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

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

Even if this game doesn't turn out good, it has still been a success. I have never seen Cleveland Mark Blakemore posting positively in any other thread.

I recognize greatness when I see it. I also recognize FAKE AND GHEY when I see it.

This clearly is NOT something like BROKEN ROADS.

You know when they are adapting a movie from some classic story and the director admits he never even read it, but he got the gist of it? You absolutely know it is junk, period. Nothing will save it from being junk.

This game is clearly taking cues from the classics, which means the people working on it are smart enough to know why they are classics. So they are already winning.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

And here is how spell-casting works in Mystic Land: Search For Maphaldo.

Just posted on Twitter:

Awesome. Total acid flashback to Crusaders of the Dark Savant.

 

[Be Kind Rewind]

The visual and stylistic choices are impeccable but reading things like this always puts me out.

We are currently working on a first part of what should be a 3 part saga about Mystic Land and it's inhabitants.

Maybe it's because the episodic era of video games was so bad, or those earlier CRPGs naming themselves Book I and such and then never got a sequel, but I always lose much of my interest reading this. Because that means the devs are planning for some larger overarching story that will likely not happen, video games are hard to make, take time, financial spin of the revolver roulette and it also means the developers are probably saving some of their best ideas for later instead of pruning all they have to fit into one game containing the best possible realization of what they want to create.

Grimoire may or may not get a sequel, but if it doesn't then it's not a big deal since it's not called Grimoire: Chapter I: Prologue: First pages: This will defenitively continue in the next installment. Once you're not just having the possibility of a sequel open but planning for it you're liable to not just save better ideas than what are in the games for later but to leave in unfinished plot threads, and in general making a game that feels weaker unless played as a complete package with the other games. Or weak endings.

 

[Damned Registrations]

The visual and stylistic choices are impeccable but reading things like this always puts me out.

We are currently working on a first part of what should be a 3 part saga about Mystic Land and it's inhabitants.

Maybe it's because the episodic era of video games was so bad, or those earlier CRPGs naming themselves Book I and such and then never got a sequel, but I always lose much of my interest reading this. Because that means the devs are planning for some larger overarching story that will likely not happen, video games are hard to make, take time, financial spin of the revolver roulette and it also means the developers are probably saving some of their best ideas for later instead of pruning all they have to fit into one game containing the best possible realization of what they want to create.

Grimoire may or may not get a sequel, but if it doesn't then it's not a big deal since it's not called Grimoire: Chapter I: Prologue: First pages: This will defenitively continue in the next installment. Once you're not just having the possibility of a sequel open but planning for it you're liable to not just save better ideas than what are in the games for later but to leave in unfinished plot threads, and in general making a game that feels weaker unless played as a complete package with the other games. Or weak endings.

Eh, I'm ambivilant about the idea. It worked for stuff like Might and Magic and Wizardry to begin with, so as long as their overarching story is a loose one mostly just involving being in a grand setting, it's cool. There are two main advantages I see:

One: Game design isn't really about mashing the 'best' ideas together. It's about finding the recipe of ideas that fit together best. If they're good (and what I've seen looks promising) they'll prune even the good ideas that would have made the other ideas worse, and end up with a solid whole, and then maybe fit some of those good ideas in a sequel that plays a bit differently, or...

Two: Iteration is a huge advantage in any kind of design. As long as you're willing to recycle the engine and a bunch of assets, you can release a sequel of much higher quality on a much smaller budget. This is also where pruned ideas can come back in, if they were too ambitious for the first attempt.

Two and a half: Kickstarter projects too often die by having the devs feel the need to spend their entire budget to make a game they originally intended to be modest. This generally leads to a bunch of unexpected problems ruining the entire project instead of them comfortably completing the original plan and having some left over to do sequels or expansions. The sequel bait can be taken as a sign they aren't getting ahead of themselves and trying to recreate the Xeen duology in one go or something.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

The visual and stylistic choices are impeccable but reading things like this always puts me out.

We are currently working on a first part of what should be a 3 part saga about Mystic Land and it's inhabitants.

Maybe it's because the episodic era of video games was so bad, or those earlier CRPGs naming themselves Book I and such and then never got a sequel, but I always lose much of my interest reading this. Because that means the devs are planning for some larger overarching story that will likely not happen, video games are hard to make, take time, financial spin of the revolver roulette and it also means the developers are probably saving some of their best ideas for later instead of pruning all they have to fit into one game containing the best possible realization of what they want to create.

