Picking up books to gain spells to cast dates all the way back to the initial pitch of Whimsical Wizardry. It lies at the core of our game, and is something we have worked very hard on!
When we first were making our prototype, pickup spells were among the first things worked on. Fireball and Magic Missile Plus were our first spells we added. Fireball is very similar to the way it is now, but Magic Missile Plus was very different! The way it is now, it fires three homing projectiles, but originally it just fired one in a straight line. While this was far less powerful, in testing we found our group was having fun and laughing so much we annoyed another dev group. Sorry!
Very early on again, we decided spells should be picked up from books. One time use, these should be far more powerful than your basic shot. We’ve done a lot of balancing to make them feel good, but not all of them start that way!
Blink, our first defensive spell, often got in the way of development. We spent FAR too long without debug keys to give ourselves specific spells, so we relied on random rolls from books and let me tell you, blink felt LONG. Once we added spells that were more powerful and easier to hit, it started to feel good to use! But man, early on it was a drag to roll, especially during testing. All in all though, I think it will make for some really great moments between players!
We have at least 20 book spells planned for release, so look forward to having fun with them when Whimsical Wizardry releases!