Sorcery

Sorcery is an open-source remake/remaster of the classic CRPG Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord by Dave Moore.

The project is under active development and is built using C++26, Dear ImGui, SDL2 and OpenGL. Sorcery is mainly available on Debian/Ubuntu Linux and 64-bit Windows; it also has experimental MacOS support.

Alpha #2 is available now from the Releases section. Alpha #3 is coming soon.

Screenshots

Brief gameplay videos are also available on YouTube.

Current Status

Alpha #2 — Released 20th October 2026

Alpha #2 changes include:

• Reduced required graphics memory to approximately 400 MB.
• Corrected fullscreen rendering.
• Added a music volume control.
• Added context-sensitive help using F1.
• Expanded the Cheat Menu available through F2.
• Implemented out-of-combat spellcasting for:
  • Divine spells
    • DIOS, DIAL, DIALMA, LATUMOFIS, MADI
    • MILWA, LOMILWA, LATUMAPIC
    • MAPORFIC, KANDI
    • DI, KADORTO
  • Arcane spells
    • DUMAPIC, MALOR
• The buff bar now displays the status of MILWA/LOMILWA, LATUMAPIC and MAPORFIC.
• Darkness squares now extinguish any active light spell.

Thanks to Greg Evans for the following enhancements:

• Enhanced Menu Navigation.
• Additional Save/Restore State Bug Fixes.
• Compliation Support for MacOS added.
• cTest Support.

Alpha #1 — Released 19 September 2026

Alpha #1 is the first public release of Sorcery and contains the majority of the core game framework and non-combat systems.

Implemented functionality includes:

• Core game systems
  • New Game, Save and Load
  • Quicksave and Quickload
  • Keyboard, mouse and gamepad controls
  • Linux/Windows support
• Characters and party management
  • Character creation
  • Character editing, deleting and legating
  • Party and expedition management
  • Levelling up and changing class
  • Healing and resurrection
• Town and services
  • Town and Castle menus
  • Gilgamesh's Tavern
  • Adventurer's Inn
  • Temple
  • Boltac's Equipment Shop
• Dungeon exploration
  • Maze generation and navigation
  • Dungeon features and events
  • Automapping
  • Traps and chests
  • Party wipe handling
  • Victory and end-game handling
• Items and presentation
  • Inventory and item manipulation
  • Special item powers and handling
  • Compendium
  • Music

Alpha #3 — Planned

The broader Alpha #3 development cycle is focused on implementing Magic and Combat, together with Creatures, Combat and NPCs. I will release this as soon as feasible

Alpha #4 — Planned

Current Alpha #3 targets include:

• Encounter tables
• Fixed combats
• Treasure tables
• Sound effects
• Strict (Legacy) Mode

Development Roadmap

With most of the original Wizardry I game framework now implemented, the main remaining areas of work are spellcasting, combat, creatures and NPCs. Obviously the roadmap will continue to evolve as the Alpha releases progress.

Wishlist

Longer-term ideas include:

• Achievements and quests
• Radial-menu control mode
• Additional quality-of-life features
• Content from later Wizardry games — II, III, V, and possibly IV
• Procedurally generated infinite content
• Monster Pits for practising against encounters without risk or reward
• Migration from SDL2 to SDL3
• Optional textured/rendered OpenGL 3D dungeon view
• Wizardry VI implemented using the classic wireframe engine

Related Projects

If you are interested in the original Wizardry games and related preservation/reimplementation work, see:

• Snarfu's Wizardry work, including bug fixes and recompilation work for the original Apple II Wizardry.
• Sshoecraft's Wizardry recreation, a terminal-based recreation of the original Apple II trilogy.

System Requirements

Sorcery requires:

• OpenGL 3.3
• 2 GB system memory
• Approximately 400 MB graphics memory for Alpha #2
• A 64-bit Windows or Debian/Ubuntu Linux environment

Compilation

Sorcery uses a single source tree for Linux, Windows and macOS.

The primary development platform is Ubuntu/Debian Linux. Windows builds are supported using MSYS2 UCRT64, GCC, CMake and Ninja. Other Windows toolchains are not currently tested or officially supported, although contributions documenting additional working configurations are welcome. For further information on experimental macOS support - see native macOS development build (using Apple Clang and a C++23 enum fallback)

The project targets C++26 and uses C++ reflection, so GCC 16.1 or later is required. The current development toolchain uses GCC 16.2. Platform-specific differences are handled by CMake and the source code; no separate source trees are required. See doc/COMPILE.md for full build instructions on Windows and Linux.

License

Sorcery source code is released under the GNU GPLv2. See doc/LICENSE.md for full details.

Graphics and music are used under their respective licenses, as listed below. Note that all artwork/music is authored by humans.

Contact and Help

Comments, criticism, PRs, and contributions are most welcome.

You can usually find me as Typhon on the C++ Help and DungeonCrawlers.org Discord servers, or contact me by email at:

davemoore22 AT protonmail.com

Credits

Programming Thanks

Thanks to Greg Evans for code-tidy-up PRs and macOS support!

Graphics Thanks

Creative Commons graphics are used from:

• Toriotto
• game-icons.net
• Xelu

Music Thanks

Music is used under the Soundimage International Public License and is by:

• Eric Matyas