Magic

Frame · Wonder & sublimity atmospheric · visual / auditory / haptic

The impossible happens: light effects, floating objects, transformed worlds, wonders.

Design question – There is magic in your game, not as a system but as a mood. How does the moment feel in which the impossible happens?

Reference example – Okami: brushstrokes make trees blossom and the sun rise. Ori and the Blind Forest: glowing particles, a forest that comes to life with every step.

Atmosphere

Magic

Sensory field

Sight: glowing particles, transformations, things that float, light from nowhere. Sound: shimmering tones, a breath of wind, a magical chord, silence after the spell. Touch: wonder, a tingle, the feeling that the world’s rules are momentarily suspended.

Coherence

Magic as atmosphere (not as a mechanism!) implies transformation, surprise, rule-breaking in a positive sense. Mechanisms: Transformation, Variable Player Powers, Event (magical twists). Activities: Casting (as a thematic action), Transforming, Discovering. Ductus: moments of the magical as peaks, not permanent, or it loses its effect.