Grimoire may or may not get a sequel, but if it doesn't then it's not a big deal since it's not called Grimoire: Chapter I: Prologue: First pages: This will defenitively continue in the next installment. Once you're not just having the possibility of a sequel open but planning for it you're liable to not just save better ideas than what are in the games for later but to leave in unfinished plot threads, and in general making a game that feels weaker unless played as a complete package with the other games. Or weak endings.

It's a valid concern, but I don't think it will be a problem with Mystic Land.

You see, the whole story is much too big to cram into one game alone (as the parts of the story are also different and set into different parts of the Mystic Land altogether).

The first part of the story tells about the search for missing Nerkai (Maphaldo), why he is missing, what he was researching/searching for and why he was searching for it.
It's a complete story set in the southern parts of Mystic Land (map is already defined and much too large to use in 1 game alone).

Even if we never complete other parts, the first part is, again, a complete story and can be played as a single game - not a series.

And as "Damned Registrations" mentioned, if Mystic Land is at least as successful, so we don't lose money on it (currently still 100% funded by yours truly), then the next parts will use the same engine (with an upgrade here and there) and it will generaly be much easier to create than the original one, where we started from zero (even the engine is our own creation - we don't use Unity or Unreal or any engine like that).

And for ideas - we don't have a single idea "stashed" for other parts yet.
All the details, quests, etc... we are working on at the moment are for this first part. We don't ever think about the second (or, god fobid, the third) part in advance - regarding the ideas.
We'll deal with second part of the game if and when we come to that.

Hope, that puts your mind at ease, at least a little bit

Oh, and that's why Mystic Land will NOT be called "Mystic Land part 1: Search for Maphaldo", ... only "Mystic Land: Search For Maphaldo"

 

[Sacibengala]

And for ideas - we don't have a single idea "stashed" for other parts yet.

Would be great if that in part one was mentioned some npcs, areas, myths and legends that only makes an appearence in part 2 and 3. I always loved this kind of stuff.

 

[Be Kind Rewind]

Hope, that puts your mind at ease, at least a little bit

It does, Day 1 Purchase for me, whenever this is done.

Maybe I was overreacting but after shooters like Sin Episodes and Half-Life 2: Episode 2 I'm always on edge about this. It was common back in the day too, I'm still waiting for Sentinel Worlds II, Karl Buiter you hack, and no, Hard Nova doesn't count. Every time I replay Prey (2006) and get to the post-credit scene I also want to punch a ZeniMax employee in the face. And then there are clusterfuck naming conventions like Yendorian Tales Book I: Chapter 2, the series only got three games, so I don't know how much more he was planning with a title like that. Haven't gotten around to playing them beyond the first game so I don't know if it ends on a cliffhanger or not. You still see that in many indie releases on Steam nowadays, typically they have fallen for the worldbuilding meme and their ambition is much greater than their talent and reach, Chapter I, Book I, Prologue, they're all basically blaring red sirens that the customer should probably not get very invested in a game and that it will feel incomplete.

Because the industry was newer back in the day some people actually got away with it, like Jon Van Caneghem with Might and Magic: Book One - Secret of the Inner Sanctum, which turned into the highly enjoyable Sheltem series of Might & Magic games, which had a continuous story with a real great sendoff in World of Xeen.

Since you guys started developing this game back in the 90's when you were still bright eyed and ambitious it figures that you had large plans, but as long as you view this game as a stand-alone product and not the preface to an epic series that might get great later, if you just sell enough copies, then I'm not concerned. A properly put together role-playing game like this is very rare outside of the Japanese market these days and since me and like five other people here will buy it and play it on release I was worried it would not just leave me wanting more but that being the setup for other games in the series it would rub it in further with the credible possibility that there wouldn't be any more games made. It'd be like watching the great pilot episode of a cancelled show, but I'm glad to hear you're focusing on the game on its own as a proper complete adventure.

Do you plan on letting players import their parties into possible sequels or are they so stand-alone you make a new one in each game?

 

[Be Kind Rewind]

SirBlabsAlot Do you have a YouTube channel?

Keep your saurian Touch of Death far away from this game.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

We just released our first "official trailer" for Mystic Land: Search For Maphaldo.
I wanted to put it on Twitter/X, but the thing complains that the video is 20 or 30 seconds too long, bothers me to upgrade to Premium in order to post longer videos, and then the app won't send an SMS verification code to my phone - so even if I want to give Musk some money, I can't.

