Sorcery screenshots!

We're busy getting ready for our appearance at PAX East next week (yikes!) and as part of that, we've put up the first screenshots from Sorcery! The shots show the main game interface, along with the spell-casting, combat and map in action.

The map

Like all good fantasy stories, Sorcery! starts with a map, drawn specially for us by the excellent Mike Schley. But the map is more than just an illustration: it's there for you to explore, with all its locations and details containing adventures to be discovered, explored and survived...

Cloth and dirt

For the look and feel of the app, we've been keeping to Frankenstein's strong material aesthetic, with fabrics, photographs and shadows. But we've been looking abroad, to Nepalese, Tibetan and Indonesian influences, to get the look and feel right. The background for the inventory page, for instance, is a Vietnamese national dress, an ao dai, photographed at super-high-res. Sorcery! was originally inspired by Steve Jackson's visits to Nepal and that mixture of Western fantasy and Eastern flavour is part of what made the books so special.

The inklebook flow

Those of you have seen Frankenstein will recognise the main reading interface, of course; we've kept the flow of slips being stitched together, although the look is now canvas and string. But there's also now a persistent UI showing the core resources the player will need to husband on their long four-book journey: their stamina, wealth and provisions.

The Spirit Guide

There's one other detail up it the top right: the player's animal Spirit Guide, who's taking over the role of Libra, Goddess of Freedom from the original books. Your Spirit can be prayed to receive aid: but the nature of the Spirit also changes as you read, to reflect the kind of character you are.

In Sorcery! we don't have one single good/bad spectrum to rate how you play: we measure six different qualities, from your bravery to your empathy, from your nobility to your recklessness, to allow you to mould your character and your experience as you play. Sorcery! is part-gamebook, part table-top RPG.

Combat and Magic

There are two other core mechanics in Sorcery! - the spell-casting, and the combat. There's a hint of each on our screenshots page, but we're going to save the details for the moment - particularly for the combat. (If you peer closely, you might get a hint of what we've done...)

Coming to PAX?

If you are, do check out our panel on storytelling, alongside IF legend Andrew Plotkin, Tengami creator Phil Tossell and adventure game don Dave Gilbert of Wadjet Eye Games. And if you say hello, we'll let you have a play...

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P

Hi guys, just noticed Sorcery is available only on the US iTunes Store. When is it coming to the UK store?

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J

Midnight tonight - whenever midnight is for you. So not long for the UK now!

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DS

Just watched the video sample on BGG, and I have to say, I'm VERY impressed. It looks beautiful and truly innovative. I love the idea of the text adapting to your play style. You also seem to have woven boardgame elements into the presentation in a very deft way.

I have a deep nostalgia for these books from my own childhood, so it's exciting to see them being given such special treatment. Very excited to get these and play them with my son!

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P

Really looking forward to this. I loved the fighting fantasy stuff when I was a kid. I'm so looking forward to it, that I've started hunting down fighting fantasy books, including the Sorcery series, to whet my appetite. Will it be based on the original Sorcery series, or more on the advanced Fighting Fantasy version that has recently had a new lease of life. I hope you have every success with this and that it'll be in the UK App Store. If it works well, any plans for the same treatment of the Cretan Chronicles? Regardless, I'm buying t, as I'm sure it'll be awesome.

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R

Hi Jon,

I'm looking forward to this app. Ever since I've played King of Dragon Pass, and managed to complete it twice, I've been looking for similar experiences. True interactive storytelling, where your choices really matter, that's what interest me. I was very pleased to read that "Sorcery" is going to have 26 different endings.

I do have to say I'm a bit, well, reserved about the fighting system. One of the great things about King of Dragon Pass was that you weren't bothered with statistics. The only numbers that you saw where "real" entities, like the number of soldiers or cows. Seeing numbers for stamina floating around, reduced by damage... Well, I'm a bit afraid it will take me out of the feeling of exploration and storytelling. After all, this is not supposed to be some eastern RPG, right? Well, I hope you prove me wrong. Good luck!

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J

Hey, thanks for the comment!

We've definitely been working hard to reduce the amount of stats flying around. This is definitely *not* a JPRG. But in the combat, you need a few numbers so you can see what's going on!

However, we're really keen to "blend" the combat seamlessly into the story - and that's why, while you're fighting, the game is also procedurally generating a description of the fight as it unfolds. So what you play, what he plays, and what happens get turned into a paragraph on prose that's written into the story.

You can glimpse it in action here: http://www.youtube.com/watc...

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D

I like what I'm seeing. It has a real 'picture book' feel to it. A good mix of text and visuals. And the combat, integrated with text and hints, is really interesting. Are there any screens demoing it on the iPhone?

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J

Not yet, but we'll post some soon! We've done a fair bit of work to adapt and optimise the experience on the smaller screen, both iPhone 5 and earlier models.

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J

Really looking forward to this! Like the commenter earlier, I still have all my original books and look forward to sharing the adventure this time around with my son. All the best and nothing but success to the entire team at inkle - toward Khare and beyond!

-John

P.S. Will 'Luck' be a factor in this revision? I don't recall seeing it in the screenshots, but I am not sure how or even if it is really needed now.

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J

Hey John -

Might be controversial, but we've removed the Luck stat entirely. The combat is now quite different -- and we've replaced most of luck tests in the game with choices instead. Main aim: keep things simple, and keep things "fair"!

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J

Why is there no Android version?

This is looking really good. I'm imagining the original book but with a tonne more art, and some music too.

Are you just going to include the original adventure, or are you guys going to add some new branches?

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J

Hi Jim!

The first book is all here... But new branches? There are a *lot* of new branches. We've gone to town on filling in the gaps, finding new parts of the hills to explore and introducing new traps, dangers, hints and monsters. This is very much Sorcery updated.

No android version planned for now - it's a pretty large and complex game and believe it or not we're pushing the iPad quite hard... But hopefully there may be a port in future, we'd love to do it!

Jon

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BB

You guys really are shooting yourselves in the foot with no Android port, I had EVERY single FF,Sorcery and Lone Wolf books as a kid and am hankering after these really badly.

Roll a d6 saving throw against your own limitation.

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D

I can't believe no one's commented on this yet! I loved these books as a kid (I still have them) and I can't wait to try this. I love the art direction -- very slick. I'm interested to see how you implement the combat and magic. Will there be a trickle down of new features from these books to inklewriter?

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J

Hi Dave! Thanks for the comment! We're getting pretty excited about this now; all the hard's stuff done and we're getting to have fun making it shiny. We'd love to hear what people think of the combat when they get their hands on it...

We're trying to push things into inklewriter when we get time, so I'd like to add some of the character-tracking stuff we're using. But it might be a while before we add combat to inklewriter..!

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