Fan-made community wiki

The Magus Circle

A survival roguelite where you cast spells by drawing their sigils by hand instead of pressing buttons. Kill the endless Tide, collect mana crystals, choose upgrades, and return to the Magus Mansion between runs.

September 24, 2026 Steam release date

21,000+ Demo players (Feb 2026)

Over 250 Upgrades (Steam, Jun 2026)

Over 10 Challenges you opt into

6 Playable mages

By Witchlight Independent studio

Start the beginner guide Release date & demo Wishlist on Steam

Start here

Beginner Guide Draw sigils to cast, manage durations, and survive your first runs. Release Date & Demo Steam unlocks September 24, 2026. The old demo is delisted — here is how to play now. Sigils & Spellcasting How the drawing input works, how forgiving it is, and what to do when it fails. Upgrades & Mages In-run and out-of-run progression, and the six mages with their own stories.

Guides & mechanics

These pages are built from the official store description, the developer's own site, hands-on press coverage of the PlayXpo demo booth, and aggregated player reviews of the February 2026 demo. Where something has not been published, the page says so instead of guessing — and pages that draw on the pre-release demo carry a note saying so.

Pre-release · based on demo

Sigils The drawing input Spells Skills, durations, mana Upgrades Build paths and stats Characters Milk, Matcha and the mages Challenges Difficulty you choose Familiars Mansion life and tea Demo What it was, and what replaced it

About the game

The Magus Circle is an action roguelite with bullet-hell combat, built around a single unusual input: instead of a button, every active skill is bound to an arcane sigil, and you draw that sigil to cast. The developer states that you do not need to be an artist — even crude drawings hold magic — and the game accepts rough shapes, offers automatic drawing and shape correction, and lets you fall back to number keys 1 through 5 if you cannot draw in the moment.

Structurally it is a survival roguelite in the Vampire Survivors mould. Enemies drop mana crystals that fuel your next cast; between runs you return to the Magus Circle, a hub with an explorable mansion, residents who grant buffs, familiars and tea. There are six playable mages, each summoned from a different universe with their own story, and several endings. Difficulty is opt-in: after each victory you choose which of the ten-plus challenges to take.

Developer	By Witchlight (independent studio)
Genre	Action, Indie — Action Roguelike, Bullet Hell, Roguelite
Platforms	Windows · macOS · Linux (Steam)
Release date	September 24, 2026 (Steam). Early Access live on STOVE since August 24, 2026.
Languages	English (full audio), Korean
Players	Single-player only — no multiplayer or co-op
Official trailer	Gameplay Trailer on Steam

Before you buy

Prices: Steam has not published a price yet. The STOVE Early Access build was listed at 10.99 USD with a 20% discount to 8.79 USD at the time of our last check, with the promotion running to September 13, 2026. See the price page for figures with their verification date, and always confirm on the storefront.

The demo is gone: the free Steam demo was delisted after February 2026's Next Fest. What happened, and how to play early.

What this site is

This is an independent, fan-made resource. It is not affiliated with By Witchlight. We publish what official sources confirm, label anything drawn from the pre-release demo, and deliberately do not publish upgrade rankings, complete spell lists or challenge lists until real sources exist for them — a ranking written before launch would be wrong within weeks.

Ready to master the circle? View on Steam

Content last verified: September 11, 2026