Matrix Games

Master of Magic: Development Diary 1 - June 2021

Welcome to the first of our Development Diaries for Master of Magic. Seeing as this one is the first in our new series of Dev Diaries, we decided it would be best to cover everything that has been shown previously. We’ll also be adding some new details for those who have been following along.

Who is MuHa?

We’re an indie studio based in Poland. Our previous two games are called Thea: The Awakening, and Thea 2: The Shattering and they are best described as: gritty, dark, fantasy survival games set within a post-apocalyptic world. They are inhabited by a combination of classical fantasy critters and humans with an abundance of mythical and folklore influences.

So while Master of Magic is a very different game at its core, we certainly have experience with the 4x and strategy genres. Our design ideology is simple: we try to make games that we’d want to play ourselves and we do our best to communicate with our fans and thus make the best games we can. 

The old and the new

Our design philosophy is to attempt to recreate the mechanics and gameplay of MoM as faithfully as we can, while also making an awesome game that will attract new fans.

So, with that in mind, here is a list of things we already have that you may recognise from the original:

• All of the wizards from the original MoM, with a modern makeover from our talented artist. We hope you will recognise all of your favourites after 30 years.
• All of the champions and heroes from the original return, with a makeover similar to but perhaps less dramatic than the wizards, with new 2D and 3D models, as well as a new or improved backstory.
• All of the races and their units painstakingly recreated with their original statistics and all their original features. This will be our baseline and we hope to minimize balance changes unless they are really necessary.
• All of the spells and skills from the original. Similarly to races and units, this will be our baseline for balance.
• All of the original traits that were formerly known as “retorts”.
• All of MoM’s basic events and possibly some new additional ones. We’re even including the option to turn them off as it was in the original.
• Arcanus and Myrror as playable planes.
• All building types will be included.
• The Mana management system makes a return, with a modern look but the original mechanics.
• Battles will take place on a tactical map and not the strategic map, like in the original.
• Familiars - they’re back, and we have an extra one for those who choose mixed magic books.

This list is also not an exhaustive list of features, but it should give you an idea of where we’re going with it. Classic gameplay, with a modern look, beautiful new art and surgical balance changes with player feedback at the heart of the process.
 

Arcanus and Myrror races: each race has its own flavour and gives different bonuses that can influence your playthrough. 



Lizardmen spearmen and Orc swordsmen, with new 2D graphics and 3D models but faithful stats. 

Sprites

Areas so far that warranted some changes

• We felt Hexes offered superior tactical and strategic gameplay and we also have a lot more experience with them over old-school squares.
• New A.I. with difficulty settings. The original A.I. was best described as primitive, which makes sense for its time, we have much better tools to create A.I. now.
• Quality of Life improvements: Production queues, more MP to start, modern pathfinding that doesn't split your group unless you specifically split it and many more QoL improvements have been made.
• Auto-combat function that will show you a range of possible outcomes and gives you the option to either auto-resolve, retreat or fight manually.
• Extensive modding tools will be included.
• Modern tooltips which explain various mechanics and units were added.
• Fog of war has been added, as is typical with more modern games. 
   

The construction manager now includes a production queue.

Auto-resolve battles.
 

Coming in our Dev Diary next month...

The wizards! Who stayed unchanged and who got a makeover? If that’s a question that’s been on your mind, we’ll answer it in the next dev diary.

New Discord Channel

If you’d like to discuss this dev diary or anything else about the game, please join us on our new official Master of Magic Discord server here.

You can also wishlist Master of Magic on Steam here.