A user reported that Steam Achievements weren't firing on Steam side, due to the Steam SDK being disabled. This update fixes that; if you have achievements that haven't yet triggered on Steam, entering the Achievements UI (from Settings) should flush any that are local only. In other news; Morningstar: Book of the Fallen is now LIVE! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2396740/Morningstar_Book_of_the_Fallen/ Some of the same souls return in a very different universe, reborn together to once again fight for justice.

Love of Magic and Morningstar could be considered sister projects; some of the same souls destined to be reincarnated together. After 2 years it's finally done, and so I'm doing a sale on Love of Magic to celebrate.
Morningstar draws inspiration from 80s and 90s Action movies; touch stones were movies like Rocky, The Crow and Highlander. You play as a young MMA fighter, preparing for the comeback fight of his life, but your life takes a dramatic change the day you meet an Angel.
This is very much an Urban Fantasy story; set in the dark alleys of New York, with a protagonist that's a little more worn and less innocent than Love of Magic's character. Will you find redemption through Love, or will you walk the lonely Path of Shadows?
Unlike Love of Magic there's 4 distinct endings, and two main Love Interests (Emily and Katie). Personally it's been really rewarding to get justice for Katie, and despite the lack of brogue she still feels like the firecracker I fell in love with while writing Love of Magic.
I originally only planned for two endings (Emily's Path of Light, and Katie's Path of Fire), but other characters snuck in along the way. Nobody surprised me more than Lin, who went from an extra with no speaking lines to getting her own Ending (the Path of Peace).
Like in Love of Magic there's a combat mechanic; this time it's Match 3 (Katie approves), inspired by Puzzle Quest and Gems of War. Unlock new skills as you get to know the various characters, and combine them to defeat enemies both in the ring and on the replayable underground Maze.
If that sounds interesting, do give Morningstar a wishlist; it's a super helpful way to give it a boost at launch! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2396740/Morningstar_Book_of_the_Fallen/

This is a small hotfix bug-release. It fixes a soft-crash from enabling Text To Speech, fixes some achievements that didn't fire properly with the NG+ Codebase, and fixes various small logic issues. In other news, my next game (Morningstar: Book of the Fallen) is almost done, and launching on 11/11. A story with some of the same souls in a very different world, where a young MMA fighter meets an Angel, and discovers a plan to destroy NYC. Check it out here, and give it a wishlist if you can! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2396740/Morningstar_Book_of_the_Fallen/ Full patch notes: 1.6.12 - Fixed a possible bug where if you turned down the flawless fire-gem it wouldn't be offered again - Fixed up slot locations in combat 1.6.11g - Fixed a possible crash-bug caused by TTS being enabled 1.6.11f - Rebalanced sound for Akane and Molly songs - Typos and small fixes 1.6.11e - Fixed the timeline not advancing day 54 1.6.11d - Fixed a soft-lock when opening the computer with the stats panel open - Fixed a logic bug on end of act III that could skip a day 1.6.11c - Fixed Act VI achievment not triggering - (Actually) Fixed Toxic Environment not triggering - Fixed Diamond in the rough not triggering - Fixed Jenny's Black Rose 3 spankbank not triggering 1.6.11b - Fixed Going Nova and Untoucable not triggering correctly

This is a small bug-fix release that solves some achievements not triggering correctly in the new NG+ code. A big thanks to the players who went chevron hunting and found the bugs for me. In other news, I'm now starting New Game+ mode for Book 2, with the first release going up on the NGPlus branch last night. It'll be some time until that's 100% stable, but it's good to have gotten started on it. As with Book 1's NG+ mode, it'll allow you to continue a NG+ save from Book 1, tweak dialog, add in new scenes, improve graphics in some of the worst offending scenes and add in new NG+ exclusive scenes to find. I'm also nearing the end of Morningstar, with the penultimate Act going live last week (yes, it's been a busy few weeks for me :D ). Check it out, and give it a wishlist if it looks interesting. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2396740/Morningstar_Book_of_the_Fallen/ Some of the same characters, in a brand new universe. A little grittier and closer to the ground than Love of Magic, it takes inspiration from 80s/90s action movies like The Crow, Highlander, Rocky and John Wick. A young MMA fighters life is forever changed the day he meets an Angel.

The nice thing about pushing the game to the default branch is that lots of people get to test. The downside is that lots of people test :) I *think* (he says, hopefully) that this is the last of the achievement bugs. As a bonus, it also adds Jenny's last Spankbank entry. 1.6.11c - Fixed Act VI achievment not triggering - (Actually) Fixed Toxic Environment not triggering - Fixed Diamond in the rough not triggering - Fixed Jenny's Black Rose 3 spankbank not triggering

Small bugfix for reported issues on achievements not triggering: Fixed Going Nova (250+ fire applied) Fixed Untoucable (player having 1500+ shields)

This is a quick Achievements focused hotfix: - Fixed the Streamer tab on MC's PC being disabled, which meant you couldn't unlock "Voices in my Head" achievement. - Fixed Toxic Environment not triggering - Added a button to the Achievements UI to verify that all achievements unlocked locally are also unlocked on Steam. Thanks to everyone who helped report issues, let me know if there's anything else!

With version 1.6.10f, I think I'm mostly done with Book 1 of Love of Magic; far enough that I can start on Book 2's New Game+ mode, at least. I spent the weekend setting it up, and porting the codebase to the NG+ codebase (with all the new gems, rollback and other nice quality of life updates). Hopefully it should start updating it over the next couple of weeks. This update has a number of little bug-fixes, typos solved, and lots of updates to make it play better on Steamdeck. Apart from that I've been hard at work on Morningstar: Book of the Fallen; give it a wishlist if you can, it really helps on launch. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2396740/Morningstar_Book_of_the_Fallen/ It's a different world with some of the same souls; and a chance for me to repay my sins to Katie.
It's got multiple endings, different romances and a grittier world inspired by The Crow, Rocky, Highlander and John Wick. And match 3 combat; Katie would approve.
I hope to be done with that sometime in the fall; currently I'm optimistically saying end of September; currently finishing up Act 5 (of 6).
For those of you curious how to activate New Game+; start Book 1 after finishing Book 3, and you'll get an option to start a new game with all your gems, higher starting stats, and a story that's slightly different. Lots of dialog got rewritten, new events added, and (if you defeated Hel in Book 3) a new Questline has opened. Hope you enjoy it, and thanks for all the support over the years!

