Hand weapon/staff = objects found in the level ranging from wooden stick, skinny board, iron rod, etc.
The equipped item gets an icon on the screen, next to 4 more icons of ingredients the player has. Ingredients are found in game, ranging from mushrooms to herbs, sulfur, ash, etc ingredients.
I was considering having 2 of the icons be magic "schools" the player has access to, with 2 ingredients they can cast in that school, but I haven't decided yet.
As it is now, the player gets 4 ingredients, they touch the icon to "activate" it and the icon disappears (eventually will fade or show a sprite cooldown effect). When they hit the attack button, it checks what ingredients are "active" and it triggers a spell tied to that combo.
That way with just 4 icons, you have over a dozen spells, you could then use the staff/board/twig as a modifier or some new branch of spells. Maybe metal staffs conduct magic better or allow different spells. Lots of ways to go with it.
Example just igniting different effects on the same object with different combos:
Could even offer another/more buttons to cast a "saved" spell combo.
Advice, input, etc?
