Mind Over Magic

I've tried to pick this game up multiple times, and each time I stop playing as soon as it actually starts going. It's a fantastic game, and honestly the only thing holding me back is that there is no planning mode. I actually LIKE the room keyword system, I think it's cool and forces you to make interesting builds rather than just boxed rooms. However, the lack of an ability to plan out ahead of time with ghost blueprints makes it basically impossible to actually fit anything together in any sort of cohesive way, without just straight up demolishing your whole school and starting again, and then doing that again when you need a new room that doesn't fit, and etc etc etc. Once a mod or update comes out with the ability to plan ahead of time, I'm sure this will be an incredible game!

TL;DR: This is a better version of Oxygen Not Included, especially if you prefer a fantasy setting. There's so much to love here. MOM is part "factory" builder, part programming challenge with shades of Rimworld's excellent management UI. At it's core, you build a school to churn out wizards in seven different specialties. Along the way you'll have to deal with challenges every few days while working your way deeper and deeper into the Underschool to solve the crisis of the Curse and the Fog. On the "factory" side of things, and akin to Oxygen Not Included, you build various rooms to feed, house, and train your budding wizards. Rooms have shape and placement requirements (which can be randomized), and learning the tricks to literally supporting that construction is a massive part of the early game. As to characters, each of the seven types of wand has a specialty, but every Staff wizard can do every task in your school. With five species of character running around, plus relic slots and random wand secondaries, you'll have a bunch of interesting combinations, Likes, and Quirks to deal with among your students and staff. On the "programming" side, later when your school gets large enough you'll want to start creating Groups, Priorities, Meal Plans, and Schedules that take into account your wizards' Skills, Quirks, Levels, and more. The programming is both simplistic and challenging, but saves you weeks and weeks of micromanaging when your school needs to cycle through students and staff at a decent pace. Unlike Rimworld or ONI or Dwarf Fortress, MOM is really forgiving. Once you have a handle on [i]how[/i] to build a school using the room keywords, it's hard to lose. That doesn't mean it's easy to win, but the game will pull back from wiping you out entirely if things get truly hairy. That said, your people can, and do, enter death spirals that are hard to break out of if you haven't built your infrastructure properly. If you're unlucky, you'll get to watch a staffer go on a Rampage, get Trauma, then go on another Rampage and get more Trauma all because you accidentally Graduated their dinner buddy. Pulling them back from the brink is a rewarding feeling. Finally, the Underschool/combat is an integral part of advancement and necessary to improve your staff and students. Better wands, ways to complete Trials, and more are all locked behind kicking down the doors of the Underschool as you progress. All in all, it's a great city/factory builder. The UI is excellent, the game is [i][b]long[/b][/i], and there's a lot of replayability. This is an unreserved thumbs up.

1372 hours, 100% achievements. Thank you devs, this has been a fun game and well worth the price. Best part of the game is the part where you build the school. The building mechanics is easily the highlight of the game, and it always feels rewarding when you figure out a new way to build a room or to take advantage of some mechanics to optimize something better. Worst part of the game are the dragon quests. Tedious mobile game style "quests" where you pick a few characters to send them on quests, and waaaaait for them to come back with no input whatsoever was never going to be fun. Frankly, the game is more fun if you ignore the dragon quests completely. The game had a lot of potential, and could easily have been one of the games that you keep coming back to. Sadly, it was let down by several factors- 1. The lack of any story whatsoever. You don't get attached to any characters, and a magic school which doesn't feel magical is a waste of the setting. 2. A lot of the UI is frankly balls. If you're going to make the creation, attunement and levelling up of relics a core and repetitive part of the gameplay loop, at least make it easy to locate the relic in the screen instead of lumping every relic in the game into one giant scrollable screen. And keep the screen locked on the same relic so that you don't have to scroll around looking for it again each time you exit the relic screen to check something. 3. A lot of time wasting mechanics. Why does your student need to spend an entire game day to attune a single relic? By the time it's done I've already forgotten what I planned to do with him next... 4. Lack of building/task queues. You can only do one task at the relic cube at a time, and there's no queue. Better hope your memory is good then, so you can recall what you planned to do next after that task is done. It's simply annoying. 5. Needs more rooms, more furniture, more research topics. The fun falls off a cliff when your school and research is complete. Despite all its flaws, and there are many, the school building portion of the game is fun and compelling. There's no other game quite like it.

This game is a hidden gem and overlooked !!! A highly enjoyable colony management experience It's whimsical, highly addictive and deeply layered without being overly complex The art style and atmosphere give a fantastic presentation THe building systems alongside the keyword mechanincs give building a deeply considered planning but very rewarding feeling to complete the requirements. There is some punishing factors but it impacts your decision making, makes for a gameplay loop that keeps you actively considering all of your planning and solutions, the exploration surprised me with its highly engaging battle mechanics and rewards. THus saying , learning what the various mages with their elements have in common with the various races and stats, gives you a complex gene pool to consider. Training up new students always has various rewards. Even if you get a race and elemeent that doesn't blend too well and has poor stats, you can still level it up to gain a relic, In the meantime you always gain something from those investments. This review comes at a timeline of reaching what I assume mid-game to early late game.

Just a thumbs up. Don't care to explain why I think it deserves it.

fun game but simple vs ONY. just wanted to be more complex magic system

想来想去还是给中评吧，前100个小时是有趣的，盖房子、设计、探索还是有趣的，但是到后期来说就很反胃，不管是sl魔杖or属性，还是一次性的龙的主线任务，想玩的完美就逼着你sl，说实话我是不理解这个设计的。整体底子是好的，但是后面就是坐牢，如果有后续开发的话其实还是很期待的。

Pretty good. Not really a fan of colony sims but found myself enjoying the ride for the time I gave it. Only gripe would be quilted death timers being one of the few things you cant edit in the dificulty screen,

The game crashes after about 2 hours of gametime on linux. Lost my progress twice and asked for a refund.

任务完全不知道在说什么,看不懂