Dark And Light's Developers Discuss Spells And Spellcrafting

One of the core features that we've seen in regards to Snail Games' upcoming online multiplayer open-world sandbox RPG Dark and Light is its magic system. Unsurprisingly, the focus on the magic system has some players concerned that magic will trump every other form of combat. In the team's latest blog post, which is framed as a developer interview, the developers explain that that is not the case. But let's take a step back.

The reason that Snail Games is creating the kind of game that it is with Dark and Light is that it believes that "the typical open-world RPG and survival game formulas, as separate genres, had already been done to death." As a result, the company opted to mix the two genres together. The original Dark and Light had already sort of mixed the two, so the team "felt like it would be a great platform for building the kind of game [it was] thinking of."

One of the core changes from other games that the team wanted to implement was the true RPG sense of being able to build your character the way that you want to. The game's magic system is item-based, requiring characters to craft the items required to cast spells in addition to learning the requisite skills to craft said items. It is explained that this allows players to "specialize early on and share their specialties with their group, giving everyone access to a wider variety of higher-tier spells, weapons, armor, and other items faster than they would be able to alone."

In regards to the aforementioned concerns, Snail Games explains that there are various physical weapons, both melee and ranged, "that can cause serious damage, inflict debuffs, and so on." It is further explained that both physical and magical weapons will have their place and that, sometimes, you may even need both. It is said that it is all a matter of preference. It is also said that physical weapons are "generally easier to craft and maintain than powerful magic spells." Additionally, the team has actively thrown out spell ideas that could be considered unfair.

You can find the full interview on the official website.