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Steam News30 July 202624d ago

Magengaard Newsletter - Delayed Deadline

Hello again from the Star Monarch team! We come bearing good news and bad. The good: Magengaard has grown enormously since our reveal this past April. The bad: we're pushing our release back.

In this update1

Full notes

Full Magengaard update

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What changed

0 fixes3 additions9 changes0 removals
  • Gameplay
  • Balance
  • UI and audio
  • Maps
addedHello again from the Star Monarch team! We come bearing good news and bad. The good: Magengaard has grown enormously since our reveal this past April. The bad: we're pushing our release back. Committing to a Summer launch would have meant shipping something half-finished, and we won't do that to Elemancy, or to you. Choosing quality over speed wasn't an easy call, but it was the right one. We'll share a new timeline once the dust settles on the game-changing plans below. For now, here's what we've been building.
changedOur mission with Elemancy is to make it feel like you are doing the magic, not your character on screen. So we took a hard look at how casting actually felt in our first version and made our biggest pivot yet.
changedThe old system split spellcasting into two phases: Conjuring (draw a set of runes, and when the pattern matched, the spell appeared) and Casting (hold and draw to steer it: hurl a fireball, or trace the path of a wall). Playtesting made one thing obvious: the on-screen rune language fought the drawing instead of embracing it. Memorizing rune patterns became a keypress by another name which is exactly what we set out to escape. The real joy lived in Casting, where you physically move and shape a spell in the world. So we rebuilt Conjuring around that same feeling.
changedThe Four PensEvery spell is now painted straight into the world, through four pens:
changedThe Four PensElement Pen — lays elemental particles along your stroke. They repel one another, damage on contact, and can be flung as projectiles. Above all, if forced to touch against their repelling forces, particles coalesce into a larger incantation that grows stronger with every particle you feed it.
changedThe Four PensManipulation Pen — spins up a force current that follows your mouse, pushing, throwing, and gathering spells and particles. With this tool, it is possible to coalesce particles together by drawing an inward spiral, which will lead particles into a single point naturally! Crucially, this isn't a pre-programmed edge case: it is a natural consequence of the force current. Can you find a faster way to coalesce?

Magengaard changes

addedHello again from the Star Monarch team! We come bearing good news and bad. The good: Magengaard has grown enormously since our reveal this past April. The bad: we're pushing our release back. Committing to a Summer launch would have meant shipping something half-finished, and we won't do that to Elemancy, or to you. Choosing quality over speed wasn't an easy call, but it was the right one. We'll share a new timeline once the dust settles on the game-changing plans below. For now, here's what we've been building.
changedOur mission with Elemancy is to make it feel like you are doing the magic, not your character on screen. So we took a hard look at how casting actually felt in our first version and made our biggest pivot yet.
changedThe old system split spellcasting into two phases: Conjuring (draw a set of runes, and when the pattern matched, the spell appeared) and Casting (hold and draw to steer it: hurl a fireball, or trace the path of a wall). Playtesting made one thing obvious: the on-screen rune language fought the drawing instead of embracing it. Memorizing rune patterns became a keypress by another name which is exactly what we set out to escape. The real joy lived in Casting, where you physically move and shape a spell in the world. So we rebuilt Conjuring around that same feeling.
changedEvery spell is now painted straight into the world, through four pens:
changedElement Pen — lays elemental particles along your stroke. They repel one another, damage on contact, and can be flung as projectiles. Above all, if forced to touch against their repelling forces, particles coalesce into a larger incantation that grows stronger with every particle you feed it.

Hello again from the Star Monarch team! We come bearing good news and bad.

The good

Magengaard has grown enormously since our reveal this past April.

The bad

we're pushing our release back. Committing to a Summer launch would have meant shipping something half-finished, and we won't do that to Elemancy, or to you. Choosing quality over speed wasn't an easy call, but it was the right one. We'll share a new timeline once the dust settles on the game-changing plans below. For now, here's what we've been building.

For generations, Wards were taught that incantations are fixed words in a dictionary of runes, traced and cast the same way each time. New research shatters that idea: Elemancy is fluid. An Elemancer can shape the very fabric of an element, materializing its finest particles and binding them into greater spells. The University is already rewriting its courses, from Lower School on up.— The Academy Journal

Our mission with Elemancy is to make it feel like you are doing the magic, not your character on screen. So we took a hard look at how casting actually felt in our first version and made our biggest pivot yet.

The old system split spellcasting into two phases: Conjuring (draw a set of runes, and when the pattern matched, the spell appeared) and Casting (hold and draw to steer it: hurl a fireball, or trace the path of a wall). Playtesting made one thing obvious: the on-screen rune language fought the drawing instead of embracing it. Memorizing rune patterns became a keypress by another name which is exactly what we set out to escape. The real joy lived in Casting, where you physically move and shape a spell in the world. So we rebuilt Conjuring around that same feeling.

The Four Pens

Every spell is now painted straight into the world, through four pens:

  • Element Pen — lays elemental particles along your stroke. They repel one another, damage on contact, and can be flung as projectiles. Above all, if forced to touch against their repelling forces, particles coalesce into a larger incantation that grows stronger with every particle you feed it.

  • Manipulation Pen — spins up a force current that follows your mouse, pushing, throwing, and gathering spells and particles. With this tool, it is possible to coalesce particles together by drawing an inward spiral, which will lead particles into a single point naturally! Crucially, this isn't a pre-programmed edge case: it is a natural consequence of the force current. Can you find a faster way to coalesce?

  • Rune Pen — the familiar gesture drawing rune language. Each rune is an upgrade or ability, cast in world space: draw it onto a spell that has enough particle energy, and it fires.

  • Element Swap Pen — also leveraging gesture runes, switches which element your Element Pen paints.

The world itself becomes your Elemancy workbench. Every spell begins by painting particles into the arena and then building from there.

It's the rare change that solves everything at once. Drawing finally takes center stage, and the barrier to entry drops to nothing: a brand-new player who just drags their mouse already has particles to play with. Manipulation is technique, not memorization. Experiment for a minute and the mechanics reveal themselves. Only the Rune and Element Swap Pens ask you to learn anything by heart, and who doesn't want a cool rune language up their sleeve?

The first full prototype is already in the game. We're polishing the visuals and rewriting the spell set now.

The Shard is our purpose made visible: a mountain torn from the Quarry and held in the sky by the Terra Divum Vessel: a colossal Elemancy Vessel unearthed at Ember's Crest, its power beyond any personal Vessel's reach. The same device that raised our city now keeps this island aloft: home to the annual Academy Cup, and to every new frontier of Elemancy we dare to test.— The Academy Journal

The Shard Colosseum is the grand arena crowning the sky island called The Shard. With Elemental Fighting at the heart of our game, it's one of the very first maps you'll play. The Academy Cup is no backdrop, either: the tournament will run in the Colosseum for real, among our first players and every wave that follows.

Its secret is a modular centerpiece. The whole arena reshapes on command: layouts, hazards, and geometry rearranged by the same Terra Divum Vessel that holds the Shard aloft. Each time we ship a new arena, a new Academy Cup crowns the players bold enough to be first into unfamiliar ground.

A delayed timeline doesn't mean progress has stopped, far from it. But Magengaard only stays alive with you behind it. Join our Discord to be first for every update and to jump into upcoming playtests.

Source

Steam News / 30 July 2026

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