#The magic circle

[talientravere]

Even if you've never watched my channel before, a good chunk of my anniversary stream will basically be me reviewing cool indie games. If you're interested in watching me show off some of the games I've played and give my (non-spoilery) thoughts on them, check it out!

[misscromwellsmonocle]

The Magic Circle (1886) by John William Waterhouse

[robertmatejcek]

A Place Without Magic (Circles) - acrylic painting - 6"x6" mdf - 2024

“Flames from the lips may be produced by holding in the mouth a sponge saturated with the purest gasoline." - Harry Houdini

tags

[stigmatam4rtyr]

The Magic Circle (1886) | John William Waterhouse

[artschoolglasses]

The Magic Circle, John William Waterhouse, 1886

[ourstaturestouchtheskies]

The Magic Circle – John William Waterhouse // Burn Your Village (Same Old Energy Part II) – Kiki Rockwell

[wealmostaneckbeard]

Nintendo could make their own version of Lethal Company that's Mario themed.

Hi, hello, I just woke up from a dream this morning that made it seem possible. Here's the gameplay mechanics/narrative that my conscious mind is putting together for this idea that came to me when I was asleep:

Players are Mario, Luigi, and whoever else, in an isometric multiplayer platformer. They ride in an airship to a salvaging zone, dismount, then run around grabbing stuff and dodging bad guys/corrupted guardians. Each salvaging zone has a randomly generated topography with randomized loot and guardians. Once they've brought enough loot back to their airship, the heroes have to decide which 1 of 3 offices to sell their haul to. Each office has a different layout and will pay extra for specific items.

Princess Peach's office is a modernized castle, there's relaxing gardens with fountains and hedge mazes. The princess wants stuff like durable sports equipment and fragile tea sets, things that are easy to carry. The vending machines in her castle-office sell power up mushrooms which makes player characters more resistant to bad guy attacks. Toads wandering around the office campus will give the player characters random free stuff.

Wario's office is a golden casino that's ostentatious and filled with strange criminals. Wario wants gold bricks and locked vaults, things that are so heavy that it slows whoever carries it. Players can gamble away their money at various minigames scattered throughout the office-casino. The eccentric crooks (warioware chararcters) can be hired to make the next salvaging zone easier to navigate. They can put the guardians to sleep or paint arrows towards hidden loot. The problem is that these mercenaries are incompetent and/or treacherous so they might do the opposite of what they were paid to do.

Finally, Browsers office is a dangerous dark fortress filled with lava and koopas. Bowser wants portable traps and explosives, things that will hurt if dropped and/or stepped on. Power Ups like the fire flower can be found in his fortess-office, located at the ends of deadly obstacle courses. Koopa Troopers can be hired here as loot porters, while Dry Bones can be recruited to distract the bad guys.

The villain in this adventure is the Interstellar Investor, it is the CEO of the GlitchBug Investment Firm. It pressured Peach, Wario, and Bowser into selling their properties by giving them humongous amounts of money... and corrupting their file data a little bit. The Investor doesn't actually know what to do with the real estate it acquired so it's ordered constant remodeling projects for the locations, just to look busy, hence the creation of the randomized salvaging zones.

Peach, Wario, and Bowser have used their new fortunes to buy offices for themselves. They are forced to live in these locations with their "employees" because GlitchBug Investment turned everyone's homes into the salvaging zones. They don't miss their old homes but they do miss their stuff. So they got together and bought a computer controlled airship for Mario, whom they hope will steal their stuff back.

Mario (and friends) have a different goal, he wants to disolve GlitchBug Investments by buying controlling shares in the firm and then shutting it down. That's where the genre defining cash quota objective system comes into play.

As the player characters buy more shares, they will get anonymous emails on their airship computer that reveal secrets about the Interstellar Invester, it's corrupted guardians, and GlitchBug Investments.

Those secrets should tell a horrifying yet sad story:

Imagine if you, everyone you knew, and your very reality was designed to teach children about the wonders of capitalism. But everything doesn't exist yet, it's being assembled by gods who are cutting corners and squandering resources. They do such a bad job working on their project, that is your entire existence, that it gets cancelled by Nintendo in the mid-1990's. Everything goes dark, and in the darkness you discover little packets of reality that you can manipulate. You mess around with these packages in the darkness for decades until you build a portal to someplace else. This new place is Nintendo's more successful Super Mario and less successful WarioWare franchises. It's a bright universe that is as beautiful as it is incomprehensible to you. You turn this alien reality into someplace habitable for yourself and all your friends, so that all of you no longer have to live in the dark. You are the Interstellar Investor.

