Ova Magica - An adorable farming and monster taming game!
Created by ClaudiaTheDev
Inspired by Stardew Valley, Slime Rancher and beloved classics like Harvest Moon and Pokémon! For PC, Switch, XB1/SX and PS4/5.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Ova Magica is at PAX EAST!
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Mar 24, 2023 at 09:02:25 AM
The Ova Magica Preview Demo is playable at PAX East!
Hi everybody! A special update today for you all... if you're out and about at PAX East, you can come take a peek at Ova Magica! You can find it at the Top Hat Studios booth, where you can also try out a bunch of other fun games. In addition to Ova Magica, you can play Tiny Life, Elementallis and Athenian Rhapsody.
Here's a little snippet of the map, so you know where to find the booth! As you can see, the booth number is 15093. Have a great time!
Shoutout time: Windswept!
Lastly, we're ending this update by paying it forward for another developer on Kickstarter: Windswept!Classic platforming is back, and it's brought company! Windswept is a 2D collect-a-thon platformer paying homage to the good old days. After a gigantic storm blows them away, a duck and turtle friends try to find their way home. Play as both 🦆Marbles and 🐢Checkers by tag-teaming -- You control the lead character while the other follows close behind.
Available with local co-op, and with a treasure trove of hidden challenges, bonuses, and secret modes, as well as 5 different regions with more friends to meet along the way, Windswept is inspired by the legends of both retro and modern platforming such as Donkey Kong Country 2, Celeste, and Yoshi's Island. Be sure to sign up for their campaign launch by clicking this link, or the image below!
Q1 2023 Update - Exciting News!
about 1 year ago
– Mon, Mar 20, 2023 at 05:23:48 AM
Hello together♥!
I know many eagerly awaited an new dev update and here it is! There are actually some very exciting news!
Before we get into it i want to announce that until near game release i will do the bigger Kickstarter updates quaterly, which means the next one will be by the end of June 2023.
But no worries, who wants to get more frequently news can follow the Twitteraccound or join the Ova Magica Discord in which we post regularly smaller news and updates. Also feel free to reach out anytime!
Now to the actual update♥
New Writers
We are currently working very hard to fill the world of Ova Magica with lots of content like events, quests and lore. Some may have noticed that we posted a job offer for writers. There were over 100 applications!
It was a tough decision, but may I announce that our lead writer Renkka is now supported by 3 additional freelance writers who joined the Ova Magica team!
The last content update for the Closed Backer Preview build is live on Steam. It features basic blob breeding and gives you the opportunity to enter the first blob world which is pirate themed. That said both features are still limited/locked regarding content and secrets for full game release. But you can already get a first impression♥
To avoid spoilers for full game i sadly can't share with you too and also the writers search has taken a huge amount of time. Here is still a selection of some new things♥
Blob Adoption
You can now give up blobs for adoption to Flint if you don't need them. The option is available in your blob barn. The last blobs adopted by Flint live in the blob breedery.
Move planted trees
A very highly requested feature: Trees, planted by you, can now be moved in the build mode accessed by the workbench. This enables to move trees easily when they don't have enough room to grow or when you need to re-decorate your farm.
Place it in the river and fill with some bait (bugs). Maybe there will be something inside the following day;-)?
New Item: Worm
There is a chance to also get a worm when digging up mud piles. The worm can be also used for fishing cage bait.
A small pirate blob world glimpse
Thank you for reading and don't hestitate to reach out in case of questions or just comment in general♥
~Claudia
Closed Backer Preview - Now Live!
over 1 year ago
– Fri, Dec 23, 2022 at 07:15:34 PM
Closed Backer Preview is live!
Today is the day! The Closed Backer Preview can be played by all backers who have "Beta" in their reward!
We want to emphasise that this is NOT a beta (strictly by definition) but an early preview for backers (something between alpha and beta).
I (Claudia) would have liked to work on it for another 1-2 months, but due to some important last-minute events I couldn't use the time that was originally planned. Nevertheless, I wanted to keep my promise and make it available in 2022 before Christmas♥
With help from Top Hat Studios QA team, we have extensively tested the game for the past 2 weeks or so and a lot of major issues were already sorted! However, as a game in development and a very early build, there is high likelihood that other things might come up when you play. In that case, we want to just point out a few things!
