Slitherine acquires the Master of Magic franchise

[zakblood]

not sure you've got that right or know what games they do tbh either

[13obo]

My expectations are quite low. Than I hear "Slitherine" I think "casualized gaming", and casualizing will kill the MoM. Happy to be wrong in this case.

Try Field of Glory: Empires or Panzer Corps and then repeat again your statement that they make casual games... My definition for a "casual game" is you can fire it up and if you're a gamer, you can already play on medium difficulty straight away (after a couple of hours in the game, you can already progress to highest difficulty). Well, good luck doing that with almost any Slitherine game!

The original MoM was nothing like that and I remember years later kept learning new mechanics. I'm sure Slitherine will not disappoint on that front.

[guanotwozero]

My expectations are quite low. Than I hear "Slitherine" I think "casualized gaming", and casualizing will kill the MoM. Happy to be wrong in this case.

Well, my first Slitherine purchase was CMANO, many years ago: http://www.slitherine.com/products/483/ ... ar.Edition

Why don't you pick it up some time and see how casual you find it? I'm still on the learning curve for that game.

[Blake00]

In a continuous bid to update and modernize popular strategy IPs and bringing them to the 21st century, Slitherine has acquired the full publishing rights to the Master of Magic franchise from Atari.

OMG I'm actually in lol!! Had some troubles signing up to the forum but your help desk thankfully fixed the issue!

Thank you so much Slitherine for rescuing the Master of Magic franchise from Atari's IP dungeon. This great game should have had a sequel a long time ago but both the Simtex attempt and then the Micropose (ST-Birth Of The Federation team) attempt at an official MoM2 both were cancelled leaving fans devastated. I'm so excited to see what you guys have planned for it.

I am the administrator of the Master of Magic Fans Facebook Group, a small but growing (closing in on 200 members) community of oldschool MoM fans. If any of the Slitherine devs want to join up and post dev diaries, updates, polls you are MORE than welcome to.

I created the fb group to try and save the MoM community as sadly so many of the old MoM forums are gone now (I can only imagine how many MoM2 wishlist threads that would have been so useful to you guys are gone forever now ). All that's really left is the Realms Beyond Master of Magic Forum which is DEFINITELY a place Slitherine should look at as it has the awesome mods (eg Seravy's amazing Caster of Magic mod) and fan patches for the original dos MoM, many still being worked on today. There are some MASSIVE MoM guru's in this forum (eg Seravy) who could totally school you guys on anything and everything MoM related haha! The Master of Magic Wiki is also an excellent resource as they literally break down every part of the game.

If you guys want to reach out to other communities then the only other places I can think of that may have a decent amount of MoM fans still is the MoM Reddit (also the 4x Strategy reddit seems to have quite a lot of MoM fans too), the MoM GoG forum, and the GameFAQs MoM forum. I know of no other places other than the forums for some of the spinoff games like Endless Legend forum, Stardock's Elemental/Enchantress/Sorcerer Series forum, Worlds of Magic/Planar Conquest series forum, Warlock Series forum, and probably plenty of others I can't think of that would have MoM fans lurking in there. I hope you guys creat a MoM forum here like you have for your other games as an official forum home for Master of Magic would be amazing! Anyway I hope this information helps you guys get the word out and get fan feedback on what they want in a new MoM. Drop me a line if you want any help with engaging these communities.

I'm still in shock lol! I can't believe an official sequel or remake might actually be happening now! So many fans have tried to do unofficial remakes and sequels over the years. I run a Master of Magic fan games tribute website where I investigated and tributed all of those fan projects. It's pretty much a graveyard as many tried but most failed sadly. The closest anyone got to a complete MoM remake was Master of Magic - Implodes HD Multiplayer Edition which I recently did a tribute to. All those official and unofficial failed attempts make pretty somber reading but finally you guys have given us some good news.

[zakblood]

welcome to the forum Blake

[chb75]

dreams ....

[uneducated]

Great news!

Is there a press release page for this announcement, and other similar news? Something with pictures etc, suitable for sharing?

In a continuous bid to update and modernize popular strategy IPs and bringing them to the 21st century, Slitherine has acquired the full publishing rights to the Master of Magic franchise from Atari.

This is one of the most recognizable names in videogames history. It’s one of the key pillars of turn-based strategy gaming and it has created a genre of its own that is still alive and thriving today.