This is a small hotfix to update a couple of spankbank/memory issues people were having, and clean up the puppeteering for Katie's MMA fight. Apart from that, my next game, Morningstar: Book of the Fallen, is going live at the end of the month! Give it a wishlist here if you haven't yet, it helps so much on launch. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2396740/Morningstar_Book_of_the_Fallen/ Build notes: 1.6.9e - Fixed two Katie spankbanks (MMA and Flawless fire gem) - Fixed an issue where some memories aren't triggering correctly - Fixed an issue with video thumbnails when there were two videos with the same name - Fixed up puppeteering for the Katie MMA fight 1.6.9d - Fixed up memories (accessed from settings)

This hotfix fixes various smaller issues with the NG+ build: - Fixed Memories not working correctly - Fixed some achivements not correctly firing in NG+ - Fixed Steamdeck callback on entering text - Fixed some continuity errors (people showing up in incorrect clothes, etc) - Fixed drinking in grassmarket showing up during day-time.

This is mainly a hotfix dedicated to SteamDeck, which gets several smaller updates. In addition there are updates to Text-To-Speech on PC and Mac.

This update pushes the New Game+ mode to default branch (where 85% of players are). Hopefully the weeks of testing has smoked out any remaining issues; if not, let me know and I'll stomp on the bugs :) For those discovering New Game+ for the first time, this is my love-letter to the Persona series; if you start a new game in book 1 after completing book 3 you'll have the option to start a New Game+. It starts with additional cash, higher stats, and all your gems from book 3, but more importantly it also adds in new events and changes the dialog in subtle ways based on decisions you made throughout the 3 books. Apart from that it also updates the game to Book 3's engine, with things like rollback, improved graphics, more music, and several additional events (Kath, Jenny, Olivia and Nimue all get new questlines). As always, enjoy... and thanks for helping complete this project.

One of the main influences for Love of Magic was of course Persona 4 and 5. I loved the way it combines a sandbox with a constantly progressing calendar, the themes of balancing a normal life against a supernatural destiny, even some of the character archetypes. One feature that all the Persona games share is the idea of a New Game+ mode, where you can start a new game with the end of content save, and experience a subtly different game, and maybe even a true ending.
With that in mind I set out to create a New Game+ mode for Love of Magic; you can find lots of hints for it, especially in Book 3 (but occasionally also in book 1 and 2). The way it works is that it takes your end of Book 3 save (called Act16.sav3) and begins a new game with it. Youll start with higher stats (15/15/15) and more cash (10,000), as well as all your existing gems. The game also remembers a number of the actions you committed throughout the game, and occasionally reacts to them. A lot of dialogs change in subtle (and not so subtle) ways, especially those related to your core group of characters.
The game also adds in several new NG+ only events, with Fae showing up at the Crowley, and some of the more unique characters of Book 2/3 returning to engage with the player.
I also decided to add some fan-service. The Kult of Kaths long been asking for an event with everyones favorite werelynx, and this time I finally agreed. Dianas got a new book for you make sure you read it before Kath becomes your barmaid on day 112 onwards. Theres also new questlines for Jenny, Olivia and The Morrigan.
Finally I ported all of it to Book 3s version of the engine, which adds a number of quality of life improvements, including rollback, video backgrounds, a gallery for replaying erotic scenes, gamepad support and hundreds of other little tweaks.
Some of the new content is only accessible if youve got a final Book 3 save (called act16.sav3), while most of the new side-events (like Kath, Jenny and Olivia) can be played either from a new save, or a NG+ save. Its now live on Beta and Development branch once Ive ensured it doesnt break anything terrible Ill shift it onto the default branch. And with that, I'm back to working on my next game, Morningstar: Book of the Fallen, an Urban Fantasy set in New York, inspired by movies like Highlander, Rocky, John Wick and The Crow. Give it a wishlist here, or try out the free demo! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2396740/Morningstar_Book_of_the_Fallen/

After 4 years of development, Love of Magic is finally complete. The build is getting a final testing by the awesome testers on Discord, and will go on sale on Steam on the 28th September https://store.steampowered.com/app/1992770/Love_of_Magic_Book_3_The_Return/ The final story ends on day 288 (Midsummer Night), after which... it's done. It's a strange feeling, after 4 years working on it, but also really gratifying. Hopefully it's been a fun journey for all of you as well. [previewyoutube=RVUiBLUaT7s;full][/previewyoutube] To celebrate I went back and added a new set of 14 collectible cards to find, and added some animations for Bella's Chosen date. The cards are the same style as the Book 3 collectible cards, with a more detailed background.
They also get an updated normal map, with more noticeable lighting.
So... what's next? Well, the *first* thing I'm doing is returning to Morningstar. The first Act is done, and once the launch is over I'll be returning to write the second act. You can check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2396740/Morningstar_Book_of_the_Fallen/ Or come join us on discord to beta-test it. The other thing I wanted to look at doing was New Game+. Obviously one of the biggest inspirations for Love of Magic was Persona 4/5, and one thing I loved was the idea of starting a new game using the end of game savegame, and the world responding to that in subtle ways. It might be unlock new events, new conversation options, and of course set you up with higher initial stats, cash and gems. So that's the future for Love of Magic. I couldn't bear to *totally* stop working on it. Thanks for coming along for the ride, and I hope you've enjoyed playing the games as much as I enjoyed making them. Droid.

