Info about Mind Over Magic: Official game description: Mind Over Magic is a colony simulation game developed by Sparkypants and published by Klei Publishing. Build and optimize a magic school while keeping powerful mages alive and inspired. Prepare them to explore the horrors of the Underschool, a deadly subterranean gauntlet. Study lost arcana, grow exotic plants, brew potions, and raise undead servants. But don’t forget to stop the deadly fog from consuming everything in its path. **Conjure Your Own Magic School** --------------------------------- Build the ultimate magic school, brick by brick. Design every room to fit your vision. Unlock new furniture, wallpaper, lighting, and decorations to personalize every detail. Experiment with layouts to discover hidden efficiency bonuses and create the perfect balance of design and function. **Explore the Deadly Underschool** ---------------------------------- Beneath your school lies a mysterious labyrinth filled with dark secrets, deadly magic, and ghastly creatures. The deeper you explore, the greater the rewards—but danger doesn’t always stay underground. **Raise Magical Beasts & Unlock Their Potential** ------------------------------------------------- Research and discover mystical beasts to serve your school and unlock powerful new resources. These creatures require food, affection, and magical care to grow into valuable allies, providing rare materials for crafting and construction. If you're truly ambitious, tackle the challenge of raising a dragon to aid your school. Dragons demand specialized students to become caretakers, but in return, they grant your mages the ability to embark on daring quests beyond the school walls—uncovering secrets, gaining unique powers, and shaping the future of your academy. **Let Magic Do the Heavy Lifting** ---------------------------------- Bend the arcane to your will. Practitioners of Dark magic animate undead helpers known as Quilted—specialized constructs that gather resources, tend to plants, repair damage to your school, and mine valuable materials. Make the most of your day by reducing travel time in your ever-growing campus with the power of flight. Strategically place broom racks to make traversal a breeze. **A Mage’s Growth is in Your Hands** ------------------------------------ Enhance your students abilities with powerful gear, such as potions, relics, and increasingly powerful wands, each granting distinct magical advantages. Customize their daily schedules and assign teachers to shape their magical growth. Magic isn’t just for combat—what your students learn and the tools they wield also determine how effectively they contribute to your school’s daily operations. Build a curriculum that fosters the ability to both survive and thrive. **Teach And Master Magic** -------------------------- Shape the future of magic by customizing your students' education. Apprenticed students can multiclass to wield a diverse array of spells, or strive towards single discipline mastery to unlock devastating ultimate abilities, powerful enough to face the dangers of the Nexus. Reality is tenuous in the Nexus, a fractured realm of pure magic deep beneath the school. Your mages will need every advantage to battle powerful enemies, reconstitute its crumbling fragments, and break the curse for good. Train wisely, for only the most skilled mages can withstand the challenges that await beyond the veil. Release date: 12 Feb, 2025 Categories: Colony Simulation, Base Building, Management Simulation, Turn-based Combat, Dungeon Crawler, Character Progression, Resource Management, Single-player - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: No data - Playtime Metrics: No data - Time-to-fun: No data - Player Archetypes: No data Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Fun magic school building/management (weight 0.93): A core element of the game is building and managing a magic school, which many reviewers find enjoyable and rewarding. This involves strategically designing rooms, managing resources, training students, and customizing the school's layout. The building aspect is often cited as a primary source of fun and a key driver of the game's engaging gameplay loop. - Engaging and highly addictive gameplay (weight 0.73): The game is highly engaging and addictive, often leading to extended play sessions. Players find themselves easily losing track of time due to the compelling gameplay loop and the desire to complete "just one more thing." This contributes significantly to the game's replayability and overall enjoyment. - Appealing and charming visual style (weight 0.72): The game features a visually appealing art style, often described as charming, cute, or beautiful. The graphics and animations contribute significantly to the game's atmosphere and overall positive experience. The aesthetic design is consistently praised for its quality and thematic appropriateness. - Highly customizable difficulty settings (weight 0.71): The game offers a high degree of