Devlog #3 — The Mage’s spells, hand-drawn

The Mage wields every element, and now you can see it. Every spell got its own frame-by-frame drawing, in the same anime style as the characters.

Drawn, not rendered

Before deciding, we made both versions: the hand-drawn spells and the same spells built in 3D and rendered. Side by side, the drawn ones won easily — they match the characters, which are drawn too. The 3D versions are out of the game.

The ones that changed the most

• Fire Lance — one to ten lances, depending on practice. Each one whistles as it falls, explodes where it hits and may leave the target burning. That is the picture above: the Mage against a Willow, which has good reason to fear fire.
• Lightning — a thin electric arc, with branches and sparks, that jumps from monster to monster, one to five times, in sequence.
• The rest — Fire Wall, Combustion, Static, Stone Ball and its shards, Petrify, Water Blade, Heal and Light all got their drawings too. And the Water Clone is the Mage itself, painted in water.

Targeting

A spell that needs a target now stays selected: its name follows the cursor, and the monster under the mouse gets a ring at its feet and an arrow above it — gold if the spell reaches from where you stand, red if it is too far. One click on the target casts it. And if the target is far away, the Mage walks into range and casts it there; touching the keyboard or pressing Esc cancels.

Attacks land when they connect

Until now, the recoil of whoever got hit, the flash, the damage number and the sound all came out the moment you clicked — sometimes with the sword still raised. Now all of that waits for the weapon to connect (or for the arrow to leave the bow). Damage is still decided by the server on the click; only what you see changed timing. Hits finally feel heavy.

And more

• The Mage now takes hits in their robe, without turning into a white blur.
• The Merchant was redrawn without the backpack that popped in and out between frames.
• Character shadows now stay attached to their feet, even with the sun low.

Playing a Mage? Tell us on the forum which spell you want to see first.