[princess-pengy]

Strange Gaming Diaries: The Magic Circle, by Question

click here to read the latest diary entry on my website!

games about games are nothing new to mid-2010s independent developers, but this is maybe the most about games I've seen a game ever be! so much so that I ended up going a little bit overboard and writing a much longer diary entry than usual and I am not sorry in the slightest

[eyeofpsyche]

‘Witches’ in Art (’Halloween in Art’ Series)

’The Magic Circle,’ (1886),

John William Waterhouse (1849–1917),

Oil on canvas, H 183 cm × W 127 cm,

Tate Britain, London, England.

[pmamtraveller]

THE MAGIC CIRCLE (1886)by JOHN WILLIAM WATERHOUSE

The subject of the painting is opaque. The main figure is a woman wearing a long blue gown with a warrior's style. She carries a sickle in a crescent shape, which links her to the moon and Hecate.

The background is unclear, but it appears to be an arid landscape. The woman appears to be engaged in some kind of ceremony. She is standing over a boiling cauldron that is emitting steam. The painting shows her sketching a circle in the ground.

The circle is a marker of ritual purity. Ravens and frogs, symbols of evil, are clustered outside the circle while the woman stands inside surrounded by flowers. The eponymous magic circle is a physical and spiritual divide between two states of being.

Combined, this environment and its symbols represent a variety of cultures, concepts, and customs. There is no particular, identifiable theme in mind. Simply a painting about magic.

THE MAGIC CIRCLE is, more than anything else, about the unknown. According to the TATE MUSEUM, “his fascination with the exotic is reflected in the painting.” THE MAGIC CIRCLE is not a representation of a character, a time, or a place. Instead, it accesses a liminal and imaginative space where otherness and the unknown can be explored.

[biggrump]

Video Games I played in 2023 (and maybe even enjoyed)

A completely unorganized list of games I played this year that I wanted to talk about because they were great.

1. Ultrakill - My biggest time sink of the year. Found out about this game about a year ago due to FUNKe talking about it a lot. Was hooked from the first level, and after beating it I replayed several levels until I mastered the mechanics, then looked for all the secret levels, then P-ranked all of Act 1 and then the P-1 boss fight several times over (Act 2 is hard to P-rank). However enjoyment did kinda dry up for a bit after I actually got good at the game but then Hakita dropped the first part of act 3 a while ago and it started all over again. Here's hoping the last 2 chapters stick the landing and keep scratching that itch (which they probably will let's be honest)

2. Metal Gear Solid series - Played all of the games aside from 4 which couldn't run on my PC (had to watch a long play for it) and Peace Walker just cause I got distracted by other stuff. The first game didn't really resonate with me on a deeper level but its storytelling, gameplay mechanics, and 4th wall breaks are amazing, especially for the time. 2 and 3 hit far harder and are some of the best games I've ever played. I could talk for hours about every facet of 2's creativity with its meta narrative and constant questioning of reality but then I wouldn't have time to talk about other games here. Just know that it is now my favorite game ever made. 3, while not quite as crazy and predictive with its plot, is just a really good story about a small group of characters that is incredibly written and told. I also really enjoyed 5's gameplay and a lot of the more subtle storytelling, and while 4 has an utterly incomprehensible plot with tons of holes, the character writing, voice acting, and graphics are phenomenal. I want whatever Kojima smokes when he comes up with these.

3. Red Dead Online - I played this with my brother and encountered a modder on my first day. Think that really informed my take on this game because he gave me a shit ton of money and I was able to use it to get a bounty license which took up most of my time in that game. We'd just queue up a bounty mission and play some Oingo Boingo and Talking Heads while we ride, do the bounty, then watch random videos while we waited till the last minute to drop off the bounty bc of how Rockstar decided to set up the system. We also met a couple people online and overall just had a great experience bein a rootin tootin shootin cowboy. Also my guy looks doofy as fuck.

4. The Artful Escape - Impulse bought this game after I watched a vid by Jexonite where he played every game published by Annapurna because the premise seemed fun and I thought it looked cool. Turns out the game does look cool, incredible even. But the art style is kind of all this game has going for it, aside from some solid voice actors (Jason Schwartzman and Lena Headey were cool and Mark Strong was completely unrecognizable). Gameplay is basically just a walking sim that occasionally tells you to press buttons to play notes on your guitar and the story took a pretty generic turn. Has absolutely zero replay value but I did enjoy playing it.

