Spellcaster University

Campaign only, but three times, normal length (5 options; for me, normal is just right for this kind of builder). The first one vanilla and the other two each with a different challenge enabled. The campaign consists of 7 maps. When the "approach bar" on the top of the screen is full, you leave the first 6 maps to build a new university somewhere else. The locations bring different benefits and obstacles and special encounters. You also have to choose a permanent curse and pick a permanent bonus after every map. Objectives completed on the map (3 max) = tier of the bonus. I have discovered many graduation options, but there are still almost equally as many combinations I haven't yet. It's obvious, that a lot of thought and care went into making all of it work together. I haven't seen anything I would consider useless and some things can help you, if you just don't get the right cards. Needless to say, if you dislike (or outright hate) randomness or the possibility of planning what you want to do, but then not getting what you need, this game is most likely not for you. I have encountered no crash. Somtimes the Drooler gets stuck in doors. It always gets stuck, when I put it in the Belvedere. One time there was a bug with Orcs attacking an arriving student, who just kept trying to walk through them, seemingly immortal. How would I describe this game? First: Builder, but the card draw mechanic keeps it fresh. Instead of building the tried and true thing over and over again, you make the best of what you get. Second: Puzzler. a) The size and shape of rooms, accessible directions and (for some rooms) blocked above space have to be kept in mind and put together in a way where students can still easily reach everywhere they need to go. b) Putting up classes: Set priorities to get combinations you want and/or just to test, if they give you yet undiscovered future graduation options. It's a game, where I don't mind the "running timer". It all just fits so well.

Downloaded this because I am a former HP nerd and I love management games. I also appreciate that it'll play on Mac, which is a nice bonus, as few games do that. It has a cool premise (build a magic school!) and neat mechanics (draw cards to get different classrooms, relics, etc.!) but it lacks a free play mode which makes it a bit of a let down for me. The campaign is cool but I was hoping for something Fallout-Shelter-y where I could build a super cool magic school over time and develop our reputation for being the best of the best. It's still a good game, but it would be better with a free-play mode.

"Spellcaster University" is unlike any game I've played before. It starts off like a card game. Randomly draw three cards. You might get a school pet, a decoration, a classroom for your magic university... etc. You use these cards to build your school and watch it come alive like an aquarium simulator, BUT a highly interactive one. Constant notifications will pop up from the King, the neighboring peasants, Orc tribe, etc... It's not a game that you can just have on in the background. It will pause itself to give you time to make a decision. You know, actually play the game! You cannot directly move students, but you can control what types of classes they will take, and you can take 4 that you select out on dungeon missions, that resembles more like a card game. Even though a lot is randomized, the game does require you to think. You get money from students in the school, and you get various types of energy from various types of classrooms. For example, An alchemy classroom will generate alchemical energy. You use these energy points to draw a card from the alchemy-themed deck. Or perhaps an event is going on- which requires you to pay in alchemy points. If you don't have any type of alchemy classroom in your school then you won't be generating any alchemy points. The notifications can get a little repetitive, but the randomization of the cards, and buffs and debuffs of different areas (and for finishing a level) keep it interesting. Sometimes it's just not possible, or the most beneficial option to pay your hard-earned points to keep a small skeleton horde from attacking your school.

Spellcaster University gets high praise from me for being an original game, especially one that isn't "lol so random" original, but well designed and put together. The deck of cards adds a randomizing element whether you get better Light Magic or better Alchemy instruction; the large number of draws and the opportunity to get mana elsewhere lets you direct what sort of school you want to build. It's a slow-paced game where you need to plan and wait, there's no immediate reactions or quick fixes. Building a magic school feels like something where the rest of the world has a say, to an appropriate level. You are dealing with a situation, not a sandbox. There's a cool talking skull. The gameplay has priority over the story, and it's solid gameplay. But you probably heard that in a dozen other reviews. So I will focus on my biggest complaint, "Good 2D game in a bad 3D engine", which I'm not seeing much mention of. The game is played from a side-on cross-section view of the magic school, where you place rooms and towers, next to and above each other. You only ever see the school from one direction, but you can look at it from slightly higher up in that direction, and zoom in or out to look closer. A lot of 3D rendering work went into the parallax landscape and the 3D student models moving around. This feels like a waste of time for someone only ever seen from one direction or *slightly* to the side of that direction. The entire game could have been 2D sprites, and then it would have been much smaller in memory and much faster to load. I have no idea how many people have bought the game, or how many times they played it. But if I imagine maybe a million times played - every second of loading time, multiplied by a million, is about two weeks of time that people spent waiting and doing nothing. Spellcaster University has several seconds of loading time, at several different points, all for no graphical benefit. Boo.