My Life as a Magical Sorting Hat

For best experience please play in full screen

This game was done for the MiniGame a Month - May 2024 gamejam! 

There's a lot of unfinished art (Background is still placeholder as well as the only two students I got the time to sketch out) and in hindsight it was obviously overscoped from the get go. Still, juggling a demanding full time job and getting this out is an achievement and I learned so much form it! I will certainly work on any bugs that pop out and maybe add some more content (specially a tutorial)

The game was intended to be a kind of "Papers, please" with some visual novel elements built into it and I originally wanted to add a tutorial with a funny short story, but I ran out of time, hopefully I might add it some time in the future.

--Instructions--

You play as a magical sorting hat for Ouroboros's Magic Academy and you have to decide which of the 4 Schools of Magic would be the best fit according to the applicants traits, interests and mana. For this demo, you have to play until the timer is out and having admitted at least 5 students correctly. Incorrectly guessing 3 times or having the time run out without that number of admitted students or letting a Warlock in by mistake will result in a gameover. 

Determining which is the correct fit is as easy as adding up points for each trait and interest. Mana counts as twice the amount, so an Arcane Mana would be two points and an arcane trait or interest would only count as one.

At the same time, you have to spot Warlocks that come disguised as students in order to infiltrate the academy. If you let a Warlock in you lose the game! A Warlock can be spotted if they have a majority of dark points, even if they tie with another school of magic, it's best to call them out if you're unsure.

Some traits and interests listed on the student's profile might not show their true intention. To spot this, hover the cursor over them and if you notice a wiggling of the text, that means you can left click to cast Soul Search: Skeleton Key to reveal their true nature.

On the Skeleton Key minigame, you have to match the pieces on the bottom part of the screen with the shape that's revealed under the keyhole graphic (You can hover over the keyhole and it will reveal the shape again in time). Once you've matched the shape, the entirety of the traits and interests that where not real will reveal their true selves.

Mana will always be hidden and in order to reveal them you will have to click on it to cast Soul Search: Reveal Mana. On this minigame, all you have to do is hit the blue marks on the outer ring of the circle that shows up as the white line is traveling over it. Continue to do this until all the locks on the top are opened to reveal the students mana. Remember, mana counts as two points when determining an applicants magic affinity, so it's always best to reveal them.

--Developers Notes--

As mentioned, I ran out of time and couldn't finish all the artwork. There's only a couple of students as sketches and the background is placeholder art. The main menu was done in a 3am rush to get everything finished and there's a couple of bugs that I will list below.

I still hope you enjoy the game and have fun with it, please leave a comment below if you did!

--Known Bugs--

* When solving the Skeleton Key puzzle, sometimes you have to place the pieces a couple of times on the same spots so it will correctly detect them as long as the shape is correct.

* During the Reveal Mana minigame, sometimes it will fail to load the visuals for the last mark you have to hit so it will seem like there's nothing to hit. Just spam the mouse click until you get the invisible one.