Desktop Magic Engine

Desktop Magic Engine sounds like a toolkit first and a game second, so its audience is likely people who enjoy experimental or desktop-style play. By our assessment, the attraction is the idea of turning a computer screen itself into part of the game space. The limit is that such projects often depend on novelty, so their appeal can narrow once the trick is familiar. In practice this kind of thing usually asks for curiosity and some patience with unusual interfaces rather than with standard action or progression. Against mainstream games it sits on the odd, playful edge of the medium, closer to a toy or experiment than a conventional release. Desktop Magic Engine will matter most to players who like weird systems and less to anyone who wants a straightforward game loop.