Ova Magica’s colourful, eye-catching art style stands out first, before you read on to see it cites such promising inspirations as Stardew Valley, Pokemon, and Slime Rancher. We thought it high time we learned more about Ova Magica, so we reached out to ClaudiaTheDev for more info!What is Ova Magica?Ova Magica looks to be an awesome cross between a farming sim and a creature collector, with RPG and life sim elements thrown in. It’s in development from ClaudiaTheDev, who says, “Ova Magica combines two popular genres and creates something unique. On the one hand it is a typical farm sim like Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon; on the other hand a monster taming game like Pokemon with JRPG elements!”When does Ova Magica launch?We don’t yet have a specific release date for Ova Magica, which currently holds a 2022-2023 release window on Steam. Ova Magica was funded over on Kickstarter, where it absolutely smashed its €20,000 goal, raising €258,188 with over 4,000 backers. “Kickstarter was a very intense and unforgettable time,” says Claudia. “On the one hand, the incredible success and the great support of so many backers. It was kind of unreal to see how many like Ova Magica and believe in the project. On the other hand, it was a lot of hard work and sleepless nights… I will never forget that time, because it changed a lot for me. Thanks to Kickstarter I can pursue my dream as a full-time game developer!”What’s it about? Ova Magica revolves around its blobs. You are a new arrival in Clover Town after your mother moves abroad, and are soon put in charge of an overgrown farm. While you work on your farm, build relationships with Clover Town’s inhabitants, or explore, you’ll also be taking care of your blobs — cooking food for them and playing with them, as well as breeding them together to create stronger blobs. How does Ova Magica play?You’ve got a lot to do in Ova Magica: cooking, mining, battling blobs, breeding them, catching bugs and fish, crafting, decorating your farm, and more. “A typical day starts for many with a little farm work like planting, watering, harvesting your crops,” explains Claudia. “After that, your blobs need some care and love too! It’s up to the player how to fill their day, whether it’s an adventure in the blob world, a visit to town and listening to the stories of the locals, or spending time with a little fishing and bug catching. Every Sunday in the game there are also special events, called festivals, which offer special attractions. For example, on the day of the Spooky Moon festival the town is eerily decorated and overrun by wild pumpkin blobs!” There are 13 characters that you can befriend through conversations, giving gifts, and blob battles. Once you reach a certain level of friendship with a character, you can choose to be best friends or try for a romance with them. While out and about exploring Clover Town, you’ll also come across blueprints for your farm and your home, letting you customise your house with furniture and decorations, and make useful tools for your farm. As you progress, you’ll unlock new areas and more land, and will be able to help Clover Town’s residents.Blobs are fundamental in the world of Clover Town. There are many different variations, with Claudia adding that most are inspired by real animals or things, like the “turtle or squirrel blob” or the “acorn or candy blob.” According to the Ova Magica steam page, blobs can be of the Forest, Storm, or Magma type, and breeding them together results in new varieties of blobs. “I can’t wait to see what cool, fun and cute combinations the players will create,” Claudia says. “You can breed all the blobs together as many times as you want, so the possibilities are almost endless.” Taking care of your blobs is a key part of Ova Magica’s gameplay. You need to lavish care on your blobs during the breeding process; and the more you care for them, the stronger their child will be. “In Ova Magica you can pet, feed and play with your blobs, which will strengthen your bond,” explains Claudia. “Taking care of your blobs is very important, since you won’t get experience points after combat, but you’ll advance by feeding your blobs with high-quality food and using certain abilities in battle.” Your blobs have a multitude of uses, and Claudia adds, “Your blobs will return your love by helping you with your daily tasks with their special abilities. For example, turtle blobs can water your plants, or a bomb blob can help you mine ore quickly with its explosion ability!”You can also breed stronger blobs to use in battle, and that Steam page gives us a little more info on how this battle system will work: “Experience a strategic Active Time Battle system with a little twist! Attacks throw you back to the ATB bar and can even cancel your current action. Think carefully when it’s time to defend, and when to attack. Also be sure to plan to use the right skill type to gain elementary advantages!” The battle system is broken down in more detail on the Ova Magica Kickstarter page. “You can send between one and three blobs into battle at the same time. Blobs move forward on the action bar. When they reach the end, it’s their turn and you can give your blob a command. Blobs can learn a variety of skills. When a blob takes damage, it is thrown back on the action bar. Use the right skill type at the right time to deal more damage to the opponent! But be careful! Preparing a skill takes time and your blob is very vulnerable to damage during this time. You must wisely decide when to defend and when to attack!”What’s the world like?You can’t find everything you need on your farm — to get rarer blob eggs and crafting materials, you need to head out through a portal into the blob worlds. “The blob worlds are magical and change their appearance every time you enter them,” explains Claudia. “Some say procedurally generated, but that sounds very technical. Each Blob world has its own theme! For example, there is a dry desert world, a cold ice palace, a mystical forest and more to discover. At the end of each world, a strong boss is waiting, guarding the valuable Blob eggs and treasures.”Any news on the Ova Magica achievements?We don’t yet have the Ova Magica achievements, but Claudia gave us a few hints. “I try to offer a good mix of different difficulties and time commitments,” she begins. “I also want to reward players who play the game intensively, but without overdoing it, so that even the hardest achievements will be doable. Also, a combination of all mechanics is important to me, like achievements for farm work, building relationships or breeding blobs.” Since Ova Magica offers a range of blobs, we wondered whether there might be achievements tied to crossbreeding them all. “Yes, there will definitely be achievements for blob breeding! Although to combine all blobs with each other would be a little too extreme, I guess,” Claudia says. “But there are certain procedures and results when breeding that are definitely worth an achievement!” So, what do you think? Will you be trying out Ova Magica when it launches? Let us know in the comments!
Source link
