Gallery
Environment
The world of Arcs of Magic is quite simple for the moment. You start out in a forest, surrounded by boars and wolves. Several steps in front of you, you find a backpack, a dagger, and some tools: an axe and a shovel.
You can use the axe to cut down trees or to protect yourself from the wolves. Before long, you will need to hunt down some animals in order to get something to eat. Or, you can try eating berries, if you know which ones are poisonous and which are not.
As time goes by, the morning gives way to the day, followed by the evening and the night. Choose your place to sleep wisely, as the wolves can attack you during the night. Of course, it is also possible to attack the wolves while they sleep, if you manage to sneak up on them.
Setting stuff on fire will have different effects, depending on what is on fire. Wood will burn down, animals will be harmed (but the fire will die out quickly), and the meat steaks will cook. The green wood is very wet, so it is really hard to make it burn. But once you get some branches burning, they will heat up and ignite other branches (and eventually, logs) around them. Put down the slabs of meat nearby, and they will cook "for free".
The bottom left corner shows contextual help for three primary actions. These actions depend on what you hold and on what is in front of you. In the bottom right corner, there is a hotbar for items and spells. At the bottom center, there are stamina and spirit bars. In the center of the screen, there is some information about the object you are looking at, such as temperature, burning and cooking status, and so on.
Examine the enchanted dagger to understand how the spells work. Modify the existing "fiery edge" enchantment or add your own spells to the dagger or any other object in the game.
Read a book on a particular skill to learn it. Each skill unlocks new spell fragments, and with enough skills learned, you can use the spells that can be found in scrolls.
Store large amounts of energy in gemstones. This way, you can activate powerful spells much quicker.
Magic spell editor
In Arcs of Magic, you can create any spell you like in a simple visual in-game magic spell editor.
You start with two simple spells: "Kindle fire" and "Push". Dive into these two spells to learn how they work. You can also view the spells in the enchanted objects you find. And of course, you can learn them from scrolls.
Browse a library of available spell fragments and add them to the spell you are creating in any order you want. Then, change fragment parameters to achieve the desired effect. When your spell is ready, you can trigger it manually or add it to the hotbar.
Building, digging, and more
Put logs together to build a rudimentary cabin. And remember that shovel? You can use it to dig wells, tunnels, or moats of any shape. Replace the resulting dirt blocks elsewhere to create walls, flatten areas, and so on.
Lie down to fit through low tunnels, crawl, or sleep. Turn to lie on the side or on the back, if needed.
Inventory and other menus
The inventory menu is composed of two panes: items you are wearing and holding are on the left, and items around you are on the right. Both sides support multiple container levels, such as a purse inside a backpack, for instance. Although, there is no such thing as a purse... yet.
The "Health" tab shows your current condition and various afflictions. And the "Skills" tab provides descriptions of various magical disciplines and skills, as well as your current levels for each skill.
A wealth of additional actions are at your fingertips via the contextual menu (right click). They adapt to the items you hold, as well as to the objects in front of you. Dubious options feature a question mark next to them. You can choose the default action for the item in your right hand, too.
The feedback panel allows you to send me your thoughts about the game directly from Arcs of Magic, anywhere in the game. Just press F1!
The options menu is as bare-bones as they get. For now! But it already features the fullscreen settings and the most important setting of all: the Y axis inversion :)