With Act XV+ finally done, I've only got a single Act left of the Love of Magic trilogy. All that remains is Act XVI: Eternal Sunshine. You can check it out on the Beta branch of Book 2, or wait for Book 3 to launch properly: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1992770/Love_of_Magic_Book_3_The_Return/ I keep putting my new graphics card to use, and went back to add a couple of new animations to the early game, including two new Molly animations, a new Katie intro and a new Sarah intro. The more interesting part, I guess, is what comes next. Love of Magic was always very much inspired by the amazing Persona series of games, especially Personal 4 Golden and Persona 5. One thing they both share is the idea of a New Game+, where you start a game all the way back in book 1, but using the end of book 3 save. This will start you with more cash, better stats, all the characters named, etc... but it'll also open up new side-events. Meet the Morrigan or Queen Mab while pouring drinks at the Crowley, etc. There's a couple of storylines that will only give you the final ending through a NG+ game. We'll see how that goes, obviously as a solo dev, I've got slightly less resources than Atlus :) NG+ will also be a side-project, something to go tinker with when I feel inspiration strike. Once Book 3 is done, I'll be switching the main part of my focus over to Morningstar, a grittier story about an MMA fighter who one day meets an Angel.
I'm working on it as a side-project now; the dream is having Act I more or less done before Book 3 is complete. Check it out over here. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2396740/Morningstar_Book_of_the_Fallen/

[previewyoutube=od4-sscySIg;full][/previewyoutube] I like to keep the PC busy, and have gotten into the habit of having an animation set up each night for it to chew on while I'm sleeping. Most of that goes into Book 3, where I'm splitting my time between rendering new content (Act XIV+ is now content complete, ending with the biggest and most complex sex scene so far), and working on end of game content (which, like in Book 2, is going to be heavy on both video and music). As the inspiration strikes I occasionally go back and tinker with Book 1; in this case doing a quick typo pass and adding a couple of new animations. Most of them are for Molly, connected to her getting Chosen (3 new animations there, and one new email triggering day 80+). I can't really show any of them in a SFW update, though, since in most of them she's just wearing a choker :) I was inspired to do this little video clip by some work I did for the end of Book 3, featuring cloud simulations. It's from Day 100, called The Last of the First. Here's a quick breakdown for those of you who're interested in the development side of things. [previewyoutube=l-P7kGYEVyg;full][/previewyoutube] Book 3's coming along well; with Act XIV+ done, I've only got three more releases to go before it's done (Act XV: The Return, XV+ and XVI: Eternal Summer). After spending pretty much every free hour on this game for three years now it's a strange, and slightly melancholy feeling to know that it's ending soon... but all good things must finish. If you haven't already, please give Book 3 a wishlist; it's hugely important at launch. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1992770/Love_of_Magic_Book_3_The_Return/ Full changelog: 1.3.3 - New looping handstand video for the Chosen ceremony - New email, day 80+ - Tweaked probability of Starcucks random encounters 1.3.2 - three new animations for Molly, at her Chosen ceremony 1.3.1 - New video for Chloe day 100 1.3.0d - Added some guards on day 80+ to help ensure players complete the Crowley upgrade - Day 86, if the pub isn't upgraded, the morning wakeup will include a hint that it's something you should be doing. - Day 80+, if the pub isn't updated, entering a treasure site will give you 5 special ingredients and tell you to hand them to chloe. 1.3.0c - Restored call of the chosen video clip 1.3.0b - Transcoded all videos to deal with a video potentially not playing on some systems

I recently upgraded my PC, including getting a new 3090 gfx card (yeah, I know, the 4090's out, but sadly I still need the other kidney). I started developing Love of Magic with a lonely 1080 graphics card, so it's certainly been a boost to productivity. The early days of Love of Magic didn't have much in the way of animations, since they were mostly a full day thing to set up and render, but now things are a bit faster. Book 3's getting a lot of animations, obviously, but I decided I might as well go back and spice up Book 1 a little; especially the opening act. This update adds 5 new animations (1 for day 2 introduction, 1 for first homework, 2 for second homework, and 1 for the first date). It also cleans up the localization interface, adds support for voice-overs (one of my fans is working on doing a full set of VOs), and adds various little bug-fixes and typos corrected. Apart from that, work continues on Book 3. I'm a bit more than halfway done, right now working on a sandbox expansion for Edinburgh. Once that's done, in a couple of weeks, I'll get started on the penultimate act of the game, The Return, then the last full act of the game, Eternal Summer. If you haven't wishlisted it yet, it's an awesome way to help it (Steam considers wishlists a way to judge if a game is real, or just a lazy asset flip... at around 6,000 wishlists you're considered a "real" game and, you get a boost at launch). https://store.steampowered.com/app/1992770/Love_of_Magic_Book_3_The_Return/ Full changelog: 1.3.0a - Fixed missing addressables 1.3.0 - Cleaned up the localization UI - Typo pass - Added new animations to Act I 1.2.10 - Updated localization files and interface. 1.2.9 - Support for Voice Over 1.2.8 - Typo fixes 1.2.7 - Fixed an incorrect image - Added guards for avoiding two additional combats that doesn't have an early out - typos fixed up - Fixed an issue where some characters were incorrectly dressed 1.2.6 - Fixed a bug that could derail the dialog if you used a character before the story-dialog triggered - Fixed a bug where the Minotaur card background could fail to trigger - Fixed a bug where people who continued play from a non-steam build could fail to trigger some achievements

What's new? - Purely book 2 changes, getting it up to the final release build - Various typos and spellchecking pass (thanks to all the testers on Discord for those!) - Fixed an issue where loading a Game+ from Book 1 would give an incorrect save dialog - You can now use the Keypad keys for controlling dialog, allies and cards.

This build contains various small bug-fix issues: 1.2.6 - Fixed a bug that could derail the dialog if you used a character before the story-dialog triggered - Fixed a bug where the Minotaur card background could fail to trigger - Fixed a bug where people who continued play from a non-steam build could fail to trigger some achievements 1.2.5b - Adds a hard guard to Dragon fight for people who somehow miss it 1.2.5 - Streamer mode now gets an image/background - Streamer mode now handles censoring attachments and emails - Fixed a couple of small typos / bugs

Book 2 of the Love of Magic is complete, and is going up for sale tomorrow (31st May) at a 20% launch discount. As such I'm putting Book 1 on sale, since they two of them are designed to be played back to back. Book 1 (The Crown) takes the player from day 1 of the game to Day 115 (New Year's Eve). Book 2 (The War) continues with the player waking up on Day 116, and plays onwards from there.
Where Book 1 starts as a slice of life romance, gradually building towards an epic Urban Fantasy, book 2 incorporates elements of military scifi/fantasy, kingdom building, being able to upgrade the King's Dragon, and a large number of optional side quests. It's also darker and more moody; the days of being innocent and young are over... the war has begun.
Like with Book 1's development branch I'll be developing and sharing Book 3 on Book 2's development and Beta branch. Beta branch will have latest (stable) act, so it's suitable for people who just wants to play the latest content and see how it works. Development branch is what I test on (and what the Discord test gang uses), so it'll have the very latest content... but it's not yet content complete, and I may decide to edit events, add flags or logic I missed out on, or add content out of sequence. Don't play it with a savegame you treasure. Book 3's right now at day 202 on the Development Branch of Book 2, so once you grab it you can see what I'm up to. Hopefully you've enjoyed the journey through Love of Magic, and will stick with me until Book 3 (The Return) completes the trilogy.

