witch | J.E.Moores

Gods, Witches, and Demons

Garden of Delights
A game inspired by Hieronymus Bosch

When you cavort with the likes of Gods, Witches, and Demons, you can get a little worn out. I’m tired. I need a break. I have completed another video game and I’m a wreck. I can see why most games are made by an entire team. To keep everything straight in my mind I need to work 18 hour days for about 4 weeks and then I have a game. If I take too long a break I lose track of so many little loose ends. There’s a lot going on when you are creating an entire universe. The Gods must be weary!

Now is time for me to relax. I wish I had enough energy to celebrate, but the celebration of completing such a huge task shall have to wait. I will sleep for 24 hours and see if I can get this mind to rest. I can still hear all the little repeated sprite sounds inside my head. I am haunted by the minions of Bosch’s Hell.

I take a long bath to take my mind off things. It’s like my brain is stuck in work mode. Even though I’m done, I tend to go over every detail and can’t stop the thoughts from coming. This is why I don’t take many breaks, because they are not breaks if I’m obsessing on work. I would be better off getting back to the job at hand and getting it over with. Nothing but completion will give me rest, and not even then. I must wind down first. Must wind down!

After working 400 hours without much of a break, it takes a couple days to come out of the trance. Rest, good food. The second the game is published and live on iOS and Android my body crashes. All the weight I put on myself hits me all at once. I don’t even feel it until I’m done, then bang, it hits me. Like a ton of bricks.

When you were a kid, did you ever get sick during school break? Once the body knows it can relax, sometimes it crashes. It takes a big break because you didn’t realize how tired you were, how stressed you were. Now that the responsibility is over, your body knows it has to grab this chance at rest before you get started on the next impossible task.

Thinking and learning are tiring. When we are learning the most, we are growing the most, but it also has its stress factor. The more we push ourselves the better we have to treat our body. Give it rest, healthy food, water. Learning how to make video games has been an amazing journey, but I’m learning so much I get really tired. I spend hours reading forums and watching youtube tutorials so I can figure out certain game mechanics along the way. Each time I have an idea of what I want a game to do, I have to figure out a way for it to do it.

I’ve been making games on a theme of magic. Egyptian Gods, Hindu Gods, Witches, Monsters, Demons… I love the fantastical imagery of ancient art. I love the images humans created before movies and TV. When demons and monsters came from nightmares and imagination. I find that old stuff so spooky. It’s like they had first hand knowledge from seeing a demon themselves. The older the art is, the more convincing it seems to me.

No matter how far back you go in time every culture has Gods, Witches, Ghosts, Demons, Elves, Fairies, and other Magical Little People. How can such universal characters not have some truth to them? They must be real. There could be no other explanation for these types to be represented by every culture on earth. By consensus alone, they all must be real. After all, isn’t truth as defined by consensus what the Common Core Curriculum teaches our kids these days? Ahhh there goes my over worked brain again. I really do need a rest.

Hey, even I don’t know what the point of this blog entry is. I made a game inspired by Hieronymus Bosch Garden of Delights. It’s awesome. I hope you like it too. I’m really tired so I’m gonna take a nap now. While I rest, please enjoy one of the games I’ve made. I have honestly put my all into making every one of them. These games beat me silly… but in a good way. Please leave me a game review to help me gain momentum. Tell a friend. I’m all alone in here. Thank you. Check it out:

Games by J.E.Moores for Android and iOS:

Garden of Delights Video Game

Hieronymus Bosch Video Game

My favorite artist of all time has got to be Hieronymus Bosch. He painted some of the freakiest stuff I’ve ever seen. I could stare at the Garden of Earthly Delights for ever and ever and never see all the details. There is always something insane going on in that painting that I have never noticed before.

