Spellcasting
This is a very exciting part of the game to work on. The spells!
I'm planning to introduce a buttload of different spells into the game! Hundreds of different spells to choose from. One thing can be for sure: This game will be a magical spectacle!
From projectiles to lasers to self buffs to particles flying all over the screen, it is as if you are the master of a fireworks show! You are in control of everything, and can choose how to take down your enemies and bosses in style!
The first spell
After tremendous amounts of work, tutorials, puzzling and invested time, I finally managed to set up a basic framework for the spellcasting system. As a result of that, I successfully created the first simple spell: Fireball. Shooting a burning projectile forward, exploding when it hits something, dealing area of effect damage.
Playing around with the visual effects in Unity, I quickly found out I tremendously enjoy creating all those magical effects. The Fireball spell is the first, starting off a huge batch of new spells!
How the spellcasting system works
Magical gemstones
You draw your spellcasting power from magical gemstones which you can put in your amulet. These gemstones come in various categories. Each gemstone you find contains a single spell, which you gain access to if you put the stone into your amulet.
Gemstones can be obtained in various ways in the game, such as from treasure chests, dropped as loot from an enemy, given by a NPC, etc.
Preparing spells
Your amulet controls the spells you can cast, and is fully customizable in the amulet menu. The amulet has 8 empty slots, which you can put magical gemstones in. Each amulet slot represents a slot on your spell bar. If you equip a magical gemstone in one of your amulet slots, that spell becomes available in the corresponding slot on your spell bar.
This means you can only equip 8 spells at any given time, so you need to carefully think which spells you want to take with you before you engage in a fight. It's up to you to choose spells that interact well with each other and provide the best benefits for the upcoming fight. Balancing mana costs and cooldowns is also a thing you need to consider when making this choice.
Transform
In order to be able to cast your equipped spells, you have to unleash your magical girl powers. Make sure you're transformed, and you can freely cast spells during the transformation.
You can only equip and unequip gemstones when not in a transformation. After all, it's quite dangerous to touch a magical gemstone while it is active. You won't change a bulb when the electricity is still on, right?
More details about transformation will be explained later.
Damage typing
Damage inflicted by spells fall under a specific type (fire, lightning, water, etc) which all can be combined into the "Magical damage" category. Unlike Physical damage (from punches, kicks and other physical attacks), Magical damage is not affected by the ATK (attack) and DEF (defense) stats. This means that the damage number you see in a spell's description is most likely the actual average damage you inflict to your target.
That being said, damage from spells can be resisted if the target has resistance to the spell's damage type. For this reason, it's recommended to equip different types of spells to have a wider coverage.
Future plans
Like mentioned, the idea is to add hundreds of different spells into the game. This way, there's always something to experiment with. Most individual spells can also be modified based on your equipped gemstones and obtained abilities. Modifications can include for example larger spell projectiles, more projectiles, bigger lasers, higher damage, stronger buffs, etc. The list is endless.
The goal is to make the process of planning and casting your spells exciting, while having endless possibilities on how to build your character!