This is a small update that's primarily fixing possible bugs. - I finally tracked down the bug that could cause some of the scripted battles to not trigger cleanly. It has (I hope) been eradicated for good. - One of the card backgrounds (The Minotaur one triggering when you save Katie) didn't trigger correctly. Fixed. - Fixed a bug where people playing a non-steam build, then switching to Steam, could end up with Achievements not triggering. - Improved Streaming mode. In other news, Book 2 has been submitted for Steam Review, and is on track for a release on May 31st. It's been almost 18 months since I started it... I hope you all enjoy it.

And with that, I'm done with Act XI: The Black Sun, and so with the story of The War. It's been a real rollercaster; I hope you guys enjoy it. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1570980/Love_of_Magic_Book_2_The_War/ The full book is coming on the 31st of May; give it a wishlist if you'd like to help give it a boost at launch. So what's new in this build?
The big thing is the final 12 days of the Book, eventually leading to the end of the story. This is a relatively short act (most acts are ~20 days), but it certainly took some doing to write. I hope you like it. It ends, of course, on the Spring Equinox.
I added in a bunch of the final touches that goes into making the game complete. All the memories are now set up, most of the quests complete (I have three more to do, which will go in over the next week or so), and I added 25 new collectible card backgrounds (which you can use for your poker-cards), which unlock as you play.
After painful deliberation I decided to axe the strategy gameplay; it wasn't fun, it was confusing, and making it fun would be at least another month of development, likely more. To replace it I introduced a new system of Military Points, which will change in small ways how various events play out. If it's something people enjoy I'll likely expand on it for Book 2. I also added some more kingdom events for players to enjoy, and made sure they're all playable. [previewyoutube=OJVKFYuUnj4;full][/previewyoutube] What's left? I'm working on achievements; I'm aiming to have 50-60 achievements; they'll be a mix of story, side-content and the occasional hard to get ones you'll need to chase down yourself. I've got a bit of work on Elsewhere to do; a travelling salesman, new gems and some additional enemies. Finally, I need to finish up those last three quests, and fix any bugs testers find. If you want to help report bugs, the best thing is to join my Discord. They're an amazing bunch of people that've kept me sane-ish over the last 2 years, and who've been amazingly helpful at bug fixing and typo-checking the game. https://discord.gg/NQrQrht Hope you all enjoyed Act XI. Once I start writing Book 3, it'll show up on the Developer and Beta branch of Book 2, in the same way as Book 2 showed up on the beta branch of Book 1.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1570980/Love_of_Magic_Book_2_The_War/ Love of Magic Book 2: The War is closing in on story complete. With Act X now done, there's only 12 days of in-game story to go before the book is complete. As always you guys can play it here on the Beta Branch of Book 1 as I develop it. If you haven't had a chance yet do give the game a wishlist, it'll really help it at launch. In Act X: The Destroyer of hope the story takes a turn for the darker. Much like the Act III/IV inflection point marked the end of the player's relaxing days of fun at the University, the beginning of Act X marks the beginning of a new central theme of the story. It's also the first time I've tried writing any other characters than MC as a lead, with Katie getting to star in some sequences. She's a lot of fun to write; much darker, more introspective and more moody. Hope you enjoy the sequence, and that you'll come along for the rest of the ride as we approach the end of Book 2, and the beginning of the final part of the trilogy. The Return.

The bulk of this update is just small bug-fixes for continuity issues. I fixed up the streamer mode, redid a few graphics and scenes, fixed up typos, and tweaked a few images. I also added a cheat to let Steam users access the Game of Friends (other NSFW gamedevs I know whose games show up on MC's ingame-PC). You can enable them by enabling the debug console (CTRL+J), then adding the flag GAME_OF_FRIENDS. This was removed from the Steam version because it's considered in-game advertising, so use with care. Full changelog: 1.2.4 - Added support for Game Of Friends (little snippets of other games from devs I know) to Steam version, locked behind a secret key - Added visual information for streaming mode 1.2.3c - Added a new image for the Akane/Kitsune Elsewhere call screen (used for after Kitsune gets her full three tails) - Fixed a bug where Narration wasn't responding correctly to the large text flag 1.2.3b - Fixed the Princess costume being set as not-SFW - Fixed a bug where entering the name for a character would auto-advance the story 1.2.3 - Redid Emily's power eyes - Improved flow day 106 - Improved streamer mode 1.2.2 - Updated visuals on the day 106 sequence - Added a new video for day 106 - You can now have 5 gem sets - Fixed typos

Beta Branch just updated with the complete Act IX+ for Book 2. I usually leapfrog development; the normal Acts (Act I, II, etc) will advance the timeline, adding more main story events. The Act+ updates will update the sandbox, adding more activities that fill the world, tell optional back-stories and side-content that you can track down. Act IX+'s focus is on the King's Dragon, the bar that your Chosen runs. You can optionally upgrade it as the game progresses, adding more rooms, more activities and more people that live, love and get drunk there.
The underlying theme of Act IX+ is to tell those stories; a mixture of epic backstories, romance, erotic content and the occasional humorous episode. Some of the highlights: Teach your pet dragon how to be a Natural Born Killer
Discover the backstory for the Goddess of Love and Beauty, Xochiquetzal.
Bring your wife for a relaxing time at the Onsen.
Get drunk and have fun with the resident Demon Foxes.
And much more.
Act IX+ is definitely the largest World Expansion update I've done so far, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Hope you all enjoy it too!