customization, allowing players to tailor the difficulty and gameplay experience to their preferences. Adjustable settings include difficulty levels, event frequency, and even specific game mechanics. This flexibility makes the game accessible to both casual and hardcore players. - Active development and frequent updates (weight 0.71): The developers are actively updating the game with new content, features, and improvements. This constant support and evolution of the game is viewed positively, indicating a commitment to the game's long-term development and player satisfaction. The updates often address feedback and add significant depth to the gameplay experience. - Fun, enjoyable, and well-made game (weight 0.66): Many reviewers express overall satisfaction with the game, noting that it is fun, enjoyable, and well-made. Even in early access, the game is considered to be in good shape and worth playing. The game is praised for its potential and the solid foundation it provides for future development. - Balanced and adjustable difficulty (weight 0.65): The game offers a balanced learning curve, making it easy to pick up and play while still providing a challenge for experienced players. The difficulty is adjustable, allowing players to find a level that suits their skill and preferences. The game is also described as more forgiving than some other games in the genre, making it less frustrating for new players. - Unique and innovative mechanics (weight 0.65): The game introduces unique mechanics and innovative ideas that set it apart from other games in the genre. Reviewers appreciate the originality and depth of the game's systems, which contribute to a fresh and engaging experience. The game's unique atmosphere and quirky elements are also praised. - Klei's reputation inspires confidence (weight 0.57): Some reviewers mention the developer or publisher, Klei Entertainment, and express confidence in the game's quality due to their track record. Klei is known for producing well-regarded games like "Don't Starve" and "Oxygen Not Included," and their involvement is seen as a positive sign. - Fun and engaging turn-based combat (weight 0.27): The game incorporates turn-based combat, which many reviewers find to be a fun and engaging addition. The combat system is described as simple yet strategic, adding variety to the gameplay experience. The battles are often quick and rewarding, providing a welcome break from the base-building and management aspects of the game. - Similar to ONI, but more accessible (weight 0.15): Many reviewers compare the game to "Oxygen Not Included" (ONI), noting similarities in gameplay and mechanics. However, the game is often described as more accessible, less complex, and more forgiving than ONI, making it a good entry point for players new to the genre or those who found ONI too challenging. The game also adds its own unique twists, such as magic and combat. - Compelling tasks and objectives (weight 0.04): The game features compelling tasks and objectives, such as graduating students and hiring staff, that provide a sense of progression and accomplishment. The management of staff and students is generally well-executed, and the game consistently challenges the player's ability to keep them safe and happy. Common complaints: - Lacks tutorial and clear guidance (weight 0.6): The game suffers from a lack of a proper tutorial and clear guidance, leaving players confused about basic mechanics and objectives. This issue is consistently mentioned across reviews, with players often needing to rely on external resources or extensive trial and error to understand the game. - Repetitive and grindy gameplay (weight 0.56): The core gameplay loop is often described as repetitive, grindy, and lacking in engaging activities, leading to boredom and a sense of tedium. Reviewers note that the game quickly devolves into repeating basic tasks and waiting for resources, without offering meaningful progression or new challenges. - Lacks content and depth (weight 0.55): Many reviewers feel the game lacks sufficient content, depth, and replayability, especially in the mid-to-late game. This is reflected in comments about repetitive gameplay loops, a lack of meaningful progression, and a feeling of being 'done' after a relatively short amount of playtime. - Cumbersome building mechanics (weight 0.51): The building mechanics are frequently criticized for being clunky, cumbersome, and restrictive, making it difficult to create aesthetically pleasing and functional designs. Players express frustration with unintuitive room requirements, limited customization options, and the need for constant demolition and rebuilding. - Shallow and uninteresting combat (weight 0.4): The combat system is frequently described as shallow, uninteresting, and lacking in depth, with limited strategic options and repetitive encounters. Reviewers also point out balance issues between different classes and abilities, making some options feel useless while others are overpowered. - Compared