Here is the most important at a glance:
No NDA. You may stream, make videos, share screenshots etc. We appreciate all content! However, we would appreciate if you could make clear in your content that this is a very early preview of the game and doesn't represent the final quality. Don't forget to share the links with us in Discord.
Many things are still WIP and not polished
Content updates are planned after the holidays: Blob Breeding and the first Blobworld! (Unfortunately I didn't manage to make this features polished enough)
We recommend to play with a controller (mouse and keyboard is also possible and honestly not bad, but controller is the 'proper way'). (To see correct key mappings for other than Xbox controller you need to disable Steam Controller Input in Game properties)
Read more details on the start screen before playing
How to access your key to the CBP
In addition to the email you can access your key via your backerkit account. On the Ova Magica survey page click on the button "Digital Downloads".
How to activate the CBPkey
Open the Steam-Client and press in the lower left corner "Add A Game", then "Activate a Product on Steam...". Paste the key you received in the folder.
Happy Holidays
With this update, I (Claudia) am also saying goodbye from 23 December until 2023 to give myself a little time off.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in Discord and the mods will answer them when available. There will also be a channel and clever bot to note down issues you may want to report - instructions on those are in the Discord! However, bigger issues will have to wait until I'm back. Thank you for your understanding!
Enjoy the holidays♥!
November 2022 Dev Update
over 1 year ago
– Mon, Nov 07, 2022 at 02:34:40 AM
This is probably your most burning question, so I'll answer it right at the beginning!
When will the Closed Backer Preview (CBP) be available?
In December in our last update for 2022. I don't want to commit to the exact day, but it will be 100% before Christmas🎄. I hope you are as excited as me♥!?
There will be more information on Twitter and Discord shortly before that.
Steam Deck Support
Ova Magica is fully playable on the Steam Deck. I have even better news: The Closed Backer Preview already runs on it! It's actually currently my preferred method for testing the game and maybe some of you will already play it on the Steam Deck♥?
If you selected "Nintendo Switch" for your digital key (full game release), but now prefer Steam, drop me a message here and i will unlock your survey.
Development Updates
I want to share some of the cool new things which happened since the last update with you ♥
Play with your blobs
I worked on the stretch goal "Play with your blobs". There are several toys and mini games! Your blob has in addition to their daily food craving (which levels up their health) now also one toy craving. When fullfilled your blob levels up its energy! Below is some WIP footage:
And please drop me all your additional toy and mini game ideas in the comments♥ (i noted already some you mentioned before, but feel free to suggest again or new ones!)
Improved Blob Ability Usage
This has been one of my biggest worries so far and I haven't had the courage and willpower to tackle it.
Until now, to use a blob ability (like sprinkler for watering plants), you had to push the blob to the desired position. This was imprecise and tedious. I decided to REDO the WHOLE THING (yes I'm crazy). It was time consuming and hard, but it's done:
This way you can go with your blob to the exact position and use its ability also several times.
I am actually very proud of my decision to redo it and investing a lot of time for it. It feels so much better now! Below are the first videos (footage was recorded some days ago, so it's still very WIP. I polished it already more).
In the video the ability "Fertiliser" of poop blob is used. First you see the old "blob pushing" method, then the new "Blob controlling" method for direct comparison. You see that not only the control method changed but now the affected objects are also highlighted with an outline.
Also in the video below is some additional footage of me testing the ability "Explode" of the bomb blob. I enabled unlimited usage for this and destroyed a big part of the forest near your farm😏
Speaking of redoing stuff😂 I also decided to redo a huge part of the action bar code. As you know, in battle, each blob has a symbol moving on the action bar and being able to use a skill when the symbol reaches the end of the bar. Until now boss battles weren't well balanced and too easy. After defeating the minions it was 3 (your team) VS 1 (boss). So i rewrote also the whole thing so that bosses now have 3 symbols on the action bar. Took me a while but now the boss battles finally feel challenging and more special.