[previewyoutube=30OHANCUNJY;full][/previewyoutube] It's Christmas time, and the girls of Love of Magic send their regard. I often enjoy doing little side renders, never intended to go ingame, just to play with lighting and learn a little.
Of all the renders I did over Xmas, I think this one's my favorite; there's something very sexy about their expressions, and they sit very nicely against the background. It's also related to the new content I'm working on, which I guess makes it a little hotter.
A lot of the wallpapers I make are a little raunchy, but sometimes the innocent ones are the nicest. This one was what I used as the motif for the Winter Sale event, so I guess most of you have seen it already. I still love the effect of lighting on Emily's face.
Some image don't make the cut to wallpaper, though they're nice in their own way. This one's got my two favorite redheads inviting you to have a drink with them, and the reds and golds of the foregrounds plays perfectly with the blue/white background.,
On development side, I'm around 2/3rds through Act IX+, a section of the game that's playable across most of Book 2, dealing with the people who live, drink and love inside the King's Dragon. If you've got Beta enabled on the game the first 6 events are already playable, with more coming more or less daily this week. With that I wish all of you a happy holiday. May every day be magical, may you be with the love of your life, and may a door mouse never leave your pantry with a teardrop in its eye.

It's finally the winter holidays, and Steam's Winter Sale kicks off today. Love of Magic is available at 35% off, in case you want to gift a copy to a romantic pervert you know.
The event theme for today came from this wallpaper set I put together today. You can grab the full high res versions from Imgur, where they're available in 3840x2160 (16:9), 3440x1440 (21:9 aspect) and 5637x2306 (22:9 aspect) resolutions. Thanks for all the support, and I hope all of you have an amazing holiday season!

After a quick detour to polish Book 1, I'm back working on Book 2. This release extends the main timeline of the game by 22 days, ending on Day 166. You can play it now by enabling the Beta branch on your Book 1 game. If you enjoy it, remember to Wishlist Book 2 on Steam , it really helps the eventual launch. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1570980/Love_of_Magic_Book_2_The_War/ The Act's relatively dense, with 15 calendar events, and numerous optional / side events, but without a shadow of a doubt my favorite element is the formal wedding ceremony, on Valentine's Day (Feb 14th).
So what's next? I usually leapfrog these builds, so with Act IX done it's time for IX+. These are events that are not 'auto triggered' by day, but rather exist to flesh out the world and make it feel alive. Act IX+'s content will center on the King's Dragon, telling stories of the various people who live and drink there. Hope you all enjoy the update, and let me know if there's any issues!

It's Love of Magic's first chance to be nominated for a Steam Award, and while it's hard to think a little one man adult indie game making the cut, it's still fun to try. I originally clicked 'labor of love' (because it is), but the I realized that's more for games that are ten years old and still getting updated. So I went with Story rich games instead; hopefully you guys agree it fits :)
As the theme for this event I picked an image that's actually not in Book 1; the big wedding happens on the 14th February (St Valentine's day), and is part of the upcoming Act IX in Book 2. You can check it out on the Beta Branch now, if you want. It's one of my favorite sequences of Book 2 so far, and hopefully all of you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Act IX is hopefully done in a couple of weeks: I've got 4 more 'real' events to do, and a couple of smaller events to tidy up things and clarify timeline. But for now... please vote for Love of Magic as a Story Rich game :)

The SteamAPI was disabled on some platforms, causing achievements to only trigger locally (and accidentally showing the game of friends, which should be disabled on Steam builds). This update fixes that. Thanks for letting me know!

It was a pleasant surprise to get asked to participate in the Steam Digital Tabletop Fest, and I'm looking forward to doing a (SFW) live-stream to celebrate it. I figured a good place to start would be to talk a little about the poker game; how to play, inspirations that went into making the combat system and the paths of Elsewhere, and thoughts on future developments, builds and balancing issues. I'll be leaving the chat open, and duplicating the voice chat to Discord, if anyone's wanting to ask questions, or let me know their thoughts and problems.
It'll be the first time I live stream, so this'll be interesting. Either in a fun and interactive exchange, or in a complete and utter train-wreck. Either outcome should be entertaining. Apart from that, Book 2 progresses forward (after a detour to remaster Book 1 and the two first acts of Book 2), we're finally arriving at the biggest event of Act IX. As always the latest update is available on the Beta branch if you want to play-test. Last day of content right now is Day 159 (the Stag Party), next up comes the main event on Day 160.
Hope to see you all at the livestream; if you'd like to check out the Discord, here's an invite: https://discord.gg/NQrQrht

This is a bunch of little fixes rolling out, with no new real content. - OSX framework rebuild using latest Valve code. Hopefully fixes the issue some people have reported on OSX. If not, let me know, and I'll continue to chase it. - Added a Streamer mode for people streaming on Twitch/Youtube; should now auto-blur any sequences considered as too lewd for the internet (let me know if I missed anything, it's sadly a manual process tagging what's lewd and what's not). - Added the experimental localization feature. There are partially hand-translated versions, with machine translation picking up the slack, for French, German and Russian. It's still very much work in progress, and does not localize the UI (just the dialog), but might be interesting for some people. - Does a final (?) localization pass. Lots of small fixes, most of which don't affect most players, so I tag it as a small update. Let me know if there's any problems in the comments!

I know I told myself I'd leave Book 1 alone, but I was working on a sequence from Book 2, testing out a new technique. I was originally going to just render a static image, then bring it into After Effects to add effects, then take a single screenshot and use ingame. Except I managed to get it to loop cleanly into a 2 min video, and it looked pretty awesome running in the background instead of just a static image. [previewyoutube=8MTnKZVXQMA;full][/previewyoutube] Having done that, I started thinking about doing it to the rest of Book 2. And I will; it's a reasonably cheap way to add impact to cool magic sequences, without spending days and days like I do on the big cutscenes. But I always wanted people to play the full game from beginning to end, and I started to worry that by the time I finally finish Book 3, Book 1 will look terribly, terribly dated. So I had a bright idea; why not go back and add in this kind of animating effects to some of the key non-animated moments in Book 1? (Here an experienced project manager would go "oh no, you didn't....", but... well, yes I did). There's 30+ new animations of this kind, ranging from small throw-away scenes like this one: [previewyoutube=mgBsy7H4RAo;full][/previewyoutube] ... to entirely new videos replacing what was previously static images for umpf, like here. My favorite, which I also used as the Book 1 Remaster branding, was Treason's Reward. It's a shot from Act V's End sequence, where Emily states "I pledge to reward loyalty with trust. Service with Honour. Treason with Death". She feels a little more scary in this little animating clip than she did in the original still image. [previewyoutube=VgbO2EK3dv4;full][/previewyoutube] Part of doing that involved replaying the game, and that's where my carefully laid plans went awry. I have (at least in my own mind) grown and evolved as a developer over the years, especially in terms of art and special effects. In the 2 years since I started Love of Magic I've certainly learned a LOT about what works visually in this medium. And some of the early stuff really hadn't aged well. I ended up re-rendering a couple of dozen images, mostly for the early scenes, especially the erotic ones. Chloe's day 1 event in the bathroom, Strip MMA with Katie and Strip poker with Katie and Bella. While doing that I also added longer action animations for all three of them as a capstone. I also did a pass through to standardize aspect ratios, improve framing, color correct where it made sense, and add a proper background rather than just using whatever happened to be in the room. [previewyoutube=MZQ3fS5JxaY;full][/previewyoutube] All in all I ended up touching about 80% of the story-telling images in the game. and cleaned up a bunch of little annoying issues (Molly, for example, was originally blue-eyed, and some of her early images were still blue-eyed). I also did a typo-pass, fixed a card background that didn't unlock properly, and tested the various other achievements. Hopefully the update makes Book 1 feel visually more coherent, and raises the quality bar a little. I'm also taking Book 2 off the main-line as of now; you can still opt into it on the Beta line of Book 1; if you like it don't forget to wishlist it over on the main page, which makes a big difference at launch. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1570980/Love_of_Magic_Book_2_The_War/ Hope you like it, and that it was worth the work involved. Let me know in the forum, or in the comments if anything's gone wrong (all too possible with the number of changes involved).

