Sorcery! updated!

Today is not the launch day for Sorcery! Part 2. Today is, instead, the day we reveal why Sorcery! Part 2 has taken so long. Here's the first one (and she's just gone live on the App Store right now):

We wanted to have a female avatar in Sorcery! Part 1 on release, but as a small studio taking on a risky project (a mainstream text game? In 2013?) we had to watch our budget closely. Thankfully, the first game did well enough for us to add one now. So when Sorcery! 2 is released in November, you'll be able to start a new game with either a male or female avatar.

But maybe you want to play the whole adventure as a female character? Well, you can! Grab the free update of Part 1 from App Store that went live, ooh, one minute ago, and restart the game to pick your avatar. (And if you want to try both, remember that all of your completed games will be carried over with your Cloud Save Spell into Book 2.)

But that's not all that's new...

Those with long memories will know we originally slated Kharé: Cityport of Traps to come out in August. That didn't happen, not by a long chalk. One reason was because it's big - the book hints at an entire city of traps, mutants and murderers, and a Council of Thieves at war with itself, and we wanted to take those hints and expand them into a full-blown adventure.

The resulting game is over 300,000 words long (about as long as George R. R. Martin's first Game of Thrones book) and contains nearly 10,000 options. There are 33 monsters to fight, many of which can be played in different ways depending on spells, and where they're encountered. They include a pair of flying Harpies, a subterranean Slime Eater, and an entire army of Goblins.

Such a long game didn't just take a long time to write, it also created a file so big it broke our engine. Then, after we fixed the engine to stream data on demand rather than load the whole thing upfront (yes, we're streaming text), we had to fix the save system to compress the player's game history, as it was crunching out over 5Mb per choice.

Introducing the Spell Globe

But even that's still not the full story of why we're three months overdue. The other reason is we wanted to make the game awesome, and looking back on Part 1 we realised there was one aspect we didn't think was as fantastic as it needed to be, and that was the spell-casting. It looked pretty, but it was hard for players who hadn't memorised the spellbook to avoid casting spells they didn't have the right item for. It was also fiddly to use on phone-sized screens. So we ripped out what we had and started again.

The result is an all-new system we call the Spell Globe, that gives you the entire of the screen to play with. Oh, and it looks stunning as well. Finally, when a spell is formed - if you've got the spellbook with you - it'll give you a hint as to what the spell does, and even if you've got the items that it requires. (Want the original challenge of the books? Just leave the spellbook behind in the Outpost Settlement - and we don't promise that an evil wizard won't steal the book from you at some point either.)

We've bundled the new system into the update of Part 1. So if you want to try it in advance of Sorcery! 2's release in November, you know what to do.

Not long now...

So that's the long story of why we've taken so long. But the good news is - we're done. Sorcery! 2 hit beta yesterday. We've got a few odd bugs to fix, a little bit of shine to add here and there, and then it's off to reviewers with our preview build... and into your hands November 7th, all being well. Watch this space, or join our mailing list below.

(Finally, for those waiting on the Android build... the pieces are coming together. More news soon.)

Fill in your email address, and we'll keep you in the loop about future Sorcery! releases:

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A

This looks brilliant already.

I can't recall crossing a bridge in the book, so that looks like this book is packed with new content too! =D

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J

The amount of new content in Part 2 is, um, pretty scary. Knowing the books well might make it more confusing, rather than less!!

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J

Congrats! The new features look to be well worth the delay. Looking forward to continuing the adventure - in the meantime, heading back to the hills to check out the new avatar and spell effects!

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J

Awesome, have fun!

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M

Hi all. I've purchased the first 3 games. Love them all. Superb job by the talented team at Inkle Studios! I'm replaying Sorcery! 2 and wanted to try some different options but find I'm stuck. It appears that I can't visit both Theetah and the gambling halls. Is this by design or have I overlooked something basic? If I go to the gambling halls, I can significantly increase my gold which will come in handy for Sorcery! 3. However, then I can't meet Theetah and I miss out on a critical clue and a very nifty magic item. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Update:

Doh! Never mind. I figured it out. Once you beat everyone in the gambling halls, you're able to access the route to Theetah. The prior times, I only played a few rounds of swindle stones. My bad.

