Magic Touch: Wizard for Hire

Magic Touch: Wizard for Hire is an endless game set in the Magic Touch series and released on February 25 2015 for iOS and Android and February 26 for Amazon App Store. The game was first announced on January 1st 2015 and was planned to be Nitrome's next released mobile game. The game is free and available on iOS, Android, and the Amazon App Store. The player plays as a wizard who has to protect a castle from oncoming enemies descending on balloons.

Unlike the flash version the game is based on, this mobile version has new backgrounds and introduces spells. A content update that adds new content, labelled Update 1, was released on April 15 2015, a second update labelled Update 2 released on May 27 2015.

Gameplay
Magic Touch retains the gameplay its predecessor, the player playing a wizard who has to prevent knights descending via balloons from landing on the castle by drawing the symbol pictured on each balloon to pop it.

When a symbol is drawn all balloons on screen that have that symbol will pop, and when a knight is out of balloons it will fall to the ground and die. A dead knight will add an extra point to the player's score and also yield some coins. Popping multiple balloons with one drawn symbol that causes multiple knights to die will cause a combo, which will grant extra coins.

If a single knight lands on the castle the player loses. With accumulated coins the player can purchase spells and backgrounds. Three types of interactive objects will occasionally appear in game: bubbles containing a spell that can be instantly activated, treasure chests that move horizontally across the screen and grant coins once multiple symbols are drawn, and potions that drift downwards and give an unlocked spell when multiple symbols are drawn.

Level design
Magic Touch Wizard For Hire is divided up into phases.

With the exception of the first phase, for subsequent phases some grey knights from the next phase may occur in the current phase.

Upon a phase ending (except for the first phase), one out of six events related to interactive objects can enter the screen, either: a bubble, a potion, a treasure chest, a treasure chest and potion, two treasure chests, or nothing.

Phase 1
Magic Touch Wizard for Hire starts off with the first four knights that descend allowing the player to get two combos in the form of the first knight's balloon being identical to the third's and the second knight's balloon identical to the fourth's.

Phase 2
After this, a moderate amount of knights will descend that can allow the player to get up to three more combos, as many knights will usually descend that share their balloon with another balloon on a different knight that will come on screen shortly. During this event, the player should pop balloons only when the knight is about to land. In some cases the player's ability to make a combo will be blocked because they will be forced to pop a balloon right before the matching balloon enters or is above the screen.

During this phase not all balloons are planned to come in pairs, sometimes balloons enter that are planned to have no matches and other times three of one type of balloon are planned to come, though the third cannot enter the screen and may be encountered later after the second of that same type balloon.

The end of this phase is marked by three knights, the first and third knights' balloons sharing the same symbol. The possible symbols for these balloons are and. The second knight of these knights will move faster than all previously encountered knights. After these knights, a barbarian will follow. At this point, the phase ends. In the case a bubble or a treasure chest is encountered in this phase, it may occur before the barbarian.

Phase 3
Four grey knights are encountered moving at a medium pace, the first knight's balloon corresponding to the third's and the second knight's balloon corresponding to the fourth. The balloons of of each pair of knights are restricted to either the Z or V symbols, although both pairs cannot have the same symbol. After this a barbarian is encountered and the phase ends.

This phase may deviate from this regular setup, with there being unusual gaps between the occurrence of knights or a knight alongside the barbarian. Another possible deviation is that the knights with the symbols occur in pairs, such as two Z balloons and then two V ones.

In rare cases, the knights encountered may not have either Z or V symbol but other symbols.

Phase 4
An assortment of knights with a single balloon are encountered moving at a medium speed, and then a barbarian is encountered and the phase ends.

Free coins
The player can obtain one thousand free coins almost at any time by selecting the one thousand coins option on the shop page. Once this is selected, the player is presented with three ways of obtaining them: watching a video ad, downloading another game, or sharing Magic Touch Wizard for Hire.

When "Watch a video ad" is selected the player is shown a video ad and then given one thousand coins. This method can be used an infinite amount of time, although it cannot be used again right after being used and only becomes usable after a short amount of time. On Android, after viewing the ad the player may have to press their device's back button to get the coins.

For "Get a game", selecting this option takes the player to their respective App Store's shop page for another free Nitrome game, and upon downloading the game and playing once returning to Magic Touch Wizard for Hire will grant them 1000 coins. Alternatively, if the player already has the game sometimes when selecting to get the game, when asked what should be used to load the app store's page, closing this message will grant them 1000 coins.