When I started working on Book 2 I removed a lot of the Edinburgh content; it fitted the story of a young mage finding his place in the world, but felt out of place for a young god finding his way through a war. As a result Edinburgh in Book 2 felt quite empty and unloved. With Act VIII+ I decided to change that. So what's new?

Story content

Strategy Gameplay

About book 2

I continue to work on Book 2, and hope to keep sharing it with all of you here as I do. Where the heart of Book 1 was a college romance slice of life, Book 2 tries to add themes of military fantasy into the mix, and it's one of the key themes for Act VIII. It adds ~2 hrs of additional story content, new companions, new abilities and several new erotic scenes.
The Love of Magic story is (like all good Fantasy) planned as a trilogy; the Crown, the War and the Return. With Act VIII complete, I'm more or less exactly halfway through the full story, which will end up being 16 or so Acts. Once I'm done with Book 2, it'll go on sale on Steam. So why on earth can you still play Act VII and VIII even though you only bought Book 1? There's a couple of reasons for that. The first is simply because hearing from happy players who enjoy the game is one of my key motivations. If I'm feeling tired or burnt out I'll often grab a drink and spend some time reading through reviews and posts about the game. The best way to keep players engaged is to keep putting out substantial updates pretty regularly, so that's what I try to do. When I first started Love of Magic, almost 2 years ago, I planned it purely as a hobby. I shared it for free on a couple of sites, and mostly just enjoyed watching people play and gathering feedback. Because that was the initial approach, interacting with players, hearing their feedback and thoughts has been a key part of my development process, and I'm pretty sure Love of Magic wouldn't be the game it is if it hadn't been for all the amazing players, and the questions they ask. Then 2020 happened, and our family finances took a tumble; that left me either finding a job flipping code somewhere else, or seeing if I could make money on my hobby. I ended up betting on Love of Magic, set up a Patreon and focused pretty much every free hour I had on the game. I also ended up setting up a Steam page for it, intending to release Book 1 when it was done. Optimistically I planned that for Summer Solstice, but it was almost Winter Solstice before the full book was finally done, and in the store. Why didn't I just make it Early Access? Well, for starters because I'm dumb. I've had some bad experiences with Early Access myself, and I wanted Book 1 to be *done* before I put it up. I still think that was the right decision, especially for a story-centric game. I could then have just built Book 2 exactly the same way as I did book 1, and put it up on Steam when it was done. But because I wanted to keep letting you guys play Book 2 as I was developing it, I added Book 2's depots to Book 1's Beta and just kept going. As long as it was just on the Beta branch, people didn't stumble onto it by accident; where it got confusing was where I promoted it to the main branch of the game. Players could now end up playing Book 2 without knowing that it wasn't done, which could be an unhappy experience. With Act VIII now done, I'll be front-loading the work on Book 2's Steam Page, and get that ready. Once the store page is done and accepted I'll probably shift Book 2 back onto just the beta branch of the game, so people don't accidentally stumble over it. I will continue to update it until the whole of Book 2 is complete, and do the same with Book 3. So why would anyone buy Book 2, if they already have access to it on Book 1's beta branch? Well, you do get collectibles and achievements that way (both of those have to be tied to a new App ID to work). You also get a cleaner way to launch it, without the weird little menu you've got to use now. And you get to support development, helping keep me supplied with instant noodles. So... probably a longer update than most of you expected; it's a topic I've been banging my head off for a while, and I don't know if I have all the right answers. Let me know in Discord or in the comments if you have any thoughts. But for now; I hope you all enjoy Act VIII.

I've traditionally leapfrogged development; first I'll do the main Act, which advances the calendar and timeline, then I do an Act+, which expands on the world, and add content that can be enjoyed across the entire book. This update marks the first Act+ of Book2 , and it's probably the biggest one I've done.
A lot of love has gone into King's Dragon; there's two new Questlines, one of which ends up giving you an ingame pet that can be found playing in various locations in the pub. Both questlines can be triggered from drinking at the King's Dragon (first one after day 124, second after day 130). While I was at it I also expanded Molly's replayable Late Night sequence with more positions; I'll keep doing that (and maybe adding replayable Akane, Bella or Katie events) as I continue to build out the game. There's also a couple of non-Kings Dragon events; I've added a new quest-line for hardcore poker-players; Snowdrop will tell you about them if you shower at night in Camelot. I also didn't want to leave Edinburgh totally behind; there will be events that trigger by drinking at the Crowley, including any time you watch news on TV, and old friends come to visit. Finally I added a whole bunch of small fixes; new enemies, keyboard shortcuts for map navigation, a player PC at Pendragon Inc, and many more. Hope you like it... now it's on to making Act VIII. The Gathering awaits.

Quick-fix; 1.0.15b did not link in the Steam libraries, which meant you couldn't record achievements inside the Steam App, just inside the game. Fixed and updated.

