The orc clans want blood! But today is the break. Then I’ll offer you something. It’s a map. We orcs are great cartographers. Really¹.

So, you must be wondering: “Why does this green orc, powerful and noble, but slightly frightening offer me such a beautiful gift?” That’s normal. If I offer this map to you, it’s to help you to install your magic school in a hidden place, far from our common enemy, aka the Enemy, the Lord of Darkness, the Demonist, the One who must bring back the balance, the Black Lord, the Child’s slayer, the One who steals the pieces-in-the-cup-of-the-beggars² or the Lord of Evil.
In short, there are many nice places: swamps for example, in the middle of a lake…. Or better yet, on the back of a giant turtle. In the end, some say that it will depend on the result of crowdfunding… forked tongues in my opinion.

And this is another card. The great lake area, if you ever set up your school there. There’s a lot of people around who like you or who don’t. Depends. We’re on top. Come by and say hello sometime!

1. In fact, to be honest, orc talents are completely dependent on our blog needs.
2. Far too mean...
3. The names of the school is a placeholder. But if you are good in foreign tongues you can guess the nationality of the developers! Awesome, isn't it?

Good morning. I’m sent by the Rector’s Office to give you a little briefing on bureaucracy and regulations related to magic schools. In particular, I would like to talk to you about the B22 form, needed to create a new class.

As you can see, this form allows you to define a coat of arms and a name for your class, define teaching priorities (Alchemy, Shadow, Light, etc…), and student dress. You can also define two traits that will be shared by all the students in the class¹. Well chosen, these traits will be decisive. Each form has its own set of random traits: each class will be unique².

Ah! It’s time I go. Too bad, I could have presented you with form A38 which is used to apply for large grants from the Rector’s Office.

The hard-working green ant class.

A Celtic-inspired class.

1. Some kind of magic... i guess.
2. Some kind of magic too... Magic is so convenient.

Hello again. We’ve met before: I’m the student delegate. I wanted to draw your attention to the level of the teaching staff. In a word: shameful. I don’t know if it’s the lack of resources, or the chronic stupidity of human resources, but there’s no way to have a quality lesson here.

Yet it’s really not difficult, look: when teachers send you their CVs, take the most pedagogue. So yes, I know what you say to yourself: “I don’t want to take a chaotic/evil teacher in my school, or worse, a unionized teacher¹“. But let’s not make concessions, we students need the best.

1. Okay. Maybe we should avoid the syndicated teacher. He's gonna strike all the time, and I don't want to miss lessons!

“What… what the hell is that thing? Is that another one of their magic junk from the weird people’s school? It’s not beautiful. I’m not sure, but I think I’m gonna go warn the boys and we’re gonna burn this devil’s school down before anything like this gets out.”

“Seriously? There are more. These plants are all weird. I don’t like them at all. They’ll make the cows’ milk turn again. I’m telling you it’s evil witchcraft!”

Let’s forget our friend the peasant, and let’s look at what these “things” really are. In Spellcaster University, the challenge is to optimize his magic school to train the best future magicians. This involves managing the basic needs of students and teachers, having an intelligent recruitment of staff, well designed school regulations, and a well equipped and organized building. In this school, one can of course install rooms (classrooms, refectory, dormitory…), but also artefacts at various key points to modify the functioning of the rooms, like the strange plants in these illustrations. The mandragorc and the parkofite mushroom, for instance, produces magical components, while the scholar’s hand-eating flower stimulates students and hurts them from time to time!

“Greetings. It’s my turn to speak with you. I am the representative of the most holy inquisition, and my role is to make sure that all these schools of magic remain far from any heresy: black magic, necromancy, demonology… the Light knows what else. Lately, I’ve been interested in a little magic school… ¹”

“In Spellcaster University, the player must build a magic school by assembling different rooms to optimize its operation. He can build classrooms, canteens, dormitories, dolmens for the druids, a chapel to learn sacred magic (that’s good), a crypt to learn necromancy (that’s bad)… It can also improve them with different artifacts or different creatures. For a cumulative total of over a hundred rooms and artifacts.”

“I finished my inspection in the arcane classroom (a magic that seems to me not far from heresy) and in the library (I don’t like that, as a matter of principle). Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any forbidden works. Next time, I’m sure. “

1. The lead designer tells me that this is a work in progress version. The lights will be prettier, the textures will be finer... in short, it's still under construction!

“Good morning! I’m the student representative. I’m the one who’s going to come up with their demands and grumble because the canteen menu sucks. But that’s not today’s topic. Today I come to talk to you about how orcs are made. Not biologically, of course¹. But numerically.”

“So be careful, it goes fast. But in real life it doesn’t go that fast. In total, from the design stage to the “rig”² stage, it took about three days of work. But enough chatter: I let you enjoy…”

1. Because some things have to remain secret.
2. Some barbaric graphics designer thing, you don't want to know.

“Okay. It’s all very well what Postumus said, but the reader still doesn’t know what the game is about, how it’s played, etc… Magi are so useless… But I didn’t introduce myself: I’m Grishnork, warlord of the orcs.”

“In a game, theme and universe are very important. But so are the game mechanics too. Orcs really like that, game mechanics. At Sneaky Yak Studio, they said to themselves: ”

– Yeah, management games are cool, but often each game session looks a little bit alike. We have more or less the same choices at each game session.

– You’re rude. That’s not always true, there are lots of great management games without this problem! ¹

– Yes, yes… but I’m sure we can find an original approach to this problem.

“Well. And so they put cards in the game. Yeah, cards. Yes, it seemed silly to me too at first. But it’s actually not so much ². To build his magic university, the player plays cards: it creates classrooms, artifacts, staff… and he retains some control over the cards he receives. But we’ll talk about that later. I have a planned attack on a magic university in 10 minutes. Oh yeah, we’ll have to talk about that too…”

1. Don't make enemies in the video game world: check.
2. Actually it is a little.

“I am the Archimagus Postumus, or at least what’s left of it… there was a time when I ran the first great spellcasters university in our world! But the centuries have passed, and the ancient knowledge of magic has disappeared. That’s why I need you today! Yes, you, young man (or young woman, I can’t see very well because I’m old¹)! We need to rebuild a university of spellcasters, and you would, with the help of my wise counsel. The fate of the world depends on it…”

What the wise Archimagus Postumus does not tell you, surely out of modesty, is that he will appear in an independent mega-production² : Spellcaster University, a management and development game of a magic university that happily references the fantasy and role-playing worlds that are dear to us.

1. And because I have no eyes anymore.
2. Here we talk about small mega-production. We should be talking about average-production. Or even small-production made with love. That's more reasonable.