Magnus

I’ve tested this game at multiple stages of development, and I want to start by saying how much I appreciate this latest update. The piece projection, advanced tutorial, and being able to read my upgrades mid-epoch are all fantastic quality-of-life improvements, especially for players like me who are still finding our feet.

Beyond the core mechanics, what I really enjoy is the attention to detail. Everything feels intentional and well thought out, and I love that. The aesthetics are spot-on, and even small touches like the sounds in the shop are incredibly satisfying.

There are a few areas where I think the experience could be pushed even further. For example, the destruction phase feels a little too quick. I often don’t have time to really absorb the impact of my board losing integrity because it all happens so fast. It might feel more impactful if the forms shook or quaked before exploding, to build tension, and if the integrity bar came front and centre as it decreased before returning to its place. That extra emphasis would make the consequences of missing forms feel more meaningful.

I also feel there’s a slight imbalance between the “life” of the pieces and the forms. Pieces are loaded with information, while forms are left mostly to interpretation. It might help to add some visual indicators to the forms for example, showing when they’re pinned or when buffs and debuffs apply. That would bring more clarity and balance between the two sides.

Lastly, I noticed that the end-of-epoch summary shows my fragments but doesn’t list upgrades like Finishers Fee. Since these directly affect fragments, I was hoping they’d be included. Having a “summary” without all the key influences feels a bit incomplete.

That said, these are relatively small points compared to the overall quality of the game. It’s clear how much care and intentionality has gone into its design, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. Well done!

Hello again! I'm really loving this game at the moment and gotten super deep into the meta and strategies. I've played until epoch 66 and have written a list of some potential fixes or tweaks that could be implemented.

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Ideas
- New set of upgrades that buff constructs with levitate that are placed on an empty square or target/attack levitating forms (must have enough value to justify having to buy two upgrades for it to work)

- Ability to draw arrows before placing pieces 

- Allow players to select pieces off their pedestals with number keys


Tweaks
- Highlight square underneath piece when hovering

- Difficult to tell how much health a construct has or how damage works (reticulated frame just says adds +1 reinforced but can be difficult to know what that means unless you are already familiar with the upgrade)


Bugs
- Promote has bugged one time, promoted pawn without meeting the requirements

- If the player exits to title screen immediately after their final attack that would result in a loss of board integrity, the next time they load up, they will start on epoch 2 and most of the board squares will be missing, however, the board will still be at 100%. It also spawns in extra forms that shouldn't be there at that early of a point in the game.

--I avoided mentioning bugs that are listed on Trello--

All in all, I've had a GREAT time playing so far. With it's stunning visuals and it's intellectual and polished gameplay, this game is truly, very impressive.

The updated integrated tutorial is super helpful and much more intuitive. A major improvement on an issue that I had whilst playing the first release, making the game much more beginner friendly and significantly less daunting to get into.

Its actually pretty crazy to me how much a little bit of direction helps encourage players to read and learn about all of the upgrades.

Great game full of unique interactions and satisfying clears. 

I would like the promote mechanic to rather avoid promoting into the same pieces as you have the drive/core of instead of getting rid of those upgrade cards.

This has the makings of a fantastic Rougue-like and the bones of the game are fantastic with really satisfying gameplay especially when everything clicks together and combo's start stacking on top of each other. While chess is not for everyone Magnus is still worth a shot if you are a fan of Rouge-likes

I really REALLY like the look of the game (rip purpur flowers 💔) and the flowers especially but don't ask why because i don't know. The only thing that might be something to consider is a pause feature? Maybe i missed it but yeah. I can imagine a scenario where I'd be playing but then I need to go somewhere and i cant pause/save (im not sure if the omission of saves and pausing is part of roguelikes so im sorry if this is useless info 😅). But gameplay is really smooth and i really like the whoosh sound effect each time time you complete an epoch!!

Super addictive!

Loved the roguelike replayability and creative array of upgrades, sound effects were clean and matched the game well. Very creative take on using chess pieces as defesive mechanisms, makes onboarding super intuitive and easy to pickup on mechanincs.

Feels too clean and polished for a game on itch, was expecting way more bugs!

Loved giving this game a try. It definitely took me too long to understand how it works(but that will happen if you ignore the tutorial). The game feel is incredibly polished, and the game looks amazing. Trying to strategize each round and figure out the best place to put your pieces was a challenge and a blast. Keep up the amazing work!