Spellbound: The Magic Within is a more diverse visual novel coming to Switch late 2022
Spellbound: The Magic Within is a 2D visual novel inspired by choose your own adventure books and Dungeons & Dragons where you play a magical character who has just discovered their powers. For the first time the developer, Wydren Games, revealed to Nintendo Link the game will be coming to Switch in late 2022.
Speaking to Nintendo Link at the W.A.S.D games convention in London solo developer Sally Sheppard of Wyrdren explained that Spellbound, which was already getting a steam release on July 29th, is all about player choice. The UK games fund backed creative director follows that mantra from the narrative design to the accessibility options and the breadth of choices in the character creator.
There will be a lot of diversity in the different endings and choices players can make in game as well as in the NPC’s represented on screen. Sheppard hopes there will be even more diversity in the number of people who feel represented and welcomed playing Spellbound. Sally explained how not only can you customise your own character and select personal pronouns but you can then adjust these when you like later in the game. Furthermore she had just finished working on text to speech to make sure differently abled folks would be able to enjoy the game too.
Sally was working as a freelance concept artist in 2020 and when her last contract ended she started work on the game just as a side project while arranging job interviews. Slowly however she fell in love with the “quaint english town” she was creating and decided to work on the project full time.
Relying on some savings to keep her going Sally took on this massive undertaking alone, working on the art, the narrative and the programming by herself. Having received some uk games fund grant she was able to share the burden with a community manager as well as a composer. Aside from development itself, she also works on applying for funding, entering festivals and submitting to platforms.
Sheppard explained she was currently going through this process for getting the game on Switch but is fully dedicated to getting the game on the platform having already programmed the button mapping for the switch’s controls.
Having been selected as part of the London Games Festival’s Official Selection in the Narrative Excellence category, Spellbound: The Magic Within is certainly a game to look out for when it launches on Switch later this year.
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