What amuses me the most is that this painting was completed around 1505 for the church. The triptych has Eden on left, Hell on right, and The Garden of Earthly Delights in the center. I believe the allegory is that you go to heaven or hell depending on what you do when you are in the center. But Hieronymus, why did you make all that crazy sinnin’ look so good? I don’t even know what most of them are doing, but I want to join in. In fact, The Garden of Earthly Delights looks so inviting I consider it my personal bucket list. I hope to do everything depicted in the Garden of Delights before my time is through. Won’t you join me?

In the Garden of Delights game you start out a lovely pair of citizens of The Garden, riding in a bubble pod doing your best to protect your pastoral existence from all the winged demons, beasts, imps, and evil minions who are infiltrating paradise. Shoot them with sweet ripe berries to end their wickedness so you can get back to your own debauchery.

If you can find Laughing Lilith, she will give you a burst of supreme alchemical Bosch power. Use it wisely. When you kill enough demons and collect enough forbidden fruit you can unlock all three panels of the triptych and unlock the special bonus characters that have all new super powers. You’re welcome.

This is another from my History Through Art series of indie video games. Download Garden of Delights for Android or iOS.

Affaire Des Poisons

Many of our fears of witchcraft come from the series of 1677-1682 investigations known as the Affair Des Poisons which focused on two notorious French Fortune Tellers, Catherine Monvoisin (La Voisin) and Marie Bosse (La Bosse). They sold love potions, good luck potions, and a hot little item referred to as inheritance potions, which was a very fancy name for poison. For a nominal fee La Bosse would sell these potions and powders, and instruct you how to use them. Wives could escape marriages, family members could inherit wealth, and lovers could remove rivals.

Woodcuts illustrating witches mixing potions, sacrificing babies, and consorting with devils were partly inspired by La Voisin and La Bosse’s 17th century crimes. La Voisin conducted Satanic black masses with the French aristocracy at her side including King Louis XIV’s favorite mistress, Madame de Montespan. Mme Montespan fearing that the king may soon tire of her, was willing to sell her soul to the devil, and poison her rivals, to keep her position.

After several poisonings and murders, the scandal made it to the court’s inner circle where the king feared for his life. Many deaths among the aristocracy were attributed to the secret sale of poisons. It led to a 5 year investigation and the systematic torture and execution of 36 people by burning at the stake.

La Voisin had been a midwife by trade. She secretly performed illegal abortions, and used the fetuses to conduct Satanic black masses for her wealthy clients. It was confessed by Madame Montespan that she paid La Voisin a great fee to conduct a black mass that involved a child sacrifice. During the investigation the remains of 2,500 infants were dug up in La Voisin’s garden. The horrific news spread across Europe.

The woodcuts that illustrated the news stories of the time created mass hysteria and fear of witches worldwide. I have always had a fascination with these old world depictions of witches. Because monsters and creatures are a feast for the imagination, I have made a video game based on 17th century woodcuts of witches, demons, devils, and imps. The game is oddly cute, while maintaining all the underlying horror of it all. It’s a strange trip, because you’re playing as the evil La Voisin herself, out on one of her terrible crime sprees!

The game starts out with La Voisin running around the countryside with Madame de Montespan. The two of you are collecting all the babies you can find, you know, for Satan. Babies make you feel indestructible, but only for a little while, so you need more, MORE Babies! You must avoid the angry mob of Bible thumpin’ church goers, and find your way to Marie Bosse’s Potion Shop. There you can trade your babies for different imps and familiars to do your evil bidding. Once you’ve paid Marie Bosse’s fee and unlocked the creature of your choice, you can play the game again with all new powers in the form of a flying demon, witch on a broomstick, sweet little pig, or a very handsome goat. It’s wicked good fun, and you’ll only go to hell a little bit for playing this game! Just a little. Like the thumb you tap with. It could be possible that your thumb might go to hell for playing this game.

Enjoy your evil rampage. You know you’ve earned it. The Affaire Des Poisons video game is available for free for Android on Google Play and in the iOS app store.

Marie Bosse