Welcome to Magic Research!
In Magic Research, you are the headmaster of a newly-created magical institution with one goal: to win the prestigious Tournament of Magic. What challenges, mysteries and adventures await you?
Magic Research is releasing on Steam on March 23rd, 2023, at 1:00 AM UTC (GMT)! Get ready for the full game by playing the free demo available now on Steam. Your progress in the demo will be transferred to the full game!
FAQ
What is Magic Research?
Magic Research is an incremental, text-based game about magic with a concrete ending, a light story, over a hundred spells, more than seven dozen side Storylines with permanent bonuses, strategic depth, and tons of secrets and features to discover - and of course, no ads or microtransactions! If this sounds like something that may be interesting to you, the free demo is a great place to start! By the end of the demo you should have a clear idea if the game is something you might like or not, and since the progress is transferred to the full game, you can continue right where you left off if you decide to purchase.
What are Magic Research's design principles?
I started building Magic Research after having experienced several incremental / idle games and getting a burst of inspiration: I wanted to play an incremental game based upon the idea of casting spells, where the main progression revolved around unlocking more and more spells with powerful and creative effects. As I continued working on Magic Research, I tried to take some of the elements of those games that I enjoyed the most, while at the same time attempting to avoid their pitfalls. As a result, I tried my best to design the game around these concepts:
- A constant sense of progression, where new content and unlocks happen periodically - there should never be a lapse of time too long where there isn't something new going on.
- Do not build a game that requires idling in order to make any meaningful progress. Base it around active play, and instead reward idling in a limited manner.
- Capture the joy of discovery - keep the player wanting to continue playing in order to discover new spells, things, features. At the same time, make those new discoveries have a clear, decisive, strong impact on how the game plays.
- Have a sense of ultimate goal and an ending. Unlike many idle and incremental games, I wanted to have a game with a concrete ending, and this ending should be achievable without extreme, months- or years-long playtimes.
- Create the possibility of synergies to be able to quickly or effectively make progress through the game. But do not make the game so difficult that they are required.
- Focus on making a good and enjoyable game and do not build in freemium or ads into the game.
Magic Research is more of an active game than many other games in the genre. While it does play itself and you can make some idle progress, expect to make progression primarily by engaging with the game.
How much more content is there in the full game as compared to the free demo?
The free demo contains content up to about school level 13~15, which is about 4 to 6 hours of content, and about 18 Storylines. The full game contains 92 Storylines as of the time of writing, content up to about school level 50, and around 40 hours or more of active gameplay, including multiple features and twists not present in the demo.
What is the difference between the Steam and the mobile versions?
In terms of content, there is no difference at all. The Steam version has a few UI features that the phone version does not, such as: taking better advantage of screen space to display most menus at once, or having keyboard hotkeys for doing certain specific actions.
What is the difference between the Steam and the web version?
The web version is only a free demo and contains the same content as the free demo you can find on Steam. The UI is also essentially the same between the Steam and web versions.
Can I transfer my progress from the mobile or web version to the Steam version, and back?
You can use the functionality in all versions of the game to export and import saves to manually transfer your progress. There is no shared cloud storage between platforms as of right now, so you will need to do this every time you switch devices if you'd like to play the same saved data across multiple devices. If you started the game on mobile but would rather continue on Steam only, though, you would only need to transfer the data once, from mobile -> PC, which should be supported and reasonably easy.
Is there support for Mac and Linux on Steam?
As of the writing of this post, there is no support. It is planned and something I'd like to set up, and something that seems like it should be possible, but I don't yet have a working proof of concept, so it might take a little while.
Will there be additional content coming out in the future?
Magic Research is a complete game. The main story progression is done, and there are no plans to expand upon it as of this date, except by a very small amount of post-game content. That said, I believe it is a meaningful, complete package with over 40 hours of active gameplay. Most people who have completed the game have done so in somewhere between 10 days and 1 month.
Where else can I discuss the game?
There is an official Discord community with moderate activity, the Steam community hub for the game which is just getting started, as well as other unofficial subreddits with discussion on the game.
Is there support for the blind and visually impaired?
As of the time of writing, there is some support, but the game is not fully optimized for this purpose yet. If you use a screen reader, my suggestion is that you play through the entire free demo first before purchasing the game. The full game will have the same UI experience as the free demo, and if you manage to complete the demo you might be able to play the full game. I am slowly adding and improving support for screen readers, so if you find things are not working, I'd love to get your feedback - either in Discord, in the Steam Community Hub, or by email to [email protected].