7 Mages - Released

The dungeon crawler 7 Mages has been released on Steam:

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The Story
Assume the role of a mage charged with protecting a village of poor peasants from raids by rogue mages intent on stealing their crops. Pushed to the limit, the peasants pool their last resources and set off to town to hire mages to protect their village. They find you, and your first task is to assemble a company of six other mages to help the poor villagers.

Game Style
Seven Mages is a grid-based dungeon crawler with a unique turn-based system of combat that allows you to split up your comrades to make the battles more tactical. The mages you control employ various types of powers, including elemental magic, magical maneuvers and unique musical magic.

Environments
Besides the crypts at the beginning, players also experience many other environments: they emerge to the surface of the town and into the surrounding forests; they sail on boats, wade through swamps and struggle across frozen mountain peaks. And there will be much more: dragon guts, sea bottom level, Storm city... every level has its own graphic environment. Each environment has unique enemies with different kinds of behavior that tactically change a battles.

Combats
Combats in Seven Mages are turn-based. In other words, while movement is free (i.e. in real time) when you are not engaged in battle, the game stops when a clash breaks out and the system switches to a turn-based regime. Here you can do one of six moves: perform magical maneuver with cold weapon, cast elemental spell, play magical song, reequip (or drink potion), move any party member, or defend.

Magical Maneuvers
A battle mage can use magic to force the weapon to do things that are against the laws of nature. There is a maneuver that sends your sword far ahead of you to cut an enemy there and then return to your hand. With spear or halberd there is a different maneuver that can extend the weapon (to more than twice its length), hit an enemy that’s two squares away and pull them closer to you (where you can finish them off). Ranged weapons on the other hand can shoot several projectiles at once, and with magic, one arrow can hit more than one enemy even if they’re not standing in a line.

Elemental Magic
To perform maneuvers or musical magic, you need an item (a weapon or an instrument). The difference between these two types of magic and elemental magic is that the latter does not need any item to cast. Besides the ever-popular fireball that all mages simply must have in their arsenal, there is also a spell that can set the ground around the mage on fire or a spell that calls thunderstorms on remote squares. There are also spells that can show you the strengths and weaknesses of an enemy, give you a hint if you’re stuck on a puzzle or show you a map of unknown territory. And there’s also the option to summon a party member.

Magical Songs
Seven Mages also introduce a heretofore unseen method of spellcasting in fantasy games. Instead of weapons, players hold a military drum, a horn or a fiery violin and play a magical song on them. Everyone within earshot feels the effects of the spell and becomes a stronger fighter; their arms and legs come alive with more speed or seas part in front of them. The same tune can be played by several heroes in the party at once, and as the music gets richer, the spell becomes stronger.

Early Access
The game was originally developed for mobile devices (iOS and Android) and it will hit App Store and Google Play on March 15. Once we get the green light, we will put the same version on Steam in Early Access, and then we will start working on further adjustments of the game for more advanced PC hardware. It means that the Early Access version will be already polished and fully playable. The only difference between Early Access and the full game will be prettier graphics of the PC version, as well as some minor adjustments in texts (we will remove all the 'taps' and 'swipes', etc.). Of course we will reflect any relevant user feedback.

In points

• 14 unique environments
• 28 types of enemies with different fight styles
• 60 spells
• Heavily tactical turn-based combat
• Unique and previously unseen musical magic
• New puzzles and twists in each level
• Retro feeling in high-end graphics
• Dozens hours of gameplay