Thought Exercise III Solution

Yesterday's thought exercise:  Create a game that subtly and implicitly teaches an unexpected skill.  Explain the mechanics and the skill it hones.

I've been playing a bit of Magicka, so this post will borrow some similar gameplay mechanics.

You are Igor von Frostberg, master wizard of the Frigid Iceplanes.  With the thawing of the planes, you and your people flee to the colder north, escaping the restless and hungry predators from the balmy south.  To defend your people you need to craft new spells of water and snow.  But magic is a difficult art, and even masters can make dreadful mistakes...

The gameplay involves some solid pen and papyrus crafting of spells, merging elements and hand motions in specific and logical orders.  Elements have some interesting mechanics. 
Blizzard, for example, is a persistent spell that will keep going until you run out of energy and collapse, so you need to merge it with some conditions that limit its duration.

Glacier is a hefty spell that will crush you if you cast it in its entirety.  But you can break it down into chunks and brain your opponents with some fancy ice sculptures.

This system is indirectly teaching programming concepts.  The blizzard spell is a while loop, and the glacier spell is a for loop.  While casting the endless blizzard, you count down a certain number of times.  When you reach the third cycle, you end the spell and shatter anyone that's frozen near you.  The glacier spell is a set amount of ice, by breaking it down in smaller chunks, you can take the same action on each chunk and make the spell just as effective against your enemies.