Micro Mages Press Kit

Welcome to the Micro Mages Press page. Here you can find information on us and our new NES game.

Fact Sheet

Developers: Julius Riecke (code, music and sound design), Nicolas Bétoux (graphics and level-design)
Credit: Morphcat Games UG; Based in Berlin, Germany
Release date: April 30th, 2019
Website: http://morphcat.de/micromages/
Number of players: 1 - 4
Game Size: 40 Kilobytes
Platforms: NES, PC and many other platforms through the use of an emulator
Instruction Booklet: PDF version
Cartridge available online: Broke Studio online shop
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1065020/Micro_Mages/
Itch.io: https://morphcatgames.itch.io/micromages
Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/g2fdSwy
Micro Mages OST: https://morphcatgames.bandcamp.com/album/micro-mages-ost
Kickstarter page: Micro Mages Kickstarter campaign
Kickstarter campaign date: September 5 - October 5, 2018
Indiegogo InDemand page: https://igg.me/at/micromages
Contact: morphcatgames@gmail.com
Social: Twitter, Facebook, Discord, Youtube.

Description

Micro Mages is a new platform game for the NES, for 1 to 4 players. Slip into your wizard robes and enter the Demon Fortress, home of great treasure and ghastly creatures alike.

Gameplay

Main mechanics: Shoot magic spells at enemies and use wall jumps to climb to the boss fight at the top of each tower.
Fairy Shield: Get hit once without dying.
Seagull Feather: Allows you to hover in the air for a few seconds.
Ghost Mode: As long as at least one player is alive, you won't lose a life. Dead players will turn into ghosts and have the ability to freeze enemies in order to help their comrades. Ghosts can also destroy crates and treasure chests in hopes of finding a Fairy or Seagull Feather that brings them back to life.

Features

Cartridge version runs on real NES/Famicom consoles
8 worlds spanning a total of 26 levels (normal + hard mode)
Up to 4 simultaneous players
Compatible with the NES FourScore and Hori 4-player adapter
If you die in multiplayer mode, you'll turn into a ghost so you can help your friends
Power up with Fairies and Magical Seagulls
Spooky boss battles
Secrets!
Checkpoints and password function
NES version comes with box and instruction booklet
Rom version runs on PC and many other platforms via emulation

Morphcat Games

We are a two-man team bouncing around Berlin, dedicated to bringing new games to old hardware.

Julius Riecke

Julius created Morphcat Games in 2011 when he released the NES demo Super Bat Puncher. He made other games during game jams and also composes music on his free time. On Micro Mages, he did the programming, created tools for optimization as well as music and sound effects.

Nicolas Bétoux

Nicolas joined Julius during the game jam Ludum Dare 32 and together they created a tiny NES game named Banana Nana. On Micro Mages, he made the graphics, level design and illustrations (box and instruction booklet).

History & Challenges

Development on Micro Mages started in December 2015, born out of the desire to do a simple one-month project. Needless to say, things didn't quite work out as planned due to how complex and slow of a process making a new game for the NES is, while also wishing to push the hardware to its limits.

Much like developers in the past, we had to program the entire game from scratch using 6502 assembly language. So for the next two and a half years, we would be working during nights and weekends until the game grew into an experience that we deemed worthy of the NES.

Fun was our number one priority. Half of the game's development time was spent on polish and code optimization. Fluid gameplay, tight controls and a carefully balanced challenge were our dedication.

While many homebrew games and later commercial NES releases can be upwards of 512 Kilobytes in size, we challenged ourselves to make the best game we could given the harsh limitations that the very first NES games (e.g., Super Mario Bros.) had to deal with. The whole game fits into 40 Kilobytes. Micro Mages could have been an NES launch title!