessible but for a small game I don't think it's necessary and a more straightforward approach seems fine.

Your graphics card needs to support Vulkan, you can check on https://vulkan.gpuinfo.org/, if you have a Linux machine you might need to install a package. On Windows with newer drivers it should work out of the box.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

I added the European Portuguese translation to the game and a pixelated controller to the help menu - now you can see which button you need to press. Added the options to change the screen to specific sizes (1280x720, 1920x1080, 2560x1440).

I will test the game more to make sure everything works as intended but the game is basically ready to ship.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

I will release the game in less than 2 hours! Here is a list of questions you might have.

What is this game?

The Blood Mage is a puzzle/RPG hybrid. It is inspired by Myth Bearer and Deep Rune (which in turn are inspired by Tower of the Sorcerer). These particular genre mix turns combat and exploration into a puzzle. In which order you fight your enemies, your use of items and spells will determine if you can complete the game.

Is this game easy?

The game is definitely not easy. It takes a while until you figure out how to maneuver optimally through the dungeon. You will die a few times before you can win.

How long is the game?

The original game jam game took people around 1 hour to complete, I think this version will take you around 1-2 hours.

How much will the game cost?

1.99$/€/£ with a 15% launch discount.

Is there Contoller Support?

Yes, although due to the instant movement a keyboard feels better.

What are the System Requirements?

You can play it on weak systems as long as they have Vulkan support (you can check on https://vulkan.gpuinfo.org/). If you want to play on high you likely need a dedicated GPU but an older midrange card should do the job.

Which languages are supported?

English, German, European Portuguese.

Which Operating Systems are supported?

Windows and Linux.

Where will it be available?

Steam and Itch.io

Is there anything else I should know?

The game has graphical glitches on some AMD graphic cards with certain drivers on Windows. The problem doesn't occur if you play it on Medium or Low, so you can easily circumvent this.
If you are on Linux you might need to install the Vulkan stuff. Also you need to check if you have a glibc version installed which is 2.29 or higher (you can check with ldd --version).
Both of these steps are not necessary on Windows.

Who should buy this game?

If you like puzzles and especially if you played other games of this very niche genre.

Who should not buy this game?

If you are easily frustrated, hate puzzles, and don't like to restart games.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

The game is out now!



And also on Itch: https://smokesomefrogs.itch.io/the-blood-mage

 

[vazha]

Puzzle? thanks, no need.

 

[Infinitron]

Why don't you post your trailer?

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Why don't you post your trailer?

This time I simply forgot, thanks

 

[CryptRat]

For anybody interested I just want to say that if I judge by the early game jam version then this is probably fun.

It's essentially a game where you're looking for the optimal route which will allow you to kill everything with the available resource (HPs, MPs, stronger equipment and consumables).

 

[Moaning_Clock]

I'm working on a small update which will be released this week. It addresses a few minor issues like that VSync isn't enabled by default; it also adds a display of the current character level in the stats.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

I'm working on a small update which will be released this week.

Update grew in size and is out now!

Game is still on sale!





Here is the post on Steam.

I wasn't sure if I would call this the 1.0.1 update or the 1.1.0 update. Normally I increment the second number only if new things to the game are added which aren't minimal (one sentence to a dialogue wouldn't suffice for example). In this update I added the option to explore the original jam version. Technically it was always in the game files but just not accessible. In the end, I decided to call it a 1.1.0 version since you can now explore new stuff (if you haven't played the jam version). For those who don't know, this game was originally made for the Dungeon Crawler Jam 2023. The engine for the jam version was Godot 3.5.2. To try out the new 4.x branch of Godot, I ported it to Godot 4.0.2, build a new dungeon and made several improvements to the game.
Now you can play the original but with graphical upgrades after you beat the game the first time. If you already beat the game before the update, you need to beat it again, sorry!

Full Changelog

- Enabled VSync by default
- Added the option to disable/enable it
- Added a display of the current level to the player stats
- The font size of the stats is a little bit smaller since it now needs to fit more characters
- The font size of the player stats gets a bit smaller if the player exceeds a certain level
- Added a line to the help text that tells the player that values reset if you leave an area
- Animated the Blood Sphere
- Added a light to the Blood Sphere which is visible on high
- Now, after you won the game the first time, you can access the original jam version (with the graphics upgrades)
- If you now toggle fullscreen and save it will be saved for your next session
- Minor code improvement

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

It's good that you're soldiering through. Keep up the good work.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

New update!

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2403900/view/6029804499253849885

I gave Kordanor, who made a let's play of the jam version (which you can watch here), a key for the Steam release. He tried it and reported that the hotkeys were still in the help text which was a leftover of the gamejam release.
I put in a little bit more time and now I can finally release this update which polishes the game a little bit more.

Full Changelog

- Removed text for unused hotkeys in the help screen in the English localization
- Removed an unused object in one of the outside areas
- Removed two unused objects in the game selection area (where you can decide to play the normal or the jam version after you won)
- Removed an unused graphic
- Changed one word in the German help text
- Changed a sentence in the portuguese localization which too long and actually already was corrected but only in one of two instances
- Fixed a bug which displayed text from the option menu when you leveled up if you visited the face at the wall first and leveled in the same area
- Updated the license text
- Very minor code improvements

 

[Percolator Fish]

kill terd nuggets and doriots. this is how u do it people. it's all about the power of imagination.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

The Blood Mage is currently 10% off!



The game is also on sale on Itch!

 

[Moaning_Clock]

10% off again!

 

[Moaning_Clock]

1.1.2 Update is out now!

Hey!

While showing the code someone I found a bug. If you played the jam version and pressed reload you would still get into the new dungeon. This is fixed now.

I took the time to improve some other minor things.

Full Changelog

- Fixed a bug which messed up the reloading if you played the jam version
- Fixed a minor bug which prevented the player to use space to go through a certain hole in the jam dungeon
- Updated the credits
- Minor code improvements

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2403900/view/3664294410276054662?l=english

 

[Moaning_Clock]

1.1.3 Update out now!

Hey!

After I published the last update, I saw that a phrase in the settings was too long in English and Portuguese. I tested the game a little and found two bugs which only occured in specific circumstances. Both are fixed now!

Cheers
Daniel

Full Changelog

- Shortened two phrases in the settings in English and Portuguese since they were too long for the text box
- Fixed a bug which prevented selecting more than one spell if you leveled more than one level after one fight
- Fixed a bug which gave you the wrong spell if you selected the spells in a specific order
- Minor Code improvements

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2403900/view/3675554043636520373

 

[Moaning_Clock]

The Blood Mage is 15% off!