For logging in to the player's Twitter or Facebook account and sharing the game, the player will earn 1000 coins. However, this method cannot be used with the exact same account after the player has redeemed the coins after the first time.

Announcements

 * January 1, 2015 - The game was announced and a preview image shared.
 * January 30, 2015 - A vine of the game was shared
 * February 17, 2015 - A trailer of the game was uploaded
 * February 20, 2015 - A vine of the game was shared
 * February 21, 2015 - AppSpy does a preview of the game
 * February 23, 2015 - A vine of the game was shared
 * March 6th, 2015 - Nitrome announces that Magic Touch Wizard for Hire was downloaded 1.1 million times on iOS and that new content is coming
 * April 2nd, 2015 - Nitrome announces that the first update is almost complete and shares a screenshot of content from it.
 * April 15th, 2015 - Nitrome releases trailer of the first update and announces that the next update is in development.
 * May 29th, 2015 - Nitrome announced that a new update had been released.

Cameos

 * The Gunbrick background (pictured below) is a cameo of Gunbrick content.



Release versions
This version of the game was the initial release version, labelled 1.0.5 on Android and the Amazon App Store and released on February 25 2015 for both iOS and Android and February 26 for the Amazon App Store.

Update version
This versions of the game fixes bugs. It was released on March 3 2015 on iOS and is labelled 0.2.1, while on Android it was released on March 9 2015 and is labelled 1.0.6. On both versions the update fixes a bug where the Dragon and Bomb Nuke spells' book icons were swapped when obtained from potions.

The iOS version also fixes a pause screen glitch that caused the power ups button to not register the "new" label when the player gains enough coins to purchase a background, some minor bug fixes, and a few pixels being tweaked. Despite the bug fixes, this update brought another bug where the symbol on the book for the Dragon and Bomb Nuke spells when obtained from potions was incorrect.

On Android the update also fixes a bug with text that is shared.

Regardless of platform, this update also greatly reduced the chance of encountering six knights in a row with matching balloons during phase 2 of the game's level design, as this along with phase 1 previously allowed for the player to get five combos in a row at the start of the game.

The Balloon Nuke spell was also changed so that it no longer has the possibility of allowing the player to encounter two potions during the spell when they would regularly encounter just one.

Second Android update version
This version was put out on Android and is labelled 1.0.8. This update is said to fix the Dragon and Bomb Nuke spells being swapped when obtained from a potion and a bug with shared text, but is also said to fix a problem with the game crashing on some devices.

Second update version
Released for iOS on March 17th 2015 and labelled 0.2.2 and on Android on March 18 2015 and labelled 1.0.11, this update fixes some bugs. Although the iOS version is not specific on what bugs are fixes, on the Android version an in app purchase bug is fixed.

Update 1
This version of the game, referred to as Update 1, was released on iOS and Android on April 15th 2015 and on Amazon App Store on April 26th 2015, labelled as 0.3 on iOS and 1.1 on the Amazon App Store.

This update introduced the gun hat and unicorn spells, the Jousting and Magma backgrounds, the thief and king knights, and updated the shop screen with categories and easy access to buying/obtaining coins.

This version also made two changes to potions: when on screen they could be destroyed at any time by a Dragon spell dragon after it has entered the screen, and when the Balloon Nuke spell is active the player only has to pop the potion's first balloon to destroy the potion and get the spell.

The Android version of this update accidentally caused a bug that granted access and the infinite use of all spells.

Third Android update version
Released on April 15 2015 and labelled 1.3.1, this version fixes the bug in Update 1 and also drops the required operating system for Magic Touch Wizard for Hire from requiring Android 4.1+ to now just requiring Android 2.3+.

Update 2
This update was released on iOS and Android on May 28 2015 and adds ten unlockable wizards. It is labelled Version 0.4 on iOS and 1.4 on Android.

Development
Development of Magic Touch Wizard for Hire started during the development of Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage which was developed from December 2011 to June 2013. During this time Magic Touch Wizard for Hire was being programmed by Arthur Guibert and the game was meant to be a premium title, however, Nitrome lost faith in the game working under that model and Guibert was relocated over to working on Icebreaker A Viking Voyage.

Magic Touch Wizard for Hire was put on hold at some point and not returned to for a very long time, until 2014 at the time when Nitrome was testing out free games with ads. The use of this new model seemed to be a good fit for the game some development on it was started once again.

