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

[asper]

Immediate day 1 purchase! Great work
It is great how the graphics are inspired by the past games but do not use tired cliche'd faux-pixelart.

 

[lvl 2 Blue Slime]

Immediate day 1 purchase! Great work
It is great how the graphics are inspired by the past games but do not use tired cliche'd faux-pixelart.

It's weird how so many indie games claim to be "retro" or "classic" yet their art style looks nothing like the old games they claim to emulate. Not RPGs but Shovel Knight and Sonic Mania are the only ones I can think of that genuinely look like NES/SNES games. Grimoire is probably an exception because its graphics were originally made to run on DOS-IBM PCs.

 

[:Flash:]

I always turned smooth scrolling off in Grimoire.

It looked weird in grimwah though

It's equally weird in Lands of Lore. It's simply not possible to do this correctly with pure 2D Textures. Lands of Lore just hides it better because the resolution is lower and the animation way faster.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

Another small demo - this time I show the skill "Mich-An-Pot".
If you have the right ingredients, the recipe and a bit of skill, you can make many interesting things (not only potions!)

 

[Baron Tahn]

This is looking great, good luck with the project. Probably a Day 1 purchase from me as well if I can rip the time away from the jaws of everyday life.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

Another short video posted on Twitter/X (this one won't go on YT as it's too short).
Just a demo of water in the game (and a proof that it's worth it to invest a few points in swimming skill )

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

Another small video - this time I show the "Wardance" skill.
Wardance is a powerful weapon against enemies, but can only be learned by Himsha Jester.

When mastered, this skill will affect ALL enemy groups, dealing damage and negative effects (like insanity, sleep, ...) left, right and centre.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

Hey guys,

Just posted another teaser on X/Twitter.

A failed experiment of T'Phran and Khathathra, Bilebite is a rat beast with sharp claws covered in corrosive venom.
Can you find the courage to find this beast and put it out of it's misery? It could well be worth it in the end, but the beast is not easy to find, and can also prove quite challenging if you venture to it's lair too soon.

Otherwise, the game is progressing well. Mostly adding content for the last few weeks.
Will have quite a lot of new material to show in the near future.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

Blood Mire
Another dangerous place you will need to visit (not optional).
Filled with dangerous creatures - even giant crocodiles!

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

I got asked here, if the cities will be explorable (like other areas) or more like a "hub".
As I said back then, each city in Mystic Land is just another area (map) you walk through and explore.

Here is a sample screenshot (as I'm just working on this one).

 

[unseeingeye]

Man, I so need this game right now. I can't wait until it is ready, it looks so interesting.

 

[covr]

I got asked here, if the cities will be explorable (like other areas) or more like a "hub".
As I said back then, each city in Mystic Land is just another area (map) you walk through and explore.

Here is a sample screenshot (as I'm just working on this one).

View attachment 48266

This is nice. However I miss a bit the other approach to towns/hubs - a scene with some objects or buildings to interact, like in Wizards and Warriors or Demise:Rise of Ku'tan. It requires a bit more art of good quality, but gave a comfy feeling of being safe.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

A little demonstration of "Tho-Hai-Doh" skill in action.
This skill can be very powerful once your character puts some points in it and even stronger monsters (although not all of them) can be vulnerable to it!

 

[luj1]

fkin great art for this game

im sick of characters with big heads/eyes and white donkey teeth

 

[covr]

SirBlabsAlot A friendly advice - you should drop 'early pre-alpha' notification from your videos and screenshots. Early pre-alpha for most of the modern games means a tech demo phase or an interactive mock-up. It's basically a red light for a number of potential customers, as most of the games do not get released or are many years from 1.0. And I assume that Mystic Land should be released in around a year from now.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

SirBlabsAlot A friendly advice - you should drop 'early pre-alpha' notification from your videos and screenshots. Early pre-alpha for most of the modern games means a tech demo phase or an interactive mock-up. It's basically a red light for a number of potential customers, as most of the games do not get released or are many years from 1.0. And I assume that Mystic Land should be released in around a year from now.

You have a point, and I agree.

Game advanced from the pre-alpha stage quite a bit already, so I'll start adding the "Alpha version" tag at the bottom.
I just don't want people to think that what is shown is exactly what they will get - there are still stuff missing and there are still some placeholders here and there.

But yeh - we are quite far from "Pre-Alpha" now.

I think mechanics are about 85-90% done, and then what is left is the content (this is the big one) and balancing the game.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

If you played dungeon crawlers in early '90s, then a few places in Mystic Land will surely give you a sense of "Deja Vu"

 

[Butter]

I absolutely love that tileset.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

Hey guys,
We're still hard at work on the game.
I just posted a couple of more screenshots from the game (from the early areas).

Will post a new area or two in a few days, but will probably stop spoiling the game at that time and will focus more on the info and screenshots showing various mechanics after that.

And, aaaaa, I just noticed that I forgot to change the "Alpha version" text in battle module. The screen was taken today from the latest build, I just need to make the game show the right prerelease text in the battle module as well. Sorry about that, will fix it as soon as I post this

Anyway, here are todays screenshots.

 

[luj1]

Can you tell us more about character builds, classes, systems? How do skills and attributes work?

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

Can you tell us more about character builds, classes, systems? How do skills and attributes work?

I do have texts already prepared for the manual, so I guess I can put the descriptions for these things here.
I won't reveal the full mechanics (for obvious reasons), but I can describe these things like they will be described in the manual.

Would that work?

 

[Butter]

I forget if you've already described this somewhere. Do skills improve through use like in Wizardry 7?

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

I forget if you've already described this somewhere. Do skills improve through use like in Wizardry 7?

No.
That's one thing I really didn't like in Wizardry. Train swimming to 10 and then go to the water and jump in, jump out, rest, jump in, jump out, rest... and so on
You can only improve skills through level ups and special items.

 

[luj1]

Can you tell us more about character builds, classes, systems? How do skills and attributes work?

I do have texts already prepared for the manual, so I guess I can put the descriptions for these things here.
I won't reveal the full mechanics (for obvious reasons), but I can describe these things like they will be described in the manual.

Would that work?

Sure go ahead

Would love to hear anything about attributes and classes and if they have unique mechanics.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

You will need to visit (and survive) the Isle of Forgiveness in order to solve the mystery of Maphaldo's disappearance.



(I didn't forget about the skills/attributes/races... info. Will start posting descriptions very soon).