Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 10/Feb 00:01

Magic Forge Tycoon – Review

From Howest Kortrijk’s world-renowned game development courses to, well, Baldur’s Gate 3, Belgium has made its mark on the gaming world over the last decade or so. As such, whenever we get a chance to look at a Belgian game, it has our attention, and not just because we happen to live there as well. Enter Magic Forge Tycoon, from Belgian developer Clever Trickster. Can this smaller indie title reaffirm our belief in our fellow countrymen as game developers, or have we been blinded by misplaced nationalism? Story Being a management sim, Magic Forge Tycoon doesn’t follow a structured story arc. Instead, its fantasy setting is there to add a light, background-driven narrative context. Set in the magical town of Arcadia, you’re placed in the role of an apprentice blacksmith, who is rebuilding an old workshop into a powerful crafting business. Whether it’s basic items or legendary artefacts, supplying weapons to your clientele can affect wars, alliances and regional stability, meaning your business decisions can shape political outcomes. While this would form a good basis for Game of Thrones-esque intrigue, Magic Forge Tycoon’s framework is intentionally light, mainly enhancing the idea that you are working in a living world rather than playing a management sim. Graphics That feeling of a living world is further enhanced through the game’s colorful visuals. In essence, you’re simply looking at a UI and clicking through menus, but the game’s expressive characters, magical environments and whimsical world design are immersive enough to make you forget about the banality of Magic Forge Tycoon’s gameplay. What makes this even more impressive is that the game does not sacrifice visual clarity either. The clean art style makes the game’s systems and information easy to follow. Magic Forge Tycoon’s visual performance is solid as well, with no notable performance issues. The game isn’t very demanding, and it does a lot with a little. Sound We couldn’t help but feel that Magic Forge Tycoon underdelivers when it comes to audio. The game’s soundtrack is light and whimsical, fitting with the fantasy atmosphere, but it becomes repetitive quickly and could have done with more variation. There are shifts in the music depending on gameplay context, but these are too subtle to make a meaningful difference. Sound effects and ambience are adequate enough, but not exactly memorable. What could have helped with elevating Magic Forge Tycoon’s soundscape would be voice acting, but sadly, this is absent, with the in-game dialogue only delivered through on-screen text. Gameplay Before releasing Magic Forge Tycoon, indie developer Clever Trickster brought us the vampire-themed Blood Bar Tycoon. Unfortunately, we haven’t had the chance to give Magic Forge Tycoon’s predecessor a go, so we can’t outright compare the two, but it does seem like Clever Trickster is trying to cement itself as a developer within the management sim genre. In Magic Forge Tycoon’s case, managing the titular forge means crafting enchanted weapons and items for customers, factions, and kingdoms while balancing resources, production workflows, and economic strategy. The gameplay blends hands-on crafting mechanics, such as adjusting weapon stats, managing forging processes, and combining enchantments, with higher-level tycoon systems like managing staff, upgrading facilities, fulfilling contracts, and reacting to fluctuating markets and political conflicts that can influence the world. The core loop is built around a repeating cycle of gathering resources, crafting items, fulfilling orders, selling products, and expanding your workshop. You collect different materials such as ores, herbs, and magical components, then use these to craft enchanted gear or weapons, which are sold for profit and to increase your reputation. You design and forge items manually, first by adjusting parameters like durability, damage, or enchantment capacity and then by engaging in forging minigames involving timing, heat control, or combining magical ingredients. These systems determine the quality of each item and can unlock additional upgrades or abilities, making crafting feel skill-driven rather than automatic. Gradually, managing workshop operations becomes more important as you start hiring specialised workers and organizing supply chains and production chains. As you progress, these systems grow more complex, requiring careful planning to avoid production bottlenecks or resource shortages. There is a definite learning curve when it comes to Magic Forge Tycoon. It took us several attempts before we felt like we knew what we were doing. That’s mostly because the game’s onboarding is on the weaker side. The in-game tutorials are vague, not fully explaining even the core crafting systems. Once everything clicked in place though, with a healthy sprinkling of trial-and-error, the core loop started to really shine. Magic Forge Tycoon is a very replayable game too, with no two runs playing out exactly the same. The game doesn’t reïnvent the genre, but it’s a solid management sim, once you get past those early game hurdles. For a €11.99 RRP, we don’t think we could ask for anything more. Conclusion A solid management sim, Magic Forge Tycoon does what it needs to do, but not outstandingly so. You need to put in the effort yourself before the game “clicks”, but once it does, the blend of manual crafting, workshop management and even light political intrigue offers enough to keep you engaged, over multiple runs even. The game’s fantasy setting and visuals do a lot of heavy lifting to make the game feel more immersive, although we can’t say the same about the soundscape. We wouldn’t go as far as to label Magic Forge Tycoon as an absolute must-have, but if you’re in the market for a new management sim, you could do far, far worse.