MagicalTimeBean

Josiah Renaudin from our sister site PSNFans recently had the chance to chat with MagicalTimeBean founder Ian Stocker. Ian is the man behind the hit Xbox Live Indie Games SoulCaster I & II and the recent success story Escape Goat.

Josiah talks to Ian about how he got into making games, how the process of making a game for XBLIG works and what might be in store for MagicalTimeBean in the future. If you want to keep up to date with what Ian is doing you can check out MagicalTimeBean’s website or follow him on twitter @MagicalTimeBean. If you haven’t checked out his games before then why not download the trials, SoulCaster, SoulCaster II and Escape Goat.

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[podcast]https://xblafans.com/xblafancast/XBLAFancastMagicalTimeBeanInterview.mp3[/podcast]

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Soulcaster 2 was developed by Magical Time Bean and retails for 240 MSP.  A copy of the game was provided for review purposes.

Soulcaster 2 is a retro combination of tower defense, rpg, and action-adventure gaming. It was released by Magical Time Bean in December 2010. Soulcaster 2 puts the player in the role of the soulcaster. But it is the souls that are the real stars of the show. The soulcaster, for all his power, is essentially helpless. He must summon the souls of ancient warriors to defend him. These come in three archetypical forms. The warrior excels at close quarters combat and plugging small pathways that would otherwise be streaming with enemies. With the enemies held at bay the archer can safely pick off enemies if she has a clear line of sight. Finally the alchemist lobs explosives over obstacles to cause area of effect damage.

These three souls are the soulcaster’s only defense while navigating some seriously treacherous terrain. The souls all have three attributes that can be powered up using the money collected on the field, hence the rpg element. But the souls must remain stationary and fight from their assigned position for the tower defense element. Only the soulcaster is free to roam the battlefield which is a good thing because the situation will get too dicey for him to stay put anyway.

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You may, or rather should have heard of the Indie Games Winter Uprising by now. But if you haven’t here’s what you need to know. The developers behind the Indie Games on Xbox Live Marketplace decided they wanted an event in the vein of a “Summer of Arcade” and other such promotions. Resigned to the fact Microsoft wasn’t going to make one for them they took it upon themselves to do so. Thus the Winter Uprising was born, originally intended to take place during the first week of December it has now been extended to include the entire month.

We here at XBLAFans are passionate in our feeling that the Indie Games section deserves more recognition than it currently receives. As such we have created this hub for the games that will be included in the Uprising. Here you’ll find a brief description of the games, a link to the developers website, screenshots, trailers, pricing (if available), and for those games already released there will be download links and reviews.

The games are being released pretty irregularly, with several having already been delayed due to last minute bugs so be sure to check back often and see what’s new! Read More