In the video below you can see the action bar in the lower right corner and the boss being represented with a different symbol (skull) than normal blobs.
Compost Bin - Create Fertiliser
Maybe you wondered what to do with all the poop after cleaning your blob barns? For that I added the compost bin. You can place blob poop in it and it creates fertiliser overnight. In the video below you see how it works and also the poop blob being your best buddy for fertilising. (I used the secret dev pause menu to skip a day for better demonstration and also the video was recorded some time ago when you couldn't control your blobs yet).
Some smaller things
Mixer - Create Cream
You can now use the mixer to create whipped cream out of eggs which can be sold, fed to your blobs and used for several cooking recipes like "Strawberry Cake" or "Strawberry Ice Cream". And yes, all makers can process more than one item at a time. You start with 1 but can unlock up to 10 items at a time by increasing your skills.
Wild Berries
Maybe not the biggest feature but i kinda like it♥ i added wild berries which grow under trees all around Clover Valley. They provide a nice and fast energy boost when foraging.
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September 2022 update!
over 1 year ago
– Wed, Sep 07, 2022 at 02:22:58 AM
Closed Backer Preview
Regarding the closed early access/closed beta, we've decided to rename this to be the "closed backer preview". While this might seem like a pedantic change, it's important because the name communicates to people what the relative availability of the game is. With a name like "early access", and the most prevalent use of the word being on Steam where games can release early before being finished, we thought it wasn't a good idea to keep the same name as it might cause some people to mistake it for being an actual early access release.
On that topic, the team has been hard at work polishing the game and testing for bugs ahead of the closed backer preview! It's been a great joy to see all elements of the game come together and the world of Ova Magica come alive. There is quite a lot to do already: the basic form of the character creator works, there's battles and quests, Npcs and their blobs, special festivals and events that you can visit and much more.
Now, there are two things: the first is with this amount of content, where is the right point to cut it off for the closed backer preview? As we've worked on it, the logical thing feels like that we want to add a bit more than originally planned in order to provide a better jumping off point, so it doesn't feel like it ends randomly. With that in mind, it'd also be really bad to crunch the time to try and get everything in all at once at short notice, so we've taken the decision to take just a little bit more time in getting the backer preview ready.
Our new target for the release of the preview is before the end of Q4!
We understand that the delay is disappointing for many and we ourselves can't wait to finally see you play! However, it is already important to us for this preview that the game meets a certain standard, content and quality and it would simply not have been possible to achieve this without crunching. We are very sorry for the delay but promise to continue working hard for you and the game!
Some new in-game content
The whole team has been hard at work the last few weeks. Although we postponed the Closed Backer Preview, we still managed to get a lot done. Don't worry, you'll be able to experience what we've been working on soon enough! Here are some insights for you♥
A walk trough Clover Town
Here is a small video of walking trough Clover Town and interacting with some things.
We worked also hard on creating dialogs and stories for several residents of Clover Town!
New artbook art
In the artbook there will be a detailed picture for each of the 13 characters and their blobs! Our artist Ichigo*Ranch is diligently working on the pictures♥!
Below you can see Lazuli with her blob Belle at a tea party in her garden surrounded by her favorite flowers named "Frost Kiss".
Various improvements
Many things are still being tweaked. For example, we have improved the fishing indicator (for better accessibility) when a blob bites and reeling in will result in a battle:
Some other things
We also want to share with you this awesome 3D figure created by Lean! We have the 3d printing files and will make them in the future available for all for free. So if you would like to 3d and print your own it will be soon possible♥
Shoutout: Paper Animal RPG
Lastly a shoutout to another German dev making an awesome, cute and adorable game! Paper Animal RPG is running their own campaign now and it looks really cool!
Taking place in a papercrafted world, in Paper Animal RPG you and your band of animal adventurers have to go on a quest to find the missing king. As you cross the world, and explore different dungeons, you'll meet other critters on their own journeys, fight dastardly enemies like talking tomapples, shroomheads, and... some slightly scary things, and at the end of it, relax by the campfire together as you sort out dinner. The game is super cute and charming, so please check out their campaign!