1.0.15b is primarily a bug-fix and optimization build; in general Love of Magic has had a smooth release, but some people have had bugs, and those always suck. The big one was the ability to break some of the scripted combat sequences; I fixed two known issues, and added guards around the others... hopefully that fixes this particular problem-child for good this time. I was also updating some of the early character art for Book 2, and decided to fix it for Book 1 while I was at it. Molly initially started out blue-eyed, but by the end of Act II I had changed to her gorgeous green eyes. I'd forgotten to update her nude sprite to fix that, so I re-rendered and re-animated her. While I was at it I also updated some other sprites; Emily's casual and nude animations used a slightly different color palette than her later outfits (with more subdued colors), so I fixed that in post-production. Thanks for the support, and I'll get back to building Act VII+, the next release to the main-line. It'll include new King's Dragon Events, new Crowley events, the start of Snowdrop's scouting combat, and an updated replayable scene with Molly. Full notes are here: 1.0.15b - Build promoted to Steam default branch 1.0.15 - Fixed a bug where invalid images being set could trigger an assert, halting script execution - Fixed a bug where Olivia's combat could trigger an invalid reaction - Updated Molly's 1st homework session to make her green-eyed - Updated Olivia's homework art to make her boobs look less ridiculous - Fixed a bug where you could break Emily's date 6 (lich combat) by killing the enemy before Emily enters combat - Did a hardcore optimization pass on Android (reducing max texture size for room backgrounds, enabling ETC2 texture compression for characters) 1.0.14 - Updated Molly's nude animating character to have Green eyes (an early version of Molly had blue eyes; I forgot to open redo her nude pose when I changed them to green) - Updated Emily's casual and nude animating characters; the color palette of the game changes, this brings her up to the slightly more colorful palette I use in the later renders) - Fixed a logic crash bug that would cause the Snowdrop quest to be impossible to finish if you brought Bella to combat - Fixed a bug where opening the save/load UI in combat or in elsewhere would cause the normal UI to show up - Fixed a bug where speed-clicking the allys using the keyboard commands could end up accidentally soft-locking the conversation UI - Bumped up the first Lich HP from 1000 to 1500; he was a bit underwhelming as an enemy, and it was possible to break the script by one-shotting him

One of the interesting aspects of a public release is that you get lots of people telling pointing out things that it might be easy to overlook as a developer / QA team that's too close to the product. One of them was that Map navigation evidently sucks. Especially on Mobile, but also on PC (lack of scrolling). I'd avoided it before, since it's potentially a bit of a bug-mine, but I decided to go and do it today. So 0.1.8b comes along with quick update to fix up the map. Since I was looking at writing it anyway (For Act VII+) I added in Matthew as an Ally you can bring along to Elsewhere. I also fixed some quest issues that were unclear based on feedback. Full changelog: 0.1.8b - You can open the Kingdom events by talking to Emily in the throne room once you get your first Kingdom event - New Ally: you can now ask Matthew to join you on the paths. He has a static ability that adds +50% to X's slash damage, and an active ability called Cripple, which reduces enemy damage + increases damage they take by 10% - Updated Katie's quest to not send the player to Lancaster until later - Can now train sword fighting with Matthew 0.1.8 - Elsewhere camera can now pan (click drag) - Hunting grounds now have labels - Increased sized of enter location button for android - Removed old Chloe dialog the first time you use her in combat

The way I've always developed Love of Magic is act by act; alternating between expanding the central timeline, and expanding the world. This is the first release since I launched on Steam that advances the timeline. Book 1 ends on day 115 (New Year's Eve), with the events taking place in Edinburgh and Mexico. Book 2 kicks off on day 116, with Emily and the player waking up to the aftermath, and starts shifting the game from Edinburgh to Camelot and Elsewhere. To do that, I needed some new functionality. [previewyoutube=vFwPI2Qnlfc;full][/previewyoutube] Looking at it; the first thing is the new World Map. As Book 2 progresses, this will grow increasingly populated; the goal is that someone playing the complete Book 2 would have a much richer and larger experience than someone playing Act VII alone. I'm still tweaking things like the ambient critters, and editing the map from time to time. I'll also be opening up additional locations as they're needed in the story of Book 2; being able to visit Valhalla and Tir na nOg, or chill with Katie in Lancaster. Since I'm now popping in and out of Elsewhere quite often, I also decided to streamline the party system a little. It also makes it easier to add more party members. One of the big systems for Book 2 is the Kingdom Management; I went through a couple of iterations trying to nail it down, but I'm quite happy with how it ended up. It's roughly inspired by Pathfinder: Kingmaker, with multiple events you can undertake. Some events unlock from the story progression, others from quests, and yet others by exploring the world. Finally I wanted to have an upgrade project; at the end of Book 1 Akane asks you which type of room you want to build as an Annex for the Kings dragon; as the game progresses you'll be able to build more of these, each unlocking new scenes and replayable activities. Right now there's only the three locations (Dojo, Onsen and Teahouse), and 7 events, but as the book progresses more will be added. The Dojo is totally my favorite so far. So; how do I play it? It's actually its own App; at some point in the distant future, Book 2 will be complete and I'll release it as a new game. That'll let me add new achievements and collectibles to it. But everyone who purchased book 1 will have access to it as it's being developed and afterwards, using this trick:
To play, just go to the Library tab in Steam, and click PLAY on the game. With the game updated, that will give you a new popup, asking you if you want to play Book 1 or Book 2. If you select Book 2, and "start game", it will give you the option of continuing to play from your end of game savegame from Book 1 (called act6.sav, if you want to copy some other savegame there instead). Book 2 is very much in development; there will probably be bugs. The amazing test-group on Discord has worked hard to clear most of them out, but some invariably sneak in. If you see something weird, pop over to Discord and tell me; I'll try to get it fixed as soon as possible. The next public build will be Act VII+, which is a world expansion release. It'll add more events on the paths, new enemies to fight, and new things to do while chilling at the Crowley or the King's Dragon. And that's... that ;) Hope you all liked it, and that you enjoy the return to world of Emily and the rest. Let me know on Discord or in the Forums if there's anything!