When development started again it was at one point worked on in December 2014. The game was revealed on January 1 2015 and no projected release date was given, though Nitrome was hoping to release the game in January. The game, along with Green Ninja: Year of the Frog and Silly Sausage in Meat Land was shown at Pocket Gamer Connects, an event which took place on January 13-14 2015. Magic Touch Wizard for Hire missed its internal projected release date of January 2015 due to Nitrome not anticipating the amount of work required for it.

When Magic Touch Wizard for Hire was first being worked on it was not made in Unity (like Nitrome's other free mobile games), and because of this the game would not available on Nitrome's website upon being released on mobile. However, because Nitrome would prefer to have all their free games on their site Magic Touch Wizard for Hire may be added to the Nitrome website at a future date.

The music used in Magic Touch was reused for Magic Touch Wizard for Hire because Nitrome enjoyed the original music a lot. The shape recognition part of Magic Touch Wizard for Hire was overhauled from the flash version and is also more accurate at recognizing shapes.

On February 17 2015 Nitrome released the game's trailer and announced the game's release date. Magic Touch Wizard for Hire was released on February 25 2015 and garnered 1.1 million downloads on iOS within its first week of release, the success of the game causing Nitrome to start work on new content for it on the week following its release.

By April 2 2015 the update was almost ready to be submitted to the various app stores the game was on.

The game had received 2 million downloads on iOS and around 1 million on Android by April 2nd 2015, but considerably less on the Amazon App Store.

The Unicorn spell, a new spell that would be introduced in Update 1, had been implemented into the game by March 31 2015. Update 1 was later previewed on April 2 2015 where it was almost ready to be submitted to the various app stores the game was on. The update was released on April 15 2015 for iOS and Android, Nitrome also updating fans on how the game had received over 3 million downloads on all platforms and that they were currently working on Update 2. Update 1 was released the following day on the Amazon App Store. Update 2 was released on May 27 2015, the total downloads for the game across all platforms exceeding 5 million.

Purple balloon
The purple balloon that appears similar to a DNA helix or an 8 with two diagonal lines at the top corners was removed from the game although graphics for it still exist. This balloon appeared in the original Magic Touch and was one of the few balloons that required a lot of ink to draw.

Under /assets/atlas on balloons_atlas.png is the balloon's symbol on a purple balloon, and under /assets/atlas on magictouch.png is the image of how the balloon would appear on the symbol part of treasure chests.

Despite the balloon's removal from the game, the gesture for the symbol was not removed and can still be input in-game, where it will be recognized as pertaining to a purple balloon. Also, the balloon is present in the short tutorial animation for the fast forward spell where it is visible on the grey knight closest to the castle before the spell is activated. It is unusual that this balloon is on a grey knight as in the final game purple balloons are only found on barbarians.

Question mark balloon
Under /assets/atlas on balloons_atlas.png is an unused balloon with a question mark on it and a checkered tan and dark brown design. It is unknown what this balloon would have been used for, considering that the symbol in question cannot even be drawn.

< symbol
Drawing < will cause it to be recognized by the game and flash white, even though the symbol does not correspond to any balloon or spell game. Subsequently, while lines in the game flash to correspond to the colour associated with that balloon/spell, white is not used for any of the and is unused.

Frog book
In assets/atlas/ingame_ui.png there is an image of the book icon for the Frog spell when obtained from a potion, only this icon lacks the icon for the spell. No other image like this exists for the other spells.

Bottle
Located in assets/atlas/magictouch.png is the sprite of a bottle and a blue object that fits inside the bottle's sprite. The bottle has a large circular opening at the top with a brown cork in it, this opening having a small brown rope around the bottom of its neck, this neck attached to a large glass container.

The bottle's sprite on its own is transparent, but there is another sprite that appears light blue and fits perfectly inside the bottle's container.

While it is unknown what the bottle would have been used for, it has traits of both potions and bubbles. The top of the bottle is very similar to the top of the regular potions, though the bottle deviates from that by having a larger cork, smaller neck and smaller thread around the neck. The container part of the bottle is similar to bubbles in that both are transparent and have another light blue sprite that fits perfectly into them.

Numbers
Found in assets/atlas/magictouch.png is an unused font for numbers. These numbers differ in appearance from the ones used in the final game, particularly the seven being a different seven than the one in used, and also the zero having a triangular hole. This font may have been left unfinished, as the one in the font is just a 4x28 white line. Also, the sprite of the one appears twice in the sprite sheet.

Green knight
Present in assets/atlas/magictouch.png is a small green sprite of a knight from the flash version of Magic Touch. While it's placement in the game is unusual, what is even more puzzling is why it is so small and its green colouring.