Master of Magic first released on MS-DOS twenty-five years ago in 1994 and it quickly became one of the most cherished games of its genre with its infinite replayability and the sheer number of customisation options it gave to the players.

“We are looking forward to working on this immensely popular franchise”, said Iain McNeil development director at Slitherine. “We know there is a high level of responsibility when we try and develop sequels or successors to popular IPs. We have proven it is possible to fulfil players expectations with the likes of Panzer Corps when it comes to work on these legendary products”.

Sequels to Close Combat and Fantasy General, both coming this year, are also a testament of Slitherine’s ongoing mission in this space.

“The foundations of what we play today are still traced back to that golden age of gaming. We cannot ignore that, like we cannot ignore that technology has moved on with player’s expectations in other areas such as social integration, multiplayer, narration, ease-of-access and more. It will be a challenge, but we are happy to accept it and try our best to make a game that does justice to the brand”.

[Intenso82]

In those days, I played a lot in MOM and PG).
It was a great game.
And which team will be involved in the development of MOM2?

[uneducated]

I was going to say, if there is one franchise which ought to be acquired by Slitherine, it is Harpoon IV. It has already been acquired. Panther Studios have also been acquired. Amazing going, Slitherine! Who bought the "Masters of Orion" franchise recently? Wargaming.com,

OK, Slitherine, how about... redoing "Diplomacy"?

[ErissN6]

also try to acquire the rights for Warlords III: Reign of Heroes and Darklords Rising?

Warlords IV was good too. Still waiting the V.

[gerbercage]

also try to acquire the rights for Warlords III: Reign of Heroes and Darklords Rising?

Warlords IV was good too. Still waiting the V.

This one good. I still waiting for Warlords V. No news for that.

[IainMcNeil]

My expectations are quite low. Than I hear "Slitherine" I think "casualized gaming", and casualizing will kill the MoM. Happy to be wrong in this case.

Wow, never been accused of making casual games before! Everything we do is at the hardcore end of the games market and half of what we do people don't even consider games, they are so complex! I really struggle to see how someone would come to that conclusion about us, and who you think is making these non casual games

[GodwinW]

JOY!

[bjgrt]

My expectations are quite low. Than I hear "Slitherine" I think "casualized gaming", and casualizing will kill the MoM. Happy to be wrong in this case.

Wow, never been accused of making casual games before! Everything we do is at the hardcore end of the games market and half of what we do people don't even consider games, they are so complex! I really struggle to see how someone would come to that conclusion about us, and who you think is making these non casual games

We might have different ideas about what "casualized gaming" is (after all, you want to make some money, and I can't say you are wrong in that wish). I know what you've pushed on the author of the "Polaris Sector". And don't ask me to buy more of your games to prove your point.

[Blake00]

yeah why would they want to make money.. just silly really.

[Blake00]

BTW when are you guys going to setup a MoM forum here? I have much to post there haha. Eg I've been out in many forums collecting fan wish lists for you.

[Berserkben]

I registered just because of this news and it was something to do until my boner for your MoM goes down!

[Kylu]

Hi guys, I joined the Forum just so I can comment on Master of Magic 2
I've been playing this game since launch through all the horrible bugs and constant crashes.
I've edited the 200 items in itemmake.exe to suit my needs
I've beaten the game on impossible countless times and now use save game editors to make things a bit more interesting.

I always wished that the product was Windows native and that the items and saved games were as customizable as i play it now.
My biggest wish however was to conquer an entire Solar System, not just a singular planet that has 2 planes. At the end of the game you have Epic Heroes, Armies and of course Spells with no one really being capable of stopping you. Facing new foes after becoming Master of Magic would be awesome. With more powerful enemies and spells to contend with. With today's computers World's could be insanely larger and better looking BUT in keeping with the old style of top down graphics for maps and turn based combat. Being able to take your time to plan a battle was FUN.
Real 3D buildings in Cities would be cool also.
Cheers and thanks for reading my ramblings

[Warrax]

I always wanted to write a book about Master of Magic. In the spirit of Tolkien. Since the universe, plot, heroes, setting are well developed here.

At one time, I wrote several stories, 5 chapters of the novel and outlined the storyline in detail.
Every year I come back to this, but I will not be in good spirits.

The potential of fan fiction can be made no worse than that of Tolkien, the game has everything for this.

Maybe the publisher wants to please his fans with a book about the Master of Magic universe during the release of a new game?
I would write)

[Blake00]

The great MoM fan wishlist has been assembled:

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=94518