Spell Book Design

[JohnWWells]

I'm thinking about how spellcasting was done in this remake, and it occurs to me that, of all the ways I've seen magic handled in a game, this is one of the best. The original game had a very clear philosophy of how the player's magic ought to work - each spell is demanding, picky, and ultimately rewarding - and this remake carried that through while removing the fussiest elements.

The strongest element, I think, is that all of the 'lab equipment' is on one screen and works in a very intuitive way, the spellbook screen has an intuitive "recite spell" icon, and it is easy and intuitive to move between the two. The only way it could be better would be if this were a commercial boxed game and the player got a physical copy of the spellbook with a page missing!

How many attempts at design did it take before the team came up with the current way of doing things? Was it all basically like this from the start, or did changes have to be made? Was there originally a different way of combining items or doing some of the steps? Did the player have to actually wait, in earlier versions, for certain things to happen?

Or did the design for this come into being pretty much complete?

[Erpy]

The way it's set up now is pretty much the way it's been from the beginning. (way before IA even existed, let alone released their game) The original order of directions and incantations were changed somewhat because we didn't want to include the original's exact answer key in our game.

The "recite"-button used to read "cast spell" until one of the reviewers mentioned it was a little unclear. The exit-button of the book closeup must have been added a few days before the release...before then you could only get from the book to the work top by clicking outside the book. We realized we were dealing with a very punishing game section here, so we tried to get in as many possibilities as possible. (clicking item A on item B and item B on item A must both work, and I believe that the spoon can also be used if a step says you must measure a spoonful of something)

The decision to keep the actual steps intact (instead of the instant completion method that was used in the IA game) was there from the beginning, since we felt that the stress of having to work carefully, yet quickly (a reason why the timer keeps ticking when the inventory window is open) while Manannan might return soon was important to convey from Gwydion to the actual player.

[JohnWWells]

The decision to keep the actual steps intact (instead of the instant completion method that was used in the IA game) was there from the beginning, since we felt that the stress of having to work carefully, yet quickly (a reason why the timer keeps ticking when the inventory window is open) while Manannan might return soon was important to convey from Gwydion to the actual player.

I wondered, at first, why the timer behaved that way. Then I got to the spellcasting and said, "Aha." Definitely a sound move; I really did feel the rush of trying to assemble the components quickly and accurately.

[haradan]

(clicking item A on item B and item B on item A must both work, and I believe that the spoon can also be used if a step says you must measure a spoonful of something)

Just to let you know, nope, I tried to use the spoon on the sand and I died.

[hanakogames]

I tried to use the cup once on something that called for a cupful, and died.

[Erpy]

Just to let you know, nope, I tried to use the spoon on the sand and I died.

Huh? The formula doesn't require a spoonful of sand, does it?

I tried to use the cup once on something that called for a cupful, and died

When exactly was that?

[hanakogames]

Cupful of nightshade juice for the sleep spell. After that I noticed that the measuring bit worked by itself and I didn't need to worry about those details.

[haradan]

Huh? The formula doesn't require a spoonful of sand, does it?

Err..., uhmm, well I...

You know, handful and spoonful sound quite similar when english is not your mother language. My bad.

[Brainiac]

Cupful of nightshade juice for the sleep spell. After that I noticed that the measuring bit worked by itself and I didn't need to worry about those details.

If something needs to be stirred, you need your spoon to be clean. The spoonful of mud and the spoonful of cactus juice must be on your spoon while the ocean water for the storm spell must be in the cup. Other than that, all ingredient additions, even with measurement amounts, should just be added directly. It's kind of a holdover from the original game where no matter how much you needed of on of the ingredient Manny has in his workshop, you just dump the whole thing in anyways (plus he had measurement tools and stirring spoons on his bench already).

[navynuke04]

I programmed all the spell creation initially. It went through a few revisions as Erpy mentioned. I initially only programmed things to work one way (item A used on item B) and not in multiple ways (item B used on item A). We tried to think through all the different possibilities and add them in. Erpy did a great job of refining my initial programming to include these things.

[goatmeal]

...We realized we were dealing with a very punishing game section here, so we tried to get in as many possibilities as possible. (clicking item A on item B and item B on item A must both work...

Ugh. Something similar drove me nuts about SQ6: while in the holding cell, figuring out you had to add your "Roger Food Double" creation to each successive part, and not the other -- and more logical -- way around of adding each food part to your creation!