Curses!
	March 2006, time for another 72 hour competition. I had decided to test my skills in C++ and SDL which I'd been learning for about a week. I teamed up with Bob and Dunk from the Warwick Game Design Society and in the end I did very little coding. Bob did the majority of it, Dunk did music and I produced artwork. The theme was magic, my idea was to write a turn based wizard battle game but the others wanted to write a falling-block game where you have to match ingredients and cast spells.
	The forces of good have discovered your evil lair - you being an evil witch of course. Mix ingredients in the cauldron and cast spells to ward off the intruders. Muhahahaha!
	Controls: A / D - Move ingredient S - Drop ingredient Click and drag mouse - group together ingredients and cast a spell
	Read the spell book to find out spells, then arrange the ingredients together in the cauldron. Click and drag over a group of ingredients which match a spell and it will be cast, foiling the pesky do-gooders' plans. Sometimes your minions will venture forth from the castle to slow the hero in his tracks. If a hero reaches your evil lair, it's game over!
	The competition entries were judged by the other participants, this is how we scored: Graphics - 3rd (6.00) Sound - 2nd (6.44) Gameplay - 2nd (6.22) Innovation - 1st (7.56) Completeness - 2nd (6.89) Theme - 1st (8.44) Overall - 2nd (7.11) There were ten entries overall.
	"I enjoyed this a lot, but it's rather tricky...The only complaint I have comes in with the spellbook...It's difficult to quickly figure out your recipes...That and occasionally the game hangs while new images load up...Other than that great game, lots of fun...:) " -a judge
	"The game's magic system's great and all, but way too confusing. It should show more than one spell at a time and give the user a chance to memorize them before launching more spells. I think the game would be much more enjoyable if it were to let the player play through a couple levels with a few spells and get the hang of them first. " -a judge
	"I thought this was one of the best entries. It was a nice play on the match three style gameplay, with your own style. It's got a bit of a learning curve in the beginning as you try to figure out which things are which, but otherwise, it was solid. " -a judge
	"Well made. This game has a good concept and a decent amount of music. The art is mediocre... which proved, sadly, to be the hidering aspect of this game's score. The music was pretty sweet.. The harmonies are a bit muddy sometimes, though your notes follow the chord structures, try basing your strong notes off of the chordal roots more often. Nice instrument quallity in some of your instruments.. not so much in others. I'd like to hear more of your work if possible " -a judge
	"I like it. A little too hard, but very funny " -a judge
	"Nicely presented with a great atmosphere, it doesn't _quite_ work as a game as it stands now. Still with some work on game balance and playability it has the chance to become the best game to come out of the competition this time. " -a judge
	You can download Curses! here
	Thanks to Bob Merrison for the coding and Duncan Stead for the music and sound effects.
	Please send me your comments and suggestions!
	This website, all downloads and images are © copyright to Jonathan Gover (2005)