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Steam News19 May 20261mo ago

Magengaard Newsletter

After months of countless hours, late nights, and three consecutive all-nighters, our team at Star Monarch is thrilled to finally step into the light.

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Full Magengaard update

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What changed

0 fixes2 additions3 changes0 removals
  • Gameplay
  • UI and audio
addedMagengaard Academy is not home to your typical pointy-hat wizards. It is a vast coastal desert city, rich with unique architecture, deep culture, and long-buried mysteries. After a cataclysm shattered the world and left behind only a Fragment of what once was, humanity rebuilt itself in this final haven. Scattered across ruined city states from a previous era were ancient devices capable of manipulating the elemental energies that make up the fabric of the world. These devices gave birth to a new society, governed by a central University body dedicated to regulating and uncovering the origins of what they came to call Elemancy .
changedMagengaard is a PvP competitive arena game where your skill determines how high you rise. In this world, you are your character. Your character's abilities are your abilities. They don't level up over time. You do.
changedAt the heart of the game is Elemancy, a magic system that puts you in the driver's seat. Every spell is cast through drawing, where a unique rune language conjures and modifies incantations, while control sequences direct them in real time. Precise motion, timing, force, and feel all matter. Elemancy was born from one question: how do we make it feel like you are doing the magic, not just watching it happen on screen?
addedWe're always looking for new community members to join us as we build. Join our Discord to be the first to hear updates, participate in playtests, and be part of shaping what Magengaard becomes. Also be sure to follow our other social medias!
changedAleksey's original vision was always PvP. After weighing it with the original team, PvE won out for the creative opportunity it offered. But building it taught us something important: a truly polished PvE experience demands a lot, and we risked spreading ourselves too thin. Returning to PvP let us focus on what makes Magengaard special: the magic combat itself.

Magengaard changes

addedMagengaard Academy is not home to your typical pointy-hat wizards. It is a vast coastal desert city, rich with unique architecture, deep culture, and long-buried mysteries. After a cataclysm shattered the world and left behind only a Fragment of what once was, humanity rebuilt itself in this final haven. Scattered across ruined city states from a previous era were ancient devices capable of manipulating the elemental energies that make up the fabric of the world. These devices gave birth to a new society, governed by a central University body dedicated to regulating and uncovering the origins of what they came to call Elemancy .
changedMagengaard is a PvP competitive arena game where your skill determines how high you rise. In this world, you are your character. Your character's abilities are your abilities. They don't level up over time. You do.
changedAt the heart of the game is Elemancy, a magic system that puts you in the driver's seat. Every spell is cast through drawing, where a unique rune language conjures and modifies incantations, while control sequences direct them in real time. Precise motion, timing, force, and feel all matter. Elemancy was born from one question: how do we make it feel like you are doing the magic, not just watching it happen on screen?
addedWe're always looking for new community members to join us as we build. Join our Discord to be the first to hear updates, participate in playtests, and be part of shaping what Magengaard becomes. Also be sure to follow our other social medias!
changedAleksey's original vision was always PvP. After weighing it with the original team, PvE won out for the creative opportunity it offered. But building it taught us something important: a truly polished PvE experience demands a lot, and we risked spreading ourselves too thin. Returning to PvP let us focus on what makes Magengaard special: the magic combat itself.

After months of countless hours, late nights, and three consecutive all-nighters, our team at Star Monarch is thrilled to finally step into the light. We made our grand reveal at the Toronto Levelup 2026 Showcase, and now it's time to properly introduce ourselves and the world we've been building.

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Magengaard Academy is not home to your typical pointy-hat wizards. It is a vast coastal desert city, rich with unique architecture, deep culture, and long-buried mysteries. After a cataclysm shattered the world and left behind only a Fragment of what once was, humanity rebuilt itself in this final haven. Scattered across ruined city states from a previous era were ancient devices capable of manipulating the elemental energies that make up the fabric of the world. These devices gave birth to a new society, governed by a central University body dedicated to regulating and uncovering the origins of what they came to call Elemancy.

Elemental Fighting quickly became the competitive sport of the Academy, with tournament culture running for generations, sponsored by the Academy University itself. It is this aspect of the Magengaard world that we want to bring you first and foremost.

Magengaard is a PvP competitive arena game where your skill determines how high you rise. In this world, you are your character. Your character's abilities are your abilities. They don't level up over time. You do.

At the heart of the game is Elemancy, a magic system that puts you in the driver's seat. Every spell is cast through drawing, where a unique rune language conjures and modifies incantations, while control sequences direct them in real time. Precise motion, timing, force, and feel all matter. Elemancy was born from one question: how do we make it feel like you are doing the magic, not just watching it happen on screen?

Steam post imageWe are aiming to launch in Early Access by Summer 2026, but we'll only pull that trigger when we're confident in the quality. Too many games hit Early Access before they're ready, and we refuse to be one of them. That said, we cannot do this without you.

We're always looking for new community members to join us as we build. Join our Discord to be the first to hear updates, participate in playtests, and be part of shaping what Magengaard becomes. Also be sure to follow our other social medias!

The Fragment's story goes back centuries, but in our world, it began in early 2024.

As part of the Video Game Design course at the University of Toronto under Professor Steve Engels, a team of ten built the first version of Magengaard, presented at Levelup Showcase 2024 and still playable on itch.io:

https://badlek.itch.io/magengaard

That first game told the story of JJ, a boy who travels south from the Northreach Haven in search of the Magengaard Academy. Through 45 minutes of puzzles, combat, and light story, it was here that the world of the Fragment was first conceived, and all of its lore was born.

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So why start over?

Aleksey's original vision was always PvP. After weighing it with the original team, PvE won out for the creative opportunity it offered. But building it taught us something important: a truly polished PvE experience demands a lot, and we risked spreading ourselves too thin. Returning to PvP let us focus on what makes Magengaard special: the magic combat itself.

The original game and everything it created is not forgotten. The world of the Fragment remains canon and is deeply woven into our upcoming release. If Magengaard succeeds, bringing back a PvE story mode is within our vision.

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Source

Steam News / 19 May 2026

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