Mahou Go Devlog

A tiny game where the magic will guide you home

[mahougogame]

Mahou Go Devlog diary #15

Ok, I'm a little late, but Tumblr won't uploaded my post, haha. Well, there's little updates on this project, so here we go!

My life's still a mess. I'm mentally sick, depressed, fighting against myself to keep working on this game and, eventually, living. I want to finish it, and I'll do it. So, after my new computer was arrived, it was time to move the project to it. Now, it's already okay to go back to development. Maybe I'll start fixing some light maps, textures and 3D models.

For now, I've made a rain system. Tumblr won't let me put a video here, so, there's a screenshot.

And some other pics that I've got to Meet the Dev hashtag on Twitter.

I've noticed that colors look less vibrant on Windows. I'll work to get the same visual as I have on my MacBook because I like how it looks. 

And that's all for now! Stay in touch for more updates!

[mahougogame]

Mahou Go Devlog diary #14

Firstly, I have to say sorry for this long time without a post. After months away, here I am to talk about what happened and, of course, the game.

Since the beginning of the year, I've suffering with some health problems due to my excessive work. I had lost the purpose to work on Mahou Go, and the demo was not made the way I planned. 

I've caught by a deep depression. My days was spent on a bed for a couple of months and I've quit my job. It was hard to open the project and develop a single line of code. I haven't made a single sketch since January. And, the worst: my father was in the hospital due to his bad health. Also, he's still on a hospital bed fighting for his life. We (me and my mom) doesn't know if he'll come back home...

There was no reason for me, anymore, to keep working on the game. I'm not well. And my father, the one who inspired me to love games, is not well, too. My world collapsed, I'm struggling in pain and my mind is a mess right now. For many times I thought that maybe i should end my life...

The demo was released. I got some bad reviews that made me feel so sad. But, recently, some nice people played the game and they say that they loved it. Every kind message telling me that made me smile again, and little by little I'm trying to get back to the development. I won't let this project die, there's so much I want to say through this game! So, please have a little patience with me. I'm doing some therapy to feel better. I'm trying to get some inspiration to draw again.

I believe that things are getting better now. Thank you for everyone that sent me a little message, a little piece of love and care.

Well, about the game, a little progress was made. I started to use a simple Debug Room to test all the mechanics and things that I'm implementing right now. This is better because it's quickly to test all the stuff.

I'm started to do the first cutscene, where the player will know a little about the plot. I'm working on dialog lines right now.

My MacBook isn't a good computer to work with Unreal Engine. I bought a Windows, and now I can test the game with better results, yay! 

And, as always, I'm focusing on correct bugs. All the feedback I've got will be useful to polish the game for a upcoming demo and, of course, the final product.

So, that's all for now. Thank you very much for being here for so long time. And thank you for playing my game. You guys makes me feel better!

See ya!

[mahougogame]

Mahou Go demo: available now!

This is the Mahou Go Devlog diary #13!

There's not much to say... So, go grab your demo at http://mahougo.com!

I want to hug the world. Just it. Ah, there's a site for the game now, hehe.  Thanks, everyone. Thanks for being so kind with me. You guys makes me want to do and deliver the best game that I can provide. So, I'll do it! Hope you folks enjoy this demo: please, download, play and share it!

See ya!

[mahougogame]

Mahou Go Devlog diary #12

Since I got some vacation from my work, I got some time to make some cool stuffs.

I haven't worked so much on the game itself, but at least I did the trailer and a opening animation. As I'm not a video editor, it took me some time to figure out how things works, but I managed it, hehe.

So, there's few things to show. Last week some beta testers will help me to polish the gameplay. They will test the game on Windows an Mac, so, this will be good to see how things going.

Here's some images from the trailer footage. Later I'll try to post a bit from the videos.

A little change on the logo was made too. Now it looks more clean.

So, that's all for now. Stay in touch for more news!

[mahougogame]

Mahou Go Devlog diary #11

It's the end of the year, as we know it!

2017 was a great year. Yeah, I had a lot of work, so I could not accomplish a lot of things that I've planned. Ok, Persona 5 took me some time too, hehe. But let's talk about the latest news and additions.

Some new itens were made. This is the magical potion to recover some mana. Sometimes I catch myself thinking on some other kinds of collectibles and power ups. What do you guys think?

Also, I've added some new particles to make everything looks better.

There's the new character with dialogue and a portrait. I really love her style.

Some new artwork in progress. I'll do some more drawings to cover some other materials, like a website. Also, If I get a good time, I want to try a small animation for this demo.

Other additions: game over screen and music, new hit particles, meshes, bug fixes and game improvements.

And, finally, the evolution of Mahou Go development. I've worked hard to improve the visuals, and I'm proud of what I got.

