Nowadays I'm getting a lot of suggestions about which direction I should lead Crawle in and I'd like to post this to explain my reasoning behind me saying "No".
Our first initial concept for Crawle was to make a survival dungeon crawler. Though it isn't necessarily a dungeon crawler, it is a survival game and survival means that there has to be elements of realism in there.
Take spells, for example. We decided to remove them because we wanted this "realism" in the game. We even had to change the backgrounds on the menus because of this.
However, it doesn't stop us adding things like alternate realities within dungeons for examples or even unearthly beings because that would be way too dull. Realism obviously has its limits, especially in games where exploration is encouraged.
So there you have it: why I won't add magical flying ponies and spells and camels that wield nuclear submarines.
Hey it's your game. Do what you like. But I'm of a different opinion on game realism than you are. It's a fictional world. You can build a sense of realism in a game world that has no relation at all to true reality. All it requires is that you make a little effort to make a set of rules, natural laws, to the world that the human mind can accept then enforce them.
You could have made a magic system with a lot of restrictions and limitations. And even a risk to reward type deal. Such as magic could kill the character if pushed too far. Or you can only perform magic by collecting something challenging deep in dungeons. And you could make it so magic isn't super powerful but more of a help to improve your survival situation.
Anyways, I can see why you decided not to put in magic and I wouldn't fault you for making your own choices with your own game. I just can't say I agree with the thought process behind it as explained. That said.. Rock on. I'm still watching this game with interest and doubt I will stop any time soon!
February was a long while ago and my ideas about Crawle have obviously changed to the approach you mentioned: certain laws that can be accepted as "realistic". I've always seen the dungeons as the complete opposite to what the game is meant to be and yeah I think that's where most of the "non-realistic" things will come from.