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Chapter 6
Game Design Lessons
from Occult Magic
6.1 OCCULT RITUAL FLOWCHARTS
For a game designer, the purpose of studying occult magic is to develop
recipes for rituals, which can inspire spellcasting mechanics and related
puzzles. Each system of magic—whether voodoo, ancient Egyptian heka,
grimoire-based goetia, or traditional witchcra—has its own procedures
for altering reality and transforming consciousness. ese procedures can
be represented in part as owcharts, and owcharts can be used to help
guide the programming of magic systems. Figure6.1 is a owchart repre-
senting a voodoo ritual.
While voodoo encompasses many diverse pract