Hugely fun, satirical 2015 indie game about playing a broken RPG.

The Magic Circle cleverly mixes modern high res graphics with retro DOS-style graphics, and is something of a first on that front.

The game you play is apparently so ‘broken’ that the key to success is in ‘hacking’. That is: hacking your enemies to make them fight for you. Eventually you get to break into the game and have to make a level good enough for release.

It’s a short game, but full of surprises, and well worth a play. And fun to grab because you can give silly names to your allies.

More: The Magic Circle on Wikipedia
Steam: The Magic Circle on Steam
Website: http://www.magiccirclegame.com/

The Magic Circle by Question.

Some trippy visuals. Cool effects actually.

“What is happening to me?!”

In some areas the scenery is ghosting.

Filling in ghosted areas costs life.

If they’re red, they hostile!

Temporary in-game information points.

What’s this? An entrance to an 8-bit world?

It is an 8-bit world! Like the first System Shock!

A ghosted corpse, that I can hack. Press E to Edit Corpse.

Hacking “Pro”.

I’m alive again!

Assembling my allies in the corridor near Station 1.

My ally Spaztik Munkey has found a load of glowing green goo.

Elevator – going up!

Entering Airlock C.

Heading back into the high res world…

Sky Bastard Discovered!

Trapping a Juggodillo.

Editing a Juggodillo.

Editing not allowed!

Creatures altered by you can be edited without trapping.

Weird scenery and Pointing Finger Device in The Magic Circle.

Moody System Shock-style corridors.

Nadir’s Prison Discovered.

Is this even possible?

The Mushroom Wizard comes to my aid.

The dreaded Hiver Queen.

Making a path across white lava.

My allies follow me. If I tell them to. They can patrol, or do other tasks.

Teleportation Bay Discovered.

Dark corridors of the Teleportation Bay.

Whoosh!

Stepping out into a grey unfinished world.

My attack dogs!

Looking out of the window into space.

Great balls of fire!

GroupThink can program a group of allies to do things for you.

Some kind of weird brain-sucking monster!

I now have tentacles!

The beat The Sentinel and now he stands guard for me.

Time for a reckoning with Sky Bastard. Via a flying turtle.

Mallo has hacked into the game.

Edit Guard? I have no flipping idea.

Edit Baby?

Okay, I get it…

Mocap at E4 Unstage. It’s all very mysterious.

The game is beginning to strain at a seams.

Building Levels in The Magic Circle.

Let’s start with an atmospheric room.

My level is coming along. Room tiles remaining: four.

A Sentinel near the end of the level.

Adding mushrooms.

Adding health potions.