Magic Academy
Update 0.4.0.5 (Episkey) and public 0.3.5
Hello everyone! Today we're releasing update 0.4.0.5 (Episkey) on Itch.io, now available as a premium release! At the same time (or rather, as early as last weekend), update 0.3.5 has gone public!
This update has been a long time coming – one we’ve desperately needed. With version 0.4.0.5, we’ve completely overhauled the Journey mode, effectively turning it into Journey 2.0!
Since 0.3.5, we’ve rolled out multiple updates for our subscribers, all of which are now live on itch.io too. Let’s recap everything included in the interim patches:
Update 0.4
- Completely Revamped Battle System: Journey now features a card-based roguelike battle system, complete with deck-building mechanics!
- Overhauled Enemies and Bosses: Enemy and boss behaviors and mechanics have been completely redesigned.
- 45 Playable Cards: Build your deck from a selection of 45 unique cards, categorized into three rarity levels.
- Dynamic Battle Difficulty: Battles now feature four difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Boss. Difficulty determines the level of cards you can obtain and the value of rewards.
- Revamped Points of Interest: Each point of interest on the map now offers three different possible events, grouped by theme so you have a general idea of what to expect.
- Points of Interest Interactions: Points of interest allow you to remove cards, gain new cards, trade cards, clone cards, heal, gain temporary buffs, acquire resources, and engage in special battles.
- Meta-Game Progression Removed: Inventory size is currently fixed at 4x4.
- Journey Preparation Overhauled: Equip your character with a Wand, Robe, and Accessory. Each item provides a unique set of cards, allowing you to customize your starting deck.
- New Items to Unlock: Start with two items per slot and unlock a total of 24 items (8 per slot) by defeating bosses.
- Temporary Card Icons: Placeholder icons are currently in use for cards.
- Partial Item Icons: Some items have custom icons, with the rest coming soon.
- Temporary User Interface: The UI is currently a work in progress.
Update 0.4.0.1
- Card Sorting: Cards are now sortable by rarity and name. Rarer cards will appear first in all panels. Identical cards are now grouped together.
- Healing Card Balance: Healing card effects have been adjusted for balance. Previously, battles with passive enemies allowed for full health restoration. Healing is now only possible during specific events.
- Defense Reset: "Defense" now resets at the beginning of the character's turn, preventing infinite stacking, which became problematic when fighting armored enemies.
- Card Inspection: Holding the cursor or finger on a card in any window will display a larger image of the card with a more readable description, along with explanations of any special terms used in the card's description.
- Enemy Intent Display: Holding the cursor or finger on an enemy will display a window with information about their current intent for their turn.
- Enemy Buff Timing: Enemy-applied buffs now take effect on the following player turn. This prevents situations where an enemy applies a bleeding effect that deals damage at the end of the same round, giving the player no time to react.
- Camera Position Saving: Due to changes in the adventure map size, camera position is now saved on the map so that it returns to the same position after a battle.
- Unlock Logic: The logic for unlocking new items has been changed. After defeating a boss, a random item of the lowest unlocked rarity is awarded. You must unlock all Common items before you start unlocking Rare items.
- Deck & Discard View: New buttons have been added to the adventure map and battle screen to view the current deck and discard pile.
- Enemy Card Addition Display: Added logic to display when enemies add cards to their deck or hand (e.g., when an enemy attack adds a "junk" or "harmful" card).
- Temporary Buff Icons: All buffs have received temporary icons.
- Map Generation Algorithm: The map generation algorithm has been changed. The previous algorithm caused game events to cluster around the edges of the map. The placement of enemies and points of interest should now be more evenly distributed.
Update 0.4.0.3
- Boss Spawns: Fixed an issue where bosses (other than the new one) were no longer spawning.
- Rogue Cat Appearance: Corrected the appearance of the rogue cat in her world.
- DOT Kill Confirmation: Fixed a bug where enemies killed by damage-over-time (DOT) effects remained "alive" until their next turn.
- Font fix: Added a missing letter "Й" to the Russian font.
- Increased Healing Events: The number of healing events on the map has been increased.
- Improved Healing Event Visibility: Healing events are now clearly marked on the map, with revised logic and visuals.
- Doubled Dust Rewards: Rewards in magical dust for items have been doubled.
- Card Effect Fixes: Addressed bugs in several game cards, correcting incorrect effects and preventing them from stacking on themselves instead of enemies.
- Enemy Logic Fixes: Resolved bugs in enemy logic, ensuring their actions have the correct targets and effects.
- Closer Combat Camera: The in-combat camera has been zoomed in to make characters appear larger.
- Character/Widget Positioning: Character and UI widget positions have been adjusted to accommodate the new camera.
- Persistent Journey Events: Events on the Journey map no longer disappear if the player chooses to "leave." You can now return to a location and interact with the event later.
- Simplified Easy Battles: Easy battles now feature only one enemy, allowing players to learn their mechanics more easily.
- Card Reward Display: A new panel has been added to display the cards you receive from events after they conclude.
- Journey Camp: Added a "camp" feature to Journey mode, allowing you to fully restore health a limited number of times on the travel map.
- Increased Player Mana: The player's maximum mana has been increased to 4.
- Goblin Barbarian Quest: A new quest featuring a goblin barbarian has been added.
