After months of building, rebuilding, debugging, and gradually assembling the systems behind an online world, I've reached one of the biggest milestones of the Magickness project so far:
The Open Demo is live.
Magickness is an open-world MMORPG being developed in Unreal Engine. The goal of this demo isn't to represent the finished game. It's the playable foundation I've been building toward.
Players can now enter Pangea and experience systems including:
Character creation and progression
Real-time combat
Magick abilities
Melee and ranged combat
Enemy AI
Gathering and resource harvesting
Crafting
Equipment
Loot
Multiplayer
Persistent online-world infrastructure
The latest addition was archery with bows and arrows, which I decided to squeeze into the demo right before opening it.
Because apparently releasing software wasn't stressful enough.
Windows + Android
The Open Demo is currently available directly for Windows PC and Android.
I've also completed the SteamPipe pipeline for the Windows build, uploaded the demo to Steam, installed it through the actual Steam client, and successfully played it from my Steam Library.
The Steam Demo is now in Valve's review queue.
That was a particularly satisfying moment. There's a big difference between running your own packaged executable and seeing something you've spent months building sitting in your Steam Library with a DEMO banner across it.
Now I Want Players in the World
The next milestone isn't another backend service or gameplay system.
I want to see people playing Magickness together.
Part of the reason for opening the demo now is to start gathering real-world feedback, find problems that only appear when actual players enter the world, and capture multiplayer gameplay as I finish the project's Kickstarter trailer.
This is still an early demo. Things will break. Things will change. Some systems are much further along than others.
But that's exactly what this stage is for.
Nine months ago, Magickness was an experiment.
Now there's a world you can actually enter.
The Dawn of Magick has begun.
What Magick Will You Discover?
