I really enjoyed this. This is a smaller game and the price reflects that well enough. The magic coding system is pretty simple if you have had any experience with code. You can get by with the basic stuff since the platformer aspect of the game is not terribly difficult. It was just enough to keep me engaged and thinking of new spells while I played.

I do wish it was longer or even had a new game+ mode or something. I would like to really test my fancy new spells, but I have no way to re-fight any of the bosses with my current stats. Oh well.

Solid concept, simple but clean implementation, lacks replayability.

Recommeded for sure.

For the price, this is OK. The spell creation system is neat, but almost entirely superfluous. Nothing in the game challenges you to use the spell creation ability or even to engage with the mechanic in any meaningful way. The spell creation system is neat, though. The platforming is mediocre and the 'dash' ability is almost as important as the spells. Dash should've been a spell of some sort.

I paid $8 and I'm fine with that. I hope the developer keeps making games, I'd like to see what comes next.

A fun game with a lot of charm.
5/10 if I am being critical but 9/10 for the entertainment I got out of this game.

Arcane Assembly is very obviously a passion project from a small team (from the credits: one developer, one visual artist, and three composers). It has a lot of bugs, some glaring flaws in boss and level design (some of the platforming sections are practically rage mini-games), and often allows the player to become highly unbalanced due to the open-ended nature of the spell creation. Underneath all this is a really fun and charming game with a sandbox that lets you go ham on spell creation and offers some reasonably competent keyboard platforming. The soundtrack is energetic and easy to listen to, managing to not get repetitive and annoying when you are spending much of your time designing and editing spells.

I will acknowledge that I do have a background in coding, so this games magic system was easier to pick up (and exploit), but I can see this game having a higher barrier to entry or the magic system being difficult to use. The game did have good documentation on the code blocks but had limited templates for people who may be less inclined to go ham on the programming.

Overall, Arcane Assembly was a very enjoyable experience for me and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun and unique experience where you get to mess around with a spell sandbox and platform around a cute nod Hollow Knight's aesthetics.