I've read a bit through the old spell posts and the release updates, and noticed that orbs no longer have a mana based time limit. However I have noticed that all of my orbs seem to disappear after 60 seconds regardless of how much mana they have. Is this time limit something that can be adjusted or do we just have to live with it for now? I'd really like to start having some more semi-permanent spells to create some more long-lived magical contraptions.

If I'm not mistaking, @a_lomo said this limit was hard-coded at the moment, but we'll be able to change this later. Am I right? ^^

Yes, that is correct. As of the most recent development update video, that was the plan.

Any news on this? I would love to make my spells longer lasting again!

Nope, not officially, but you can use Black Magic to increase orb lifetime by setting orb.lifetime to a value less than 60 repeatedly.

Thanks, that works for me!