- New Journey Boss: Goblin Barbarian: A new boss, the goblin barbarian, has been added to Journey mode. She focuses on summoning allies, buffing them, and launching aggressive attacks.
- New Post-Boss CG Scene: A new CG scene has been added after defeating the goblin barbarian. The scene's animation is still in progress and will be available later, but we've included a short introductory comic to bridge the transition from battle to the scene.
- New Quest Task Type: A new task type has been added – defeating quest enemies in Journey mode. These tasks are easier as they don't require fighting a boss, but you'll need to find and defeat the enemy that appears on the map.
- New Rose quest: Added a new quest for Rose, in which you can affect her character.
Update 0.4.0.4
- Memory Dive Goblin Girl: The scene with the goblin girl is now available in the Pensieve (Memory Dive).
- Goblin Girl Item Fix: Fixed an issue with receiving a new item from the goblin girl.
- Unique Goblin Girl Item Art: Added unique graphics for the item stolen by the goblin girl.
- Localization Key Fixes: Corrected localization keys that were causing Cyrillic characters to appear in panels instead of the selected language.
- "Wait N Days" Quest Fix: Fixed an issue where the "Wait N Days" quest would turn into a placeholder after completion.
- Starting Items: Both Common items for each slot are now available from the start. This means the first item you unlock will be of Rare quality.
- Tutorial Updates: Updated all tutorials affected by the Journey mode overhaul.
- Full Localization: The new update has been translated into all of our supported languages (English, Russian, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese).
- Audrey's First Quest Fix: Fixed the first adventure quest given by Audrey (it was awarding the wrong stone, preventing quest completion).
- Mac version
Update 0.4.0.5
- New Animated Scene: Added a fully animated scene featuring the goblin barbarian (in addition to the existing mini-comic).
- Unique Card Backs: Gameplay cards now have unique backs depending on their rarity.
- Boss Difficulty Adjustments:
- Reduced the difficulty of the Ice Elf boss fight.
- Reduced the difficulty of the Wolf-Paladin boss fight.
- Reduced the difficulty of the Cat-Rogue boss fight.
- Bug Fixes:
- Fixed an issue where the exit portal might not appear in the Cat-Rogue's world.
- Fixed an issue where the boss might not appear in the Wolf-Paladin's world.
We’re thrilled to hear your first impressions of the revamped Journey mode and the new goblin barbarian girl scene!
Thank you for your support, feedback, and ratings – you’re helping us grow. And as always, thanks for sticking with us!
Comments
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Little bug here: I casted Protego Diabolica, and an Armored Goblin had Parry Stance and Torment. On its turn, it kept receiving damage (I don't remember if 1, 2 3), repeatedly, and upon reaching 0, nothing happened, as it was still damaging. After some minutes, the battle-finished pop-up appeared, and nothing was on the loot grid. Then, epic card selection as usual (after a Queen chess piece fight).
If there's a better place to report this, let me know.
Hi! Thanks for letting me know! I’ve been told about a similar bug before, but no one could figure out exactly what caused it. It happened due to a loop with "reflected damage," where the buff triggered on damage caused by the buff. I’ll definitely fix this in the next update.
thx dev
Some bugs:
- The Skip button [Leave] does not skip the action, after defeating the goblin.
- The [?] in the journey preparation screen, or inside the equipment, does nothing.
- Forest Thicket had no portals, in one of the runs.
Some stuff:
- Apparently, defeating a boss drops an item. There is no message or popup or anything, so one has to remember all the previous items, and see which one is new. Apart from this, I would suggest a different equipment system (with drops, stats..), but I am more invested in the story of the game, rather than this.
- I was wondering about the status effects, and discovered by chance that it shows when click-holding a chard. This is a really nice feature, I think it should be in the journey tutorial or somewhere.
Thank you for your feedback!
- I'll look into why the question button stopped triggering the tutorial.
- Did the portals in Forest Thicket only disappear once? Was everything else fine? I can't seem to replicate this issue.
The part about holding the map to get details about effects is actually covered in one of the tutorials. Regarding boss items—they have descriptions that mention they are needed for a quest, but I'll think about how to highlight this separately, perhaps with a colored border.
I wasn't able to replicate the un-portaled Forest Thicket, but I took a screenshot (after beating the boss):
Yes, I was able to replicate this. Unfortunately, in this case, you’ll need to exit and re-enter the journey. For some reason, during generation, there sometimes aren’t enough tiles to place the "portals." I’m currently looking into this issue.
Super excited for this to come out! I just recently discovered this game, and it's a really fun and enjoyable experience. Definitely not what I expected from a "porn" game, but I found myself having a lot of fun even outside of the NSFW aspects. Keep up the great work, I can't wait to see where this goes <3
Does the goblin boss have a gynomorph option like that icy boss?
Yes :) our artist put a lot of effort into this art.
Is she fucking the main character in the gynomorph scene?
The scene is similar to the one with the elf. You can choose the "settings" for the scene before starting it.
When will the public get access to the new battle system?
When will the next update be available for subscribers? I think it will be closer to the end of this month or at the beginning of the next one.
I've got to say--I haven't played since one of the 0.2 updates, but this is developing into a legitimately fun and interesting game! Fantastic work, you guys! Keep it up!
Hey! Thank you! We're really happy to hear that. We update the game based on feedback from our players, and it's great to know that we're on the right track.
Hell yes!