While Book 1 is more or less complete now, I've started work on Book 2. We're on Day 129 / 134, with only two main date-line events left before the finale. I'm also busily testing things, fixing up new systems and adding content. Today's update changed a couple of things. If you are on the Beta branch, you can now access the content as it's being developed. Once Act VII is complete, I'll push it live for everyone that's purchased Book 1, and start working on Act VIII. At the end of Book 2 I'll publish that as it's own app, for anyone that wants the new achievements, community items etc (I can't add more of those to the Book 1 app), but the core of Book 2's content will remain free for anyone who purchased Book 1. There's quite a few new systems at work in Book 2; here's one of the major one, the new Kingdom Events. Over the next 5-6 acts the game will continue to add content, in the same way Act VI changed content that could be accessed across all of Book 1; the goal is that by the final act of Book 2 it will have filled the world with experiences and things to explore. [previewyoutube=vJrugHmdVvI;full][/previewyoutube] So what else is going on? There's a push towards localization, and work is now ongoing on both Russian and German translations of book 1. There's obviously a LOT of text, so the volunteers working on it are slowly chewing their way through. Some of the early art also got a tuning pass. And that's it for now; if you DO enable the beta-branch, be aware that it's still raw. I've got another 3-4 weeks worth of bug-squashing and tuning before it's ready for a real release. If you're interested in testing, I'd recommend heading over to Discord (https://discord.gg/NQrQrht), since that's where the testing effort is being centralized. Thanks, and hope to have Act VII in your hands before the end of March!

The Steam Community items are finally alive! This includes 7 new trading cards, 5 backgrounds, 5 emotes and a badge to have fun with. The trading cards should start dropping immediately! I really enjoy doing little stuff like this; hopefully I'll have a chance to do more in the future.

Some players were reporting system slowdown in extended fights; I found the problem related to that, and fixed it. There's also various small bugs, like Katie's Fire Immunity Buff *saying* you were immune, but...not actually doing anything. So that needed fixing. I tuned ultra and hard mode a little (Ultra enemies don't get super-powerful quite as fast, and both of them reduce the rate of which allies recharge. Finally I fixed up some achievements being really hard to achieve. There's a fine line between hard and impossibiru, and Thunderstorm went a bit too far there. Changelog: 1.0.7b [31/12/20] - 1.0.7 added a bug that caused cards to disappear when returned to hand. Fixed the fix to the fix. - New shortcut: Space to Auto (as well as 1-3 to trigger ally in combat) 1.0.7a - Katie's Fire Immunity didn't actually make you immune to fire. Oops. 1.0.7 - Fixed a bug where cards that were discarded were still rendering, causing performance drop over extended battled - Fixed a bug after Snowdrop's combat, UI being broken 1.0.6 - Ultra and Hard difficulty now recharges allies slower (60% and 80% of default) - Added more bulletproofing to Memories UI - Display the player's level from frontend and conversation UI 1.0.5 - Fixed a bug where second trigger of Katie's firegem during combat would force the Fire9 gem - Resized some of the character textures to give a crisper look - Tuned ultra difficulty. Monsters now show up slightly later (125% of normal unlock speed, not 150%), player has slightly more HP (100%, not 90%, of base) and do less damage (60%, not 80%, of base) - Dropped difficulty in achievements for Inferno (1000->500), Thunderstorm (1000->150) and Anger Management (1000->500) - Fixed a bug that prevented Act III achievement from triggering

What's changed? Two achievements were triggered incorrectly (Man of Culture required reading 9 books, which is a problem since you only have access to 8), and Toxic Environment checked if HP < 0, which won't happen since I never let it drop below 0. Oopsie. I streamlined the Black Rose 1 quest-line a little, and bumped up probabilities of the Rose dropping; I think that quest-line was the most complex of the side-quests, and a lot of people didn't complete it. Hopefully it's better now. Finally I looked at character abilities; I was incorrectly triggering Bella's defensive abilities (it's supposed to be 10% damage reduction in the early game, 25% in the late game... instead it had turned into 0% early game and 35% late game). I also tinkered with Emily's Dragon-slayer, so it's only available after she hits the power threshold. Hopefully this is the last update for Book 1 :) I'm busy writing Book 2, with the first day hopefully done today. Once it's done it will be pushed to the Beta Branch of Steam; if you're interested in being a Beta tester come join us on Discord to chat ( https://discord.gg/NQrQrht ). For those interested, here's a full change-log (you can also view it in-game, from the settings). 1.0.4a - Fixed achivement Toxic Environment not triggering correctly 1.0.4 - Updated probability of triggering Black Rose 1, and shifted where the flag is set that enables the quest line up 1.0.3 - Spelling pass - Fixed Bella's defensive ability (10% and 25%) triggering correctly. The 10% bonus was triggering at the same time as the 25%, giving 35% - Reduced the HP of townhouse Golem - Fixed a bug where invalid images could throw an exception, potentially halting script - Fixed a bug where you could lose the poker UI after dragon combat - Fixed an achievement (Man of Culture) claiming there are 9 books (there's 8 in book 1) - Fixed Emily's Dragonslayer attack to only trigger after she hits the power threshold

1.0.2 - Start screen now represents correct chapter - Spelling pass - Fixed an error where QSave was incorrectly triggering an animation if the frontend UI is hidden - fixed a bug where you could hide your UI from combat menu (and not retrieve it) - Helion Captains shifted minimum level to show to 40 (from 25) - Implemented Snowdrop Questline - Fixed the computer being able to change character names that didn't exist by day 2 - Gate Matthew in Elsewhere event < day 90 - Gate first meeting with Keith to be < day 60
Apart from that, I'm starting work on Book 2. It'll start showing up on the Beta Branch as of today, but there's no content yet. I'll be building forward, so Day 116, then 117, etc. When I reach the end of Act VII, I'll promote it to the default branch (so everyone else can play it). Book 2 (and 3) will come free with the same steam key as Book 1. If you *are* interested in playing the Beta branch, I strongly recommend heading over to the Discord, since it'll otherwise be confusing to handle bug-reports in different places. There's also an amazing community there that'll know where the current 'end of content' is, what's left to do, and it's an easy place to reach me for questions and feedback. Thanks for playing!

Love of Magic is an erotic urban fantasy Sandbox/VN, inspired by slice of life games like Persona. Discover your Destiny. Gather your Companions. Discover true love. Love of Magic is finally live on Steam. Book 1 (The Crown) is the complete first book in the trilogy, charting the journey from young magic user to the Throne in Exile. Now on to Book 2, the War!