Magicka is an action-adventure video game developed by Swedish independent developer Arrowhead Game Studios. It was released via Steam for Microsoft Windows on January 25, 2011. Magicka is based on Norse mythology. Up to four mages of a sacred order travel to fight against an evil sorcerer and his creations. The game world is based loosely on Norse mythology, drawing inspiration from other fantasy games like Warhammer and Diablo, while also making regular use of comedy and self-referential humor. The game also takes liberties when it comes to the classic fantasy setting, at one point supplying the players with an M60 machine gun. In expansions the game also explores a Vietnam War setting as well as the Lovecraftian Cthulhu universe. Gameplay Magicka is an action-adventure game played in a 3D environment from an isometric perspective. A single player or up to four simultaneous cooperative players take on the roles of wizards tasked with stopping an evil sorcerer that has thrown the world into a state of turmoil. The main adventure campaign consists of 13 levels. In contrast to role-playing game mechanics that traditionally dominate among magic and wizardry-based video games, Magicka has no character class structure. Similarly there is no "mana bar", or energy meter that limits the use of special abilities, and with the exception of certain "Magicks", players are able to access the most powerful spells right from the beginning of the game. Magic spells can be cast without limit and do not require the consumption of any finite resource; power limitations are purely based on whether players know the combination and can conjure up elements quickly enough. The game is also exceptionally scant in its utilization of powerup items, as one of the developers' goals was to shift focus away from the acquisition of material goods, or "loot", as player motivation. However, time to cast the spell is very limited: if the player does it too slowly, they will die. Spells and elements The game contains eight base elements (water, life, shield, cold, lightning, arcane, earth and fire) which can be mixed and combined to cast spells. Up to five elements can be chained together for this purpose, but certain elements cannot be combined together due to their opposing nature (for instance, fire and cold). Additionally, two other elements can be created by mixing two base elements: steam (water and fire) and ice (water and cold); these