So, I hope to finish the demo on January. This is all for this year. Thank you for being a part of this.

See ya!

[mahougogame]

Mahou Go Devlog diary #10

We're on December right now, but November brought me a little progress on Mahou Go development. 

I planned to get some vacation on November, but I have a bad job and my boss refused to let me get my days off. I've been working for two whole years, without a break, spending even my free times working due to a large amount of work. I've made 100 extra hours in just one month. So, I had to re-think all my plans to release the demo this year. I'm scheduling to January 2018 now. Yes, I'm very sad with that...

But let's talk about cool stuff!

Here's some cute enemies folks. I've focused on them to develop a better and fun challenge for the game. Also, I'm studying some new power ups to implement. Haven't got a good idea yet, but will keep working on that.

A few details from the water stage. This is teh path who will connect with some other land. I thought that was a good way to do something to smooth the levels style transition, since this region will be a bit different. Yes, there's more than forest on the game, haha.

Like a snow area, mountains and moving platforms!

So I kept working on level details.

And another shot from the first town. I really like this level. This style makes me glad.

That's all for now. Hope you guys like it. Stay tuned for more news! Since I'll have a break on holidays, I can develop and rearrange more stuff!

See ya!

[mahougogame]

Mahou Go Devlog diary #09

I haven't done much on October, since my work started to consume all my time again. This makes me feel depressed, because I can't do what I really want to do. I tried to get some vacation, but got no answer until this moment... So, enough of this, let's get started what really matters!

I keep working on various improvements to develop the best demo that I could do. When I'm testing the game, I'm always feeling that there's something is missed. Some friends have played the game and they loved it so much, but... There's something more that I can do. And now this is my focus: found a way to make things better and more fun.

A new enemy to cause some trouble for you, guys, hehe. He looks so cute.

A lot of improvements was made on the levels, trying to make them more fun to play. The ice level, for example, got some moving platforms and there's more coming! I'm planning to do some falling rocks and traps, hehe.

And there's a bird enemy! He deserves a better animation, though. I'll work a little more on this guy later.

On the first town, some NPC was added to give a little life for the level. They're so adorable. I'm modeling the sales guy, too.

Little changes on the characters sprites was made.

... The main menu changed, too.

This is all for now. Hope you guys like it. Stay in touch for more news!

[mahougogame]

Mahou Go Devlog diary #08 Birthday Special

Two years ago, on this day, I started the Mahou Go development. All began with a sketch of Lucca...

Okay, I've told this story a couple of times here, hehe.But I'm extremely glad seeing how much the project evolved. And this devlog diary is about that evolution. So, let's see some screenshots of stuff that I've working this whole month!

A new colorful stage, with new assets and enemies! Look how beautiful the visual got! As you can see, several improvements on graphics were made, so the toon shader looks more interesting right now.

And a water stage is in development! I liked this water so much, so, why not a whole stage covered by a sea? So, the idea here is to develop a stage with a gameplay a bit different, like Mario games do (for example).

The first town is already finished and playable. It already have a cutscene and one NPC character. Now I'm working on other NPCs to put in the town, like a shopkeeper.

Here's a sneakpeak for a new monster in production.a And, of course, I've been working, too, on new drawings and arts.

Some studies that I've made days ago. Purchasing a new tablet made me draw a little more. I got a Pablo Mast10 and I'm loving it! Drawing directly on the screen is fantastic!

...And some WIP for the chibi/SD models.

Well, that's not all. I am capturing some footage to finish the trailer and there's the website too. The Tumblr page got a new header. Maybe I'll do some little anime-style animation to add as a cutscene on the game.

That's all for now. Stay in touch for more news coming soon!

[mahougogame]

Winter is here.

[mahougogame]

Mahou Go Develop diary #07

Here we go!

After all the work to optimize the coding, it's time to develop some levels and modeling stuff. The first town is in progress!

Here's some screenshots:

Phew! I need to work more. I've added a weather system as I said before, and now it's working. So, let's get back to work.

See ya!

[mahougogame]

Mahou Go Devlog diary #06

Phew! Little later, but not too late.

After some long weeks of many jobs on my work, I can now spend some time on my project. Small steps, we're going into something good. At least I could finish another NPC - her name is Marine.

She will be a important NPC on the game, like Sayuri (the previous one). Her design makes me happy, she looks so different, maybe a bit mysterious.

There's some white little houses, I need to put some colors on them. Also, talking about design, I've recently made a minor change to the toon shader, now looks more vivid.

For some stages, my plan is to add a simple weather system that could improve enemies strength or just affect Lucca and the player. For example, a rain stage where the fiends gets a boost on their defenses. Something like that.

