Hitherto: School of Swordcery and Shieldjuration

Hitherto: School of Swordcery and Shieldjuration is a turn-based, tile-based tactics game set at Hitherto High, a royal magic school. The player takes the role of a teacher whose job is to train a small group of students in magic and prepare them for their final exams. The game has now been released on Steam.

Rather than simply winning each encounter, the aim of every battle is to gain experience, and each student earns it differently. The nerd gains experience by dealing damage, the punk by absorbing damage, and the goth by healing it. Players are expected to pay attention to how each student learns and plan their moves accordingly. Levelling up unlocks perks that strengthen both a student’s magic and the way they earn experience; for example, the nerd can triple their experience by hitting three enemies with a single splash attack, or double it through transmutation as a less demanding alternative.

The game consists of nine stages, with the ninth acting as the final exam. Students must reach a sufficient level before that point or they will fail. A full run through all nine stages takes under two hours.