So, the video is currently on our Instagram page, for those interested.
It reveals the basic story that is narrated by magician, so make sure you turn ON the sound

Mystic Land trailer on Instagram

 

[Infinitron]

SirBlabsAlot Do you have a YouTube channel?

There's no YT channel for MegaVision Software yet.
I have one for retro (mostly 8-bit) gaming (top game lists and comparisons between systems), but not Mystic Land - yet

It's probably time, don't you think?

 

[Sacibengala]

Mystic Land trailer on Instagram

Instagram is disgusting. Do a youtube channel already.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

SirBlabsAlot Do you have a YouTube channel?

There's no YT channel for MegaVision Software yet.
I have one for retro (mostly 8-bit) gaming (top game lists and comparisons between systems), but not Mystic Land - yet

It's probably time, don't you think?

Yes, probably true
Will make something in the coming few days.
Just need to finally setup the Steam page as well (now the basic trailer is done).

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

OK, I opened a YT channel for MegaVision Software.
Nothing fancy, only trailer is up at the moment, but will upload all other videos, and many short play videos in the future.

Now, I did what you guys ask, and I now ask YOU to help us with Youtube (notoriously difficult) algorithm by subscribing, liking and sharing the channel/videos.

MegaVision Software Youtube

 

[Dorateen]

That trailer music is so perfectly melancholy. It drives the atmosphere of loss, and recovery of what was lost.

 

[Abu Antar]

I don't sub to anything on YT, but will wishlist on Steam, when the page goes up. I do "retweet" most of your stuff on X.

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

I don't sub to anything on YT, but will wishlist on Steam, when the page goes up. I do "retweet" most of your stuff on X.

Appreciated muchly!

 

[Sacibengala]

. I do "reX" most of your stuff on X.

fiXed

 

[Darth Roxor]

That trailer music is so perfectly melancholy. It drives the atmosphere of loss, and recovery of what was lost.

Yep, I also dig the big splash art at the end with the falling stars. Looks really great.

And of course mr Wizard speaking in a two-frame animation is very

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

That trailer music is so perfectly melancholy. It drives the atmosphere of loss, and recovery of what was lost.

Yep, I also dig the big splash art at the end with the falling stars. Looks really great.

And of course mr Wizard speaking in a two-frame animation is very

There are some things that we decided to keep as old-school as possible (like 2 frame ani for the wizard).
We all thought it looked cool.

Hope you guys/gals like it as well

 

[negator2vc]

Subscribed to the channel & liked the trailer.

BUT I must admit that while I LIKE VERY MUCH your game, I didn't like the style you used for the trailer.
I would have preferred you have used only in-game visuals like you did after this point
https://youtu.be/2yqyr1ZkmP0?feature=shared&t=115
for the whole trailer instead of those weird fade in, fade out npcs & monsters you used at the beginning of the trailer
An in-game dialog screen or even a in-game cutscene or even part of the game's intro (if this is completed at this point) would have been better.

 

[Dyspaire]

Please don't fuck this up.

 

[udm]

Liked and subbed

Also, is the artist who designed the portraits and UI (I'm assuming they're done by the same person) in-house or a contractor? Asking for a friend

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

Liked and subbed

Also, is the artist who designed the portraits and UI (I'm assuming they're done by the same person) in-house or a contractor? Asking for a friend

Both contractors.
I can give you details as soon as they're done with the tasks for Mystic Land

You working on something interesting?

 

[SirBlabsAlot]

Subscribed to the channel & liked the trailer.

BUT I must admit that while I LIKE VERY MUCH your game, I didn't like the style you used for the trailer.
I would have preferred you have used only in-game visuals like you did after this point
https://youtu.be/2yqyr1ZkmP0?feature=shared&t=115
for the whole trailer instead of those weird fade in, fade out npcs & monsters you used at the beginning of the trailer
An in-game dialog screen or even a in-game cutscene or even part of the game's intro (if this is completed at this point) would have been better.

Thanks

I understand what you mean.
Though, this trailer was more meant as some kind of "story reveal" - how it all started.
We will upload more gameplay videos to all the socials soon. But YT will probably become the main platform for videos (as X doesn't allow more than 2 minutes of video to be UL).

 

[udm]

Liked and subbed

Also, is the artist who designed the portraits and UI (I'm assuming they're done by the same person) in-house or a contractor? Asking for a friend

Both contractors.
I can give you details as soon as they're done with the tasks for Mystic Land

You working on something interesting?

Probably! I'm just toying with some ideas atm (mainly in tabletop), but I'll bug you if more of the idea gets concretised