unfavorably to Oxygen Included (weight 0.19): Several reviews negatively compare the game to "Oxygen Not Included", citing a lack of depth, complexity, and unique mechanics. Some reviewers also express disappointment that the game does not capture the charm and soul of "Oxygen Not Included". - Slow and unintuitive research (weight 0.07): The research system is criticized for its slow progression, unintuitive UI, and the excessive amount of resources required to unlock technologies. This makes it difficult to plan ahead and slows down the overall pace of the game. - Tedious relic grinding system (weight 0.05): The relic system is criticized for diminishing the importance of individual students and turning them into mere resources for grinding. This system is seen as tedious and detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game. - Unengaging fog mechanic (weight 0.05): The fog mechanic is often seen as more of an annoyance than a genuine threat, requiring only occasional button presses and easily obtainable resources to repel. This makes the mechanic feel pointless and unengaging. - Uninspired dungeon design (weight 0.04): The underground dungeon is described as bland, repetitive, and lacking in compelling content, with limited monster variety and unrewarding exploration. This makes the dungeon feel disconnected from the rest of the game and reduces its overall appeal. - Frustrating late-game features (weight 0.03): Some reviewers found late-game features frustrating due to raven attacks and material shortages. The game also features a ticking clock mechanic (the fog) that forces players to constantly gather resources to prevent the game from ending, which the reviewer found stressful. - Steep learning curve (weight 0.03): Several reviewers mention a steep learning curve and cumbersome controls, making it difficult to get started with the game. This can be frustrating for new players and may discourage them from continuing to play. Gameplay feedback: - Inspired by colony sim classics (weight 0.12): The game shares similarities with colony simulators like Oxygen Not Included and RimWorld, particularly in its UI, priority systems, and resource management. However, it introduces its own unique mechanics and a magic school theme. - Turn-based combat in dungeons (weight 0.07): Players explore dungeons beneath the school, engaging in turn-based combat to gather resources, unlock new areas, and progress the story. While a core element, some reviewers find the combat system itself to be relatively simple or unremarkable. - Defending against encroaching fog (weight 0.05): A recurring fog mechanic threatens the school, requiring players to perform rituals and expend resources to push it back. This mechanic drives the core gameplay loop and adds a sense of urgency, though some find it tedious. - Training and developing mages (weight 0.05): Players train students and staff, developing their skills and managing their progression. This involves graduating students, promoting them to teachers, and upgrading their wands to improve their abilities. - Complex, requires experimentation (weight 0.05): The game has a steep learning curve, with complex mechanics that are not immediately obvious. Players may need to experiment and restart to fully understand the game's systems. - Strategic room design and bonuses (weight 0.05): The game features a unique room system where specific shapes, sizes, and adjacent rooms provide bonuses. This adds a puzzle-like element to base building, requiring players to strategically design their school layout. - Basic farming and production (weight 0.02): The game features basic farming, production limits, and storage, but avoids complex material transport systems. Early on, focus is on building and furniture creation, potentially neglecting farming, but once the buildings are complete, a farm needs to be built and actively managed. - Elemental magic and beast taming (weight 0.02): The game features elemental magic and beast taming. Each element is unique both in and out of combat: Air is for research and building; Dark is for "quilting" pets that perform tasks; Fire is for hunting; Nature for growing/tending; Water for alchemy. - Limited area, high optimization (weight 0.02): The game area is limited, but offers a lot to discover and optimize. The size and layout of rooms provide special bonuses, which is one of the highlights of the game. - Complex character-building system (weight 0.02): The game features a complex character-building system with unique combinations of races, elements, specialities, and relics. Combining spell-types leads to different bonuses, adding depth to character-building. - Management sim with combat (weight 0.02): The game is a management sim with dungeon combat. Familiar management elements blend well with combat. Performance notes: - Generally stable, well-optimized performance (weight 0.08): Many players report stable performance, even on older hardware or Linux. Some reviewers specifically noted the