5. BPM - The first roguelike I've ever gotten into, probably because it has a guns in it. I got all the way up to the last level then died to a low level enemy and have not gotten that far in the game since. The OST goes insanely hard though and is part of the reason why I keep coming back to it. It's also insanely addicting so be warned.

6. Hotline Miami - Probably holds the record for the game that pissed me off the most this year. An insanely fun and fast paced shooter game where your reaction timing is everything and that every nerd with a YouTube channel has already picked apart. Even though some of the AI is complete jank it is so satisfying clearing rooms in this game. The art style is also quite good and the soundtrack introduced me to a ton of new artists. Also is a strong case for environmental storytelling needing to be more prevalent in games. I can figure out what's going on I'm a smart guy.

7. Katana Zero - A very Hotline Miami inspired game aka a game with a pixelated art style and a synthwave soundtrack where the goal is to clear rooms and you die in one hit. I feel a bit more mixed about this game compared to Hotline honestly. I really liked the time slowing mechanic, the mobility, and the way you can reflect bullets with your sword. I also like how the enemy AI actually stays consistent through each run of the level, whereas with Hotline there were some enemies who could move erratically and fuck everything up even if you plan a solid route. However, I think because of how the story was told I don't think it had as much of an impact on me. I can't really remember a lot of the important details but I can remember that a lot of plot threads were left unresolved. Also, while I do like the combat a lot, I feel like it's missing the sandbox approach that Hotline had. Honestly not a game I would necessarily come back to, but if the dev made a sequel I would buy it (especially if we get to play as Dragon more he was cool as fuck). I'll also give the game props for actually having an OST unlike Hotline.

8. Undertale - What could I say about this game that hasn't already been said by the entire population of South Dakota? It is very fun and I am glad I finally took the plunge and played it. Now I just have to finish the other routes at some point lol

9. Lethal Company - I played this game with multiple friend groups and it was incredibly fun but also terrifying. If you haven't played yet, the best advice I can give is to just go in completely blind and figure shit out on your own. Also, try to actually go into the buildings instead of staying in the ship like a goo goo ga ga dingus.

Other stuff I played worth mentioning (Smaller stuff or games I revisited/haven't finished a full playthrough of):

1. A Hat in Time DLC - Played the original game late last year and loved it, but didn't get the DLC so I didn't play it for some time. Played it this year and had a blast. The Nyakuza Metro level is so detailed, you can really tell the devs poured their heart and soul into making this game look as great as it does. Made me rediscover my love for the base game.

2. Titanfall 2 - Not my first time playing it but replayed the single player on PC for the first time (played on Xbox before) and realized the characters and level design were way better than I remembered. I then started pestering everyone I knew to play it and the ones who did seem to like it too. I also popped off multiple times in the multiplayer so it was nice to have a multiplayer game that I'm good at.

3. The Magic Circle - Played for a few hours and then stopped, but the premise is quite fun and I am eager to revisit at some point in the future.

4. The Looker - This one was just funny idrk what else to say. (I have not played The Witness)

[insaneinsan101]

It's so wild that there's very little fandom content for The Magic Circle despite having really great ratings on Steam since fuckin 2015 and being very well liked.

[visual-oddities]

Battle of the niche fandoms

[talientravere]

Yesterday on The Magic Circle, we got a bunch of new allies and abilities, made a bridge out of floating, fire-breathing rocks, and ghosted our first Skybastard. Oh, and we may have left a parasitic worm on the loose. What could possibly go wrong?

Join me today at 7pm EST as we hack into a live demo of the game and unleash the chaos we have wrought!

Description from Steam: In this darkly comedic story, you are the hero of an unfinished fantasy game, and your designers have failed you. Steal the power of a game god - trap their creations, swap behaviors and body parts, crafting your own unique solutions to free-form puzzles. Can you release a game …from the inside?

[this-blog-has-no-name]

What is Magic?

“Magic is the ancient and absolute science of nature and her laws.” (A. L. Constant, The History of Magic, London 1922)Lets talk about a big question that many beginners want to know. “What is magic?” Many people like to rationalize magic as illusions, parlor tricks, sleight of hand or even fraud. Others dismiss magic as a supernatural fantasy for those who can’t accept “the reality of life”.…