There’s something magical about Spells & Secrets, the upcoming game with great potential.

Spells & Secrets is an upcoming rough-like action-adventure game in which you must free the wizard school Greifenstein from magical creatures.

I discovered this game initially over on Kickstarter, where I’d chosen to back the project after learning more about the features and roadmap for the game. Then thanks to the team at Future Friends Games, I’ve had the chance to check out the recent tech demo, which let me experience the potential for this upcoming title. This is a work-in-process tech demo, all gameplay and experience can change before launch, but it gives a great sense of what’s on offer.

You’re a first-year student arriving at the Academy of Greifenstein excited to learn more about the magic arts; however, a strange incident throws the Academy into turmoil on your first day. It’s now up to you to save the Academy and rescue your lost schoolmates.

Now the Academy is filled with magical creatures that you must defeat with numerous spells as you attempt to solve what’s going on.

Before setting out on your adventure, you’ll need to create your character. It has an in-depth editor that allows you to choose body type, clothing, face, colours for eyes, eyebrows, skin and hair, nose and eye shape, accessories, height, and makeup. I’m sure we’ll see some adjustments to this area as they have more time to develop, but there’s already an extensive array of options and styles to add that personal touch. What’s also great is that you can customise your character within the game if you visit the statue in the schoolyard.

The schoolyard is also where you can spend your experience points, learn new spells and meet your liberated schoolmates again. This area of the game is planned to be expanded throughout development. Right now, it serves as a great place to practise your spells, buy new ones and set out upon your adventure.

Going off on your adventure, you’ll only have a few spells to start with magic missile and telekinesis. Magic missile you’ll use to fire damage against the creatures, and telekinesis allows you to pick up and move them around. It’s also great to counter creatures rolling at you to stop them before they hit you.

As you explore the grounds of the Academy, you’ll come up against numerous rooms filled with creatures, secrets and puzzles to unlock hidden rooms.

For instance, I found a lob sided painting and realised I could straighten it, then some other paintings moved, and I realised that I was taking part in a puzzle. Once I solved it, the last painting opened one of the many hidden rooms and had a treasure chest of currency as a reward.

Aside from treasure chests, you can find treasure bags filled with various rewards.

You’ll want to discover and open as many of these as possible because you’ll use the currency to buy potions from the shops or vending machines.

Other things to discover as you explore are artefacts; these enhance your current abilities and improve your chances against the magical creatures.

One thing to note is that you will lose all the artefacts, potions and currency if you are defeated; only the experience points you’ve collected will remain.

These experience points are gathered from activities as you play, so you’ll be earning them as you play. Then you can use them to learn new spells or unlock further permanent improvements for your character.

It’s not just the ever-changing grounds, secrets and rooms, but you’ll also have optional floor challenges to complete, such as defeating creatures in specific ways and not rehealing.

The best bit is all of this is playable with a friend, so if you’re tired of venturing alone or want to hang out and discover the world together, you can join into local co-op or online via steam-remote. I didn’t get hands-on with this part of the tech demo myself, but you can work together and battle the creatures or cast spells against each other. Plus, you can play Arcane Ball if you fancy a little bit of fun before going back into battle.

There’s one thing for sure after spending around two and a half hours playing, I love it, and as I say, this is just the start of the development journey, there’s so much potential for an already fun game I’ve got very high hopes for this game when it’s released.

It’s already got a superb art style, great original soundtrack and gameplay features that make it fun to replay as you improve and develop your character.

So when’s it releasing? It’s due to launch Early Access on steam later this year, with its full pc release expected in mid-2023 and then launch on the Nintendo Switch in late 2023. I don’t believe there are plans for other platforms, but I’d expect this to be considered if the fan base has good growth and the game has good sales.

I’m looking forward to following Spells and Secrets on its development journey as we look forward to being admitted into the Academy of Greifenstein.

Spells & Secrets Release Date: Early Access 2022, Full Release 2023 Platforms: Nintendo Switch and Steam . Genre: Indie, Action, Action Rougelike, 3D, Adventure Developer: Alchemist Interactive, rokaplay Publisher: rokaplay

I received 'Spells & Secrets' for free, to play thanks to the team at Future Friends Games who kindly gifted a Steam copy of tech demo for the game.