Not sure about this.
Migth wait for more lets play videoes of this game before i decide to buy
Wallet is safe for now.

With all the touted possibilities with the various spells, what is the approximate ratio of useful/necessary/needed spells to total spell permutations?

I figure some of the permutations are for flavor/person preference, but wonder how many allow for emergent gameplay, where a player can solve various problems/obstacles in multiple ways, perhaps even within the same character build.

Can anyone who has played the game comment on that?

The best video I've found for explaining the magic system is this one (with most of it covered in the first 10 minutes).

Basically you can collect 8 different "essences" and 5 different "stones". Via "alchemy" you can combine 1 essence and 1 stone to create a "material". Essences and stones have 5 levels ("grades" A through F, A being highest), and materials have 5 levels as well (which depends on the levels of the essence and stone used to make the material). Each material provides one or more effects, with higher level materials providing greater effect. You can also find materials, and (I think - it wasn't in the video but is described here) use alchemy to break materials apart into essence + stone so you make different materials.

You can then apply up to 3 materials each to four places (to combine their effects): Robe, spell #1, spell #2, wand. (These are not all unlocked at the start. Wand doesn't consume mana like spells, but is weaker than spells. If you "level up" these things they can use 4 materials each instead of 3. Don't know if it can go to 5.) Effects seem to be of the same type for wand and spells, but different (yet related) for robes. (This difference seems to primarily be because wands and spells are "when used" type items while robes are a "when worn" item.) Multiple instances of the same material can be stacked if you want to (somewhat) increase that effect rather than adding different effects.

Some effects may not play nice together (at least, may not do what you would think before combining them - in the video one of the combinations he tried resulted in one effect seemingly cancelled out entirely).

There is also an "enchant" option (that you can toggle on/off) on robes/spells/wand that takes away damage capability but improves other aspects.

(There are also artifacts that provide other abilities, but AFAICT you can't apply materials/effects to artifacts - you just use them as you find them.)

You can't change any of this stuff while actually fighting in a level, but can change it at-will otherwise.

If you watch the video I linked, you'll find that some combinations appear to be very overpowered, and therefore there may be no reason to ever change them (other than just wanting to fool around and possibly "get fired" -- you don't seem to actually die in the game, just get fired and then you "reapply" for your old job).

It seems to me that the game is more of a "magic maker sandbox" with fighting levels being available primarily for you to try out your creations (and collect more magic bits) rather than being a game one plays to solve/beat. But then, the game hasn't been out long -- maybe once people get far enough into it actual challenges requiring situation-specific spell design strategy will appear? The problem with that is you design your spells before you fight a level, not during the level, so the only way to customize your spells for a given level is to fight and "die" first, then restart the level. (I believe the game lets you redo your spells between such restarts.)

Ugh... programmer art. The concept and game mechanics here sound interesting to me, but the visual style really puts me off. Come on indie devs, there's plenty of talented designers and artists out there. If you're serious about your game project, get one or two of those fellows on your team. It's for the best of everyone, really.

Might still give this a closer look once it's offered at a greater discount, but for now it's a pass.

I feel cautiously interested. Spellmaking system sounds like fun.
Magicka is the game that comes to my mind when I look at this. However I hope this one is single-player focused while Magicka was designed as multi-player experience.

What I would like to know is:
** how linear or open the world is? Is this a linear story with spellmaking twist or maybe a crafting loot-focused game where you can "grind" endlessly to make even more powerful spells or items?
** what are the game modes? I remember that in Magicka there was some sort of arena , duels , etc.

EDIT: Alright, I saw someone posted a short review, stating that the game was rather short and more like a "puzzle" game in that that spellmaking is a key to defeat specific types of enemies. More like a tactical game in that regard.

I know, I was a backer of their first (failed) campaign (Wings: Director's Cut), in spite of that dreadful pitch video they had, but by the time they relaunched their campaign I was already reassessing my stance on crowdfunding and was backing a lot less projects until I completely quitted a few months later.

Great release!

Thank you for that video!

Now definitely interested in it. Got a ton of backlog right currently, but will definitely pick the game up for sure.