You guys are jerks! You didn’t fully fund the Kickstarter for Festival of Magic when it was first made public! I’m kidding – you guys don’t owe the team at Snowcastle Games your money, but you should definitely check out their newly re-launched kickstarter.
Re-branded as Earthlock: Festival of Magic, they’ve since lowered their funding goal to $150,000 dollars, and broken up the experience to a more episodic approach. They’ve also put a focus on bringing the game to Playstation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, PC, Mac and Linux.
You can view their Kickstarter pitch below:
The team at Snowcastle Games even made some early concept demos available for you to try out. The demos are available across Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Lastly, here’s a gigantic copy pasta of all the game’s story and gameplay features:
Story
Long ago, a cataclysmic event struck the magical world of Umbra. Suddenly and mysteriously the planet stopped spinning. Volcanoes awoke and oceans moved. Kingdoms and civilizations were buried or drowned. Soon, the scourging sun took hold of one side of the world, while dark winter seized the other. Today the glory and might of the old world is buried and the only habitable region can be found in between.
The evidence of Umbra’s past lies scattered about as ruins, treasures and artifacts. In the new world, rebuilt but far from as advanced as the old one, archaeologists and scavengers supply the rich and powerful with ancient technology and magical artifacts exhumed from ice, sea and sand. It is a world divided by those who dabble in magic and those who tinker with technology.
You start off as Amon, an audacious scavenger from a small desert town, who gets embroiled in a treacherous conflict between the mighty Suvian Empire and those who want to bring Suvia down.
Your quest for peace will take you to the corners of the world to unlock the secrets of Umbra’s mysterious, catastrophic past. Along the way you’ll explore oceans, vast deserts and snow-buried lands, rebuild your island base, gather seeds to sow and harvest ammo, get more allies to join your quest, crack puzzles and overcome fierce monsters.
Combat
The battle system goes back to the roots of the genre with its no-nonsense turn based combat, but there are several refreshing twists to the formula. One is the pairing system. Instead of separate characters, your party is made up of pairs where each pair is composed of a warrior and a protector.
The warrior uses consumables such as ammunition and items, while the protector can perform spells like healing and shields. Instead of standard magic points, spells cost Support Points, which build up when the pair receives damage.
Choosing your warrior and protector combinations is key to finding the right tactics. Special pair actions and character stats change according to the pairings and will greatly affect the way you play in combat. As players get hold of more consumable types, the ability to chain elemental effects will encourage the player to have a good variety of ammo at their disposal.
Crafting & Harvesting
One of the unique aspects of Earthlock is Plumpet Island, which functions as your very own home village. Here you can perform key activities like harvesting consumables and managing your character progression. Players will be able to check in on their harvest using portals found scattered across the world of Umbra.
While your village starts off pretty minimalistic you will get new shops and items throughout the game which adds new mechanics like potion brewing, barnacle care and weapon upgrades.
Combat, harvesting and character progression is tightly linked in Earthlock. When you are on the island tending to your village, what comes out of the earth and from your barnacles is literally the magical ammunition and consumables you need in combat.
Plumpet Island is a peculiar volcanic island located in Nevad. It has a unique soil full of magical energy. With the right gardening skills it is possible to grow plants with magical attributes. Plumpet Island functions as the player’s home base throughout the game.
Features
- Rich, non-linear story
- Turn-based combat (No Active Time Battle)
- Combat pairs (Allows more variations to your battle team)
- Grow your own ammunition (Organic crafting)
- Build and improve your home base
- Environmental Puzzles
- Gorgeous Overworld with a retro feel
- No random encounters (Monsters visible at all times)
- Play as Male or Female protagonist (You can switch at any time)
