In the Saturday crowd, in the public area, I discovered School of Magic on a very small stand, lost in the middle of a multitude of independent games that I unfortunately didn't have time to discover. This hack and slash combines the aspects of deck building with combat from an isometric action/rpg. As described by its creator, Nikolas Crisci, it is a hybrid between Diablo 2 and Slay the Spire.
What sets the game apart is its card-based progression. At the first level won, three cards are offered. Only one can be chosen. The other two are returned to the draw pile. At the next level, four cards are offered, but only one of the two cards from the previous level will be offered again. The second is destroyed. But, to compensate, the rest gains in power. And so on, with at each level cards that are destroyed and others that progress. The whole strategy is therefore based on the right choice of the right card at the right time, and on a calculated risk-taking, for those which risk being destroyed.
The cards unlock spells, active or passive, which are then cast in real time. The action aspect described in the introduction. The large number of cards, and therefore of capacities, promises a great diversity of combinations, as many different ways of approaching the levels.
For the moment still in the prototype stage, the game is not planned before 2024. At best. Because it is the project of a solo developer, Nikolas Crisci, who is developing his second Steam game alone (the first was Will Glow the Wisp, a platform game), offered under the PartTimeIndie label. You can now follow the Steam page to not miss any future news.