Well, that's all for now. Stay in touch!

[mahougogame]

Mahou Go Devlog diary #05

June was a tough month. I had long journeys on my work, but could at least work a little on the game.

I was excited to make a demo trailer. Did it! Maybe a simple website? Check! But what about the playable demo? Well, it's done!

So, why not a release yet? Just hang on a little more, because I want it to be the best.

It's very important to polish all the stuff to make sure everything will be alright. Last month I took a Windows computer to see if the game works well, since my computer is a MacBook. And Mahou Go runs well on a simple notebook. This made me so glad, because on my MacBook (mid 2012, 4GB memory) everything is so slow. That's why the development walks like a turtle, hehe.

As always, graphics continue to improve since I keep working on details: a simple landing smoke when Lucca hit the ground or new arts for menus and key visuals. Sometimes, a bit of motion graphics study helps me animating UMGs.

Well, July is another though month on my work. I need some vacation, hahaha. After all the business, I'm gonna focus on Mahou Go: can't wait to see you guys playing it and sharing your thoughts and feelings about this adventure. That's why I am working hard to add a little more of game play to this demo. Hope you guys enjoy it.

So, stay tuned: very good news are coming! 

[mahougogame]

Mahou Go trailer: a little sneakpeak! 

It's been a while since I started dreaming about a animated version of Lucca, so I started to practice some traditional animation. This is a little piece that I will use on the trailer, after putting some colors and fix some lines.

[mahougogame]

Mahou Go Devlog diary #04

Late, but here it goes! The major update here is the beginning of a hard work to make a trailer for the demo version of game.

My plan is to launch a demo version of Mahou Go until december of this year. After finishing the dialogue system, I have a complete alpha game to show to you guys. So, there's a couple of months for me to do some new arts, build a website and start a steam page.

As usual, last month was good. I had some time to build a new level, fixed minor bugs and improved some visuals. The coding stuff is ok for now, so, I'm working hard to polish the game and add minor details. New musics was added, too.

For June, I think that some drawings and key visuals will be good since my drawings got so much better.

Actually, I've got some good insights for UMG/HUD improvements (after playing Persona 5 for a while... man, this game's amazing beautiful). It's not something hard to do and gives a lot of charm to the whole visual.

This is a print testing the camera depth again. How I love this big head, hahaha.

Demo details

As I said before, there's ins't much to say about that now. I'm planning to launch a demo until the end of this year (for Mac and Windows). So, stay in touch to get more infos about this. 

This is all for now. See ya, guys! 

[mahougogame]

Mahou Go Devlog diary #03

After a month of a break/vacation, I am up now to continue working on the game. Let's check the news!

It's been a while since the last post. There's few changes now, but little by little we are going. As always, the main focus is aiming the best experience for the players, so, the gamepad input is something on my priority list. Right now, the game supports joystick and needs a little calibration to works perfectly.

Another novel: a dialogue system. It's so hard (for a beginner like me) to make a conversation in Unreal Engine. This fact drives me crazy and frustrates me. Right now I'm gonna test a few things to see if it works. God, help me, please.

And, as always, I like to improve and works on visuals while I can. I made a staff for Lucca. Looks good, I liked it.

In action works well, too.

For now, I want to finish the dialogues. After that I will create some levels. 

Well, that's all for today. Stay tuned for more news and cool things. Thanks a lot, guys! Until the next time!

[mahougogame]

Mahou Go - Devlog diary #02

Aaaand... Here we are with the second part!

After a month of vacation, I started to work on my game again. It was good to take some time to do other projects. I could refresh my mind and now i am so much more productive. But let's talk about development of Mahou Go.

As always, some bugs got a fix. Bugs, bugs, bugs... They'll be everywhere, this is so natural. I feel glad that I've fixed all those who crash my game. With that, I can spend some time thinking on coding some mechanics to improve the player experience. For this first moment, I'd like to think on little details as a camera shake when Lucca gets a hit (already working on it). It's a simple thing, but it gives something good to the player when he play the game.

When I get tired, I like to test new things. This made me develop a galactic cube map for some stages. It looks pretty good (you can't see on this print, but trust me: looks beautiful). Also, this is a prototype for a "second world" stage. Oriental styles served me as big references (God, I love the oriental style). Some falling sakura leaves will do a final touch on this stage later.

Well, I have few screenshots from now and I'll post other day. My free times are dedicated to sketch some characters. It's hard to work alone, hehe. But stay in touch: great things are coming!

This is all for now. Hope you guys like it. Thanks, see ya!

[mahougogame]

New map in progress

Giving life (for real) to some concepts. I made a galaxy cube map texture, but it's not too visible in this screenshot. Later I'll show it.