absence of bugs and crashes, while others found the game to be well-optimized. This suggests a generally positive experience regarding the game's technical stability. - Performance degrades in later stages (weight 0.04): Some players experience performance issues like lag, crashes, and high CPU/memory usage, especially in later stages or with larger maps/houses. One reviewer mentioned save file size as a potential cause of crashes, while another contrasted the game's performance unfavorably with Oxygen Not Included. This suggests optimization issues need addressing. - Appealing 3D models/animations (weight 0.01): The game uses 3D models and transitions room layouts from 2D to 3D as furniture is placed. Additionally, players find the animations, such as the transformation of initiates into adults, visually appealing and fun to watch. Recommendations: - Anticipating future content/updates (weight 0.52): Many reviewers express excitement for the game's future, anticipating updates, new content, and the full release. They see great potential in the game and are eager to see how it develops. This suggests a strong foundation and promising roadmap. - Not recommended in current state (weight 0.51): Several reviewers do not recommend the game in its current state, citing issues such as balance problems, grind, lack of content, and user experience issues. Some reviewers have refunded the game or suggest waiting for further development and improvements. These negative sentiments indicate significant areas needing attention. - Recommended for specific audiences (weight 0.5): Reviewers recommend the game for players who enjoy specific genres like management sims, colony builders, and games with magic themes. Some suggest it's suitable for those seeking a more relaxed or meditative experience. This highlights the game's appeal to a particular audience. - Needs further optimization/development (weight 0.43): Some reviewers mention the game's Early Access status, noting that it needs further optimization and development time. They suggest that the game's value depends on future updates and improvements. This acknowledges the game's unfinished state and the importance of continued development. - Management sim with potential (weight 0.37): Some reviewers describe the game as a management sim, with a solid framework and great potential. Others note that it's an exercise in micromanagement. This focuses on the game's core mechanics and target audience. - Suggestions for specific improvements (weight 0.37): Some reviewers suggest specific improvements to the game, such as modifying the combat system or the debuff/Faith system. They also mention the need for more updates and expanded mechanics. This provides actionable feedback for the developers. - High/perfect scores given (weight 0.3): Some reviewers give the game very high or perfect scores, indicating exceptional quality and enjoyment. However, these points lack specific details about the game's features or mechanics. Therefore, the importance score is reduced. Other player notes: - Early Access, frequent updates (weight 0.09): The game is in Early Access, with frequent updates and a roadmap in place. Players should expect changes, additions, and potentially incomplete content as the developers continue to build the game towards its full release, expected in mid-2025. - Community translations via Workshop (weight 0.03): The game supports community-created translations via the Steam Workshop, with several languages already available. This allows players to contribute to localization efforts and access the game in their preferred language. - Confusing priority system (weight 0.01): The priority tool can be confusing, potentially leading to characters getting stuck on tasks. Reviewers suggest creating custom schedules based on specific conditions to optimize efficiency. - Pets refine materials (weight 0.01): Pets are needed to refine materials, which are essential for progression. Students must feed these pets. - Stitched helpers are essential (weight 0.01): Stitched helpers are essential to prevent students from becoming overworked. These helpers automate tasks and improve overall efficiency. - Magic recharge stations needed (weight 0.01): Placing magic recharge stations around classrooms and workshops is recommended. This ensures students and teachers can replenish their magic reserves efficiently. - Non-renewable resources, full refund (weight 0.01): Iron and stone are non-renewable resources, but dismantling structures refunds 100% of the resources used. This encourages strategic building and resource management. - 'F1' shows room requirements (weight 0.01): Pressing 'F1' in-game provides helpful information about room types and requirements. Hovering over terms offers detailed explanations. - Races have unique traits (weight 0.01): The game features races with unique traits that affect gameplay. For example, living races have more health, while werewolves don't lose faith when staying outdoors. Emotions: No emotions}