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A bit late but still. Can't find any information elsewhere.

Bought the game recently with the Humble Bundles and I can't seem to save the game. Tried 3G, standing next to my router ( and the one at work) and it just keeps telling me 'Cloud Save Failed - are you connected to the internet."

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Hey! We've seen people have problems here when they have ad block programs installed, so that might be the issue? Otherwise drop us an email at info@inklestudios.com and we'll try to get you sorted.

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Looking forward to the Android version.

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I need that android version :( I need it, like, now please :(

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LB

Fantastic game! Great writing, intuitive interface, immense replaying value. I wish I could read back the story as I played it so far though. A simple juxtaposition of all the pieces of text I have been given to read along the path through the story taken so far.

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M

Embarrassingly, moving closer to my wifi router solved my problem. Feel free to delete this and my previous comment. Sorry about that.

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JH

No problem at all :) Enjoy the game!

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M

I've just finished my first run-through of the first Sorcery on my iPad Air (fantastic game, by the way), but several attempts to try to save to the cloud (with wifi and then 4G) have failed. It keeps asking me if I'm connected to the Internet, which of course I am, and I couldn't find anything in the settings that could be causing the problem. Any ideas?

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A

Was excited to download the sequel, played through the first game a number of times, but lost the screen captures of character codes when I upgraded to a new phone. I did find the latest character code on the first app when I went to enter it, I had Y in a vowel position in the middle of the code and Y isn't given as an option in that position. It is an option in the last position, but not in the fourth (I think it's the 4th, the app jumped past that point and started the game without a loaded character and I haven't gotten back to that screen yet) any suggestions? Just want to say, when I twirl around to the y in the consonants, the code jumps back to the earlier input position and erases what I'd entered on that spot.

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J

You should be able to enter a Y for that middle vowel; it might be at the bottom of the globe, though, so you might need to rotate it upwards a bit to find it.

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DC

Where do we report bugs? Found some pretty serious, game-stopping bugs.

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JH

Hi Dejay, sorry to hear that! Please do let us know: info@inklestudios.com will reach us directly. Thanks!

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D

Amazing! well done!

I ask you only one thing: the possibilty to see full screen (with a touch for example) the fantastic images of John Blanche and to explore them.

Iv'e an iphone 3gs and all the picture are so tiny and low res that i dont see anything.

Thank you and good job!

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B

I tried loading my cloud spell from Sorcery 1 and it tells me that it doesn't' have it saved. =(

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J

Was just thinking that, for the sake of completion, it would be really cool for some of scenes in Part 1 to have those detailed, zoomed in maps like those shown for Khare. In this case, the various caves throughout Part 1 come to mind. Something for 1.4 perhaps? As if you did not already enough to do... ;)

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J

Yikes! Looks like I need a grammar checker for my iPhone too... That was '...already have enough to do' :)

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I

You are literally taking my childhood nostalgia and making it as awesome as I remember it being.

Bring on the Slime Eater!

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S

You guys should expand on the whole sorcery world creating other adventures/quests in khare and beyond after the series is done. Have been checking the App Store every day after completing first installment.

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JH

:-) Glad you're looking forward to Kharé. As for other adventures within the world, we'll have to see how we feel once the series is complete!

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C

I can't get the spells to work! What should I be doing?

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JH

Hey Colin, sorry to hear that! What are you trying, and in what respect is it not working?

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A

I'm having a problem with spells as well. Trying to cast DOP at the start but none of the letters will light up or lock in the 3 spaces.

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A

Doh! just worked it out, I was trying to move them into the 3 spaces which was how it used to work, but you just need to tap the letters.

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JH

Ah, great! Glad it's working for you.

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