Micro Mages

Official box art

Micro Mages is a platformer video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) developed by Morphcat Games. The game was built with the limitations of the original 40kb cartridge space that all launch titles of the NES had. Publishing the game and releasing it on physical cartridges was funded through crowdfunding sites Kickstarter and Indiegogo. While it was designed for the NES, the game was also ported to Windows using emulation with downloads available on the websites Steam and Itch.io . The physical release is available on Broke Studio's website, and supports both PAL and NTSC consoles.

## Gameplay

Micro Mages plays as a platformer where it continues to scroll upwards, and you have to get to the top without dying. You can play with up to four players, their characters known as Mages, are supported in the game. There are 3 levels in each of the 4 worlds, and a 4th level in world 4. Hard mode rearranges the levels for a total of 26 (normal + hard) levels. The 3rd level of each world features a boss fight. Blood Bonds cranks up the heat on multiplayer adventurers, so that when one mage falls all of them fall (Note: This mode is separate from Hell Mode). It is activated at the title screen by pressing select and A. Finally, there is the ultimate challenge for true masters of the arts of Magicks: Hell Mode. The Enemies are much faster and the scroll is constantly nipping at your heels. There is also a password function allowing you to instantly go back to the world you were on if you die or quit the game, for all modes except Hell mode which gives you one password for the first world of the mode and you will have to play it all the way through without getting a game over in order to finish it.

## Plot

Four student mages living in a dark forest who were at the Hocus-Pocus Academy of Applied Magicks had to keep their Princess safe and locked their room with a giant lock on the front door. However, one day the blue mage forgot to lock the door and when they got back, their Princess was gone. At that moment a fairy told them news that "Strange things are happening in the old Demon Fortress atop Pretzel Mountain." After chanting a teleportation spell the mages had only just learned at the Academy, they took off to the Demon Fortress to save their Princess.

## Development

A lot of the development process was explained in a YouTube video posted by Morphcat titled How we fit an NES game into 40 kilobytes.

## Promotion and Funding

### Before Official Release

The game was first officially announced by Morphcat on Twitter in the form of a tweet with a link to a Facebook post detailing information about the game, including screenshots. In the post they also announced that it would be playable at an event This post was only available in German, though later they shared the English title and other information.

On September 5, 2018 Morphcat officially launched their Kickstarter page which would be used for funding the physical release production costs, as they had already fully built the game for events. This campaign would last for a month (from September 5, 2018 to October 5, 2018) and managed to hit over 1000% of their original goal of €15,000 (€151,167 by 4,109 users). The campaign listed a trailer video showing more gameplay of the game. The campaign listed perks such as: a playable ROM file of the game, a physical copy of the game (including a manual and box), an official soundtrack CD, a poster and the top tier included a special black box sleeve, numbered limited edition black cartridge, signed certificate and the backer's name listed in the instruction manual for all versions of the game.

After the Kickstarter campaign finished Morphcat would later create an Indiegogo page for those who missed the original campaign. This included most of the perks apart from the top tier. They managed to again hit over 1000% of their original goal, hitting a total of €209,284 raised.

Once these campaigns finished Morphcat posted updates every now and then detailing parts of production, such as label printing and box creation.

### After Official Release

A few months after the official digital release, Morphcat announced on May 4, 2019 that pre-orders were open for the physical release on Broke Studio's website . On September 19, 2019, a digital version of the soundtrack was released on Bandcamp. This release includes 2 bonus tracks by Heos and irldescentaudio respectively. A physical release of the soundtrack is planned.