The knight may have served as a placeholder sprite for knights until their sprite could be made. Though likely unconnected, the Retro skin contained green Magic Touch knights in it.

Pause button
Found in assets/atlas/magictouch.png is a pause button for the game. This pause button appears as a scroll with two vertical lines on them. Considering that development of Magic Touch Wizard for Hire was started during development of Icebreaker A Viking Voyage, and Nitrome only started to use settings cogs after the release of Super Snot Put, it may be that this pause icon is a leftover from early in development, as in the final game a setting cog is used to pause the game.

Triangle
There is a white triangle with a hole in the middle that can be found in assets/atlas/magictouch.png. It is uncertain what it would be used for, as the only other completely white sprites in the game is the large lightning sprite from the lightning spell, the bottom part of bubbles, and the first sprite of the egg of the Dragon spell.

It resembles the Illuminati symbol.

Rough sprites
Scattered throughout assets/atlas/magictouch.png are various rouch sprites for features in Magic Touch Wizard for Hire, all them appearing to be vectors and not made in pixels, and most likely were created to be used for features before proper graphics could be made.

The sprite "combo x" would likely have been used to test out combos, while the font for numbers may have been used to indicate the multiplier. The cannon with the "M" on it may be a rough design for the cannon spell (activated by drawing "M") or potions. The green circle may have been used for balloons.

It is uncertain what the half circle and triangle would indicate, although the triangle may be the early sprite for the triangle shapes seen when the player draws something.

Gunbrick background segments
The entire background of the Gunbrick background is too large to fit on the screen, so when it is used in-game only the large middle portion of the background is seen, rendering the left and right edges of the full background unused.

However, even though the large middle portion of the full background is used, not all of this portion is seen, as part of it is covered up by the towers of the castle, further rendering part of this background unused.

Even though the entire background of other backgrounds are not completely seen, the Gunbrick background is different in that there are actual unique details that are unseen. It is unusual why the Gunbrick background is larger than what can fit on the screen, as the other background are not like this. While it may be possible that it was meant to scroll, this is not the case as the far left telephone pole is only half visible and does not continue on the other side of the image.

Despite not the entire background being seen in game, part of the unseen part of the background is seen in the Gunbrick screenshot in the game's screenshots on the various app stores the game is on, due to the background of the screenshot not being positioned properly.

Smoke ball
What appears to be a ball of smoke can be seen in /assets/atlas/magictouch.png. It may have been used for the cannon spell, as it is the only spell to use smoke.

Sales
On iOS during its first week of release Magic Touch Wizard for Hire was downloaded 1.1 million times, making it it (by March 6th 2015) Nitrome's most downloaded mobile game. It was due to the game's sales that Nitrome set to work making new content for it.

By April 2nd 2015 the game had received over 2 million download on iOS and at least 1 million downloads on Android, but considerably lower numbers on the Amazon App Store.

By April 15 2015 the combined number of downloads for all platforms exceeded 3 million, this number being over 5 million by May 28 2015.

Promotions
A banner of Magic Touch Wizard for Hire appeared on the front page of the games category of the Apple App Store when the game was released, along with appearing in the "Best New Games" section.

Coverage of the game by the Youtube user "iHasCupquake" drove a considerable amount of traffic to the game.

On March 7 2015 the game was featured on the website of the French newspaper Libération.

Porting
When Magic Touch Wizard for Hire was first being worked on it was not made in Unity (like Nitrome's other free mobile games), and because of this the game would not available on Nitrome's website upon being released on mobile. However, because Nitrome would prefer to have all their free games on their site Magic Touch Wizard for Hire may be added to the Nitrome website at a future date.

Trivia

 * Magic Touch was accidentally leaked two days early due to a glitch on Nitrome's website which caused their search function to find unreleased blog posts.
 * A bird with glasses appears in the Gunbrick background sitting on top of the Gunbrick. This may be a reference to the common misconception at Gunbrick mobile's release where some people thought the main character was a duck.
 * On the front page of Nitrome.com 2.5, in the "FEATURED" section, in the icon for Magic Touch Wizard for Hire which has been present there since the game's launch, the "C" and the "G" of "Magic" are almost identical.


 * Furthermore, in the slider animation for Magic Touch Wizard for Hire, the "G" in "Magic" lacks a notch to distinguish it from the "C", although due to the positioning of the "G" and how it has been tilted it can be inferred that it is a "G" and not a "C".
 * If player starts the game from the game's menu then pauses it, unicorns can be seen on both sides of the screen.