Introducing: Grid System

Over the past few days I've been coming up with a little magic system that is unlike anything I have seen in a video game before. I call it the Grid System. Believe it or not: It involves a grid.

Above is an example of a lower level grid. Looks fun and simple right? Here's how it works. Spells, instead of just being learned and then automatically added to a characters Spell list or whatever you may call it, the spell is instead made available as a 'tile' on your grid. When you level, instead of getting AP points to distribute into your skills you get Gridpoints. These Gridpoints can be used to add spells to your grid with each spell requiring a varied amount of Gridpoints to add one tile. Once a spell has been added to the grid, it becomes available for the Character to use. The size of the Grid is affected by the characters Mind stat. But it gets a bit more complicated then this.

If you notice above there is 3 different Spelltiles in 3 different shapes. These are 3 examples of how these Tiles could be added. The line of four fire tiles on the left side of the grid, when cast, would cause a constant flames spell because the 4 tiles are aligned in a straight line in the grid. If the grid was expanded and another flame tile was added below this line, the spell would become even stronger. The 8 water tiles in an o shape would cause an AoE spell and the 4 shadow tiles (the purple ones) would cause a sort of shadowball spell. Each element can be arranged into any of these shapes. The character could also create unique effects with certain tile layouts.

The above spell would be an AoE shadow effect that also drains health, the yellow tiles being Heal tiles. This is just one of the many, MANY combinations that would be available, along with other shapes and other types of spells.

I'm pretty proud of this system. I find it pretty unique and I am excited to implement it into a game.