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CodeSpells

Craft any magical spell you can imagine using the most powerful tool there is: code. CodeSpells is currently an unguided, sandbox experience for the bravest wizards who want to help the developers steer the game's development.

All Reviews:

Mostly Negative (210) - 38% of the 210 user reviews for this game are positive.

Release Date:

Sep 18, 2015

Developer:

ThoughtSTEM, LLC

Publisher:

ThoughtSTEM, LLC

	Interface	Full Audio	Subtitles
English	✔

Early Access Game

Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops.

Note: Games in Early Access are not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“Early Access has been a tremendous boon to our design process. From the start, our goal with CodeSpells has been to give players as much freedom as possible, even as we were pioneering untried systems and tools.

We purposefully made our current plan as malleable and open to players as possible in order to find and polish what people want out of the game. This feedback has guided our every step, and we know it will continue to shape us.

CodeSpells is currently an enjoyable experience, but we are confident that we can push ourselves harder through Early Access.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Originally, we had planned to release the full game in Summer of 2016. However, while we were working and listening to our beta testers, we realized that our in-game systems for explaining coding and motivating people to create spells were lacking. Tutorials were a feature we had subconsciously relegated to the unreached NPC Stretch Goal of our Kickstarter campaign, but we have realized since then that in order to create a truly accessible and enjoyable experience, we should have a more interactive coding window, and perhaps even a small guided campaign where players could test their skills. However, the campaign mode is a dream goal, and last on our list. Our primary concern is to make the best procedurally-generated spell-crafting sandbox game the world has ever known.

We are so grateful for everyone’s help in making CodeSpells as magical as we all want it to be. We hope you will continue to give us feedback as we bear down on the final product.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“Air magic and Multiplayer are now fully implemented!

Going forward, we will make our Life ecosystems more robust, implement a coding tutorial, design tools that allow the game to be internally moddable, and possibly create a basic campaign mode.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The current version of the game features Earth, Water, Fire, and Air magic. These elements are not at their final state, but are at a close enough state that will allow us to move on to incrementally adding new aspects to interact with.

The game has not been fully optimized or tested, so although we believe it is at a fairly stable state, bugs and hitches are very possible.

We will be doing major updates about once or twice a month, if not more often, up until the completion of the project.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“We currently don't expect the price to change while in Early Access.

After the Early Access is completed, it is possible that the price of the game will change, but if it does, it will not be substantial.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“Our team is active on the CodeSpells forum (https://the-codespells-forum.herokuapp.com/). We love to hear about how things are going and any features that are missing from the game.

Every month for the duration of the development of CodeSpells, we have and will continue to do Developer Updates on progress.”

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About This Game

Is this game dead?
No! CodeSpells development and the community are alive! Instead of working on JUST this game though, we are currently building an open-source platform so that the CodeSpells community can build tons of games, sandboxes, and experiences -- like this one. Everyone who has supported CodeSpells over the years has always had different hopes & dreams for what CodeSpells can and should be: we believe our new direction will allow the community to create amazing works of magical art to share with the world. You can follow new development of the CodeSpells platform on our blog at .

Why didn't this game get updated between Sept 2017-August 2020?
After Kickstarter funding ran dry, the team tried to find other funding sources. In the end though, the 4 people still working on the project needed to pay our rent and feed ourselves! (Reality sucks!) We tabled development in 2017 with the expectation of revisiting development soon after that.

However, "soon" turned into almost 3 years… then COVID-19 gave us a rare opportunity to work on this game again with fresh eyes! Two members of the original team are back, and we have our funding set for the next year of development. This time, we're planning to make "Authoring Tools" for CodeSpells games, so that even if we can't continue working on the game after ~Sept 2021, the CodeSpells community can keep pushing forward! We also have started a Patreon to help fund this work beyond Sept 2021.

When can I expect this game to be updated?
We plan to update the game on Steam after the open-source platform catches up with the "Kickstarter-version" of the game here. We plan to make at least 1 update within the next year, but we expect there will also be more open-source CodeSpells games that will be accessible for free soon too!

Why are you leaving this game on Steam if you're not actively developing it?

1. Steam is a great opportunity to promote our project: Even though we're starting to move in a new (but similar) direction, this game is a great example of what CodeSpells is all about: crafting magic spells with code. This version of the game gives people something to play with and helps them imagine what CodeSpells can become in the future!

2. All purchases of the game on Steam help fund development beyond our current 1 year timeline: This is a great option for anyone who wants to support more development, but can't commit to monthly contributions through Patreon.

NOTE: Over the past 3 years, all Steam purchases we've received for CodeSpells haven't even covered our web hosting costs for the project (website, forum, & spell sharing servers). We are really grateful that we haven't lost TOO MUCH money on CodeSpells development, but we also wanted to make it clear that we do NOT actually make profit from the version of CodeSpells on Steam, currently (in fact, we're losing some money!) Our decision to work on CodeSpells for the next year is totally just because we are passionate about this project. The CodeSpells concept is SO COOL that we both want to see it through to reality AND ensure it's in the hands of the community for the future!

Why was there no communication for so long?
OK! This was a mistake on our part. When development paused in Sept 2017, we honestly thought we would get back to development shortly, at least on a part-time, hobbyist basis. As time dragged on, we should have sent out an announcement about the pause. And we didn't. For that we are sorry!

At some point in 2019, members of the CodeSpells community reached out for access to the game so that they could keep developing it. While there was some work done in 2019 - mid-2020, there wasn't enough to warrant an update on Steam. However, we are super thankful for the awesome CodeSpells Discord community for not letting the fire burn out! The Discord community inspired us to revisit CodeSpells development this year! Thank you all!

A little bit more about the version of CodeSpells available on Steam:

When we were young, wizards like Gandalf and Dumbledore struck a chord in our minds. We spent hours pretending to be wizards and casting epic imaginary spells. We wanted to see these fantasies fully realized, so we created CodeSpells.

CodeSpells combines the creative freedom of imagination with the beauty and interactivity of video games. The secret sauce? Coding. Instead of limiting players to pre-packed spells, we allow our players see the real magic that happens under the hood of most games. Through Javascript or the intuitive, kid-friendly visual tool Blockly, CodeSpells lets everyone craft the magic of their dreams.

Ignite blazing wildfires, drain entire seas, turn the elements into a force field around you, or just blow stuff up - the choice is yours!

System Requirements

Windows

macOS

Minimum:

OS *: Windows 7 or Greater
Processor: 2 GHZ Dual Core Processor
Memory: 4 GB RAM
DirectX: Version 9.0
Storage: 2 GB available space

Recommended:

OS *: Windows 7 or Greater
Processor: 3 GHZ Quad Core Processor
Memory: 8 GB RAM
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 2 GB available space

* Starting January 1st, 2024, the Steam Client will only support Windows 10 and later versions.

Minimum:

OS: Mac OS X 10.7+
Processor: 2 GHZ Dual Core Processor
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Storage: 2 GB available space

Recommended:

OS: Mac OS X 10.7+
Processor: 3 GHZ Quad Core Processor
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Storage: 2 GB available space

* Starting February 15, 2024, the Steam Client will no longer support 32-bit games or macOS 10.14 or lower.

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What Curators Say

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