the pumpkin's magic meter that also fuels the protagonist's offensive projectiles. The character dies once the meter is depleted. The pumpkin has a limited number of lives to continue the game, which ends once all of the pumpkin's lives have been expended. On continuing, the pumpkin reappears on the screen with a refilled meter. Development The success of Cauldron in 1985 prompted Palace Software to produce a sequel. Rather than recycle the previous game's design, the development team wanted to be innovative and implement new gameplay features. Steven Brown and Richard Leinfellner resumed their roles as designer and programmer, respectively. Richard Joseph handled the audio design and Stan Schembri programmed the Commodore 64 version. Brown first drew inspiration from the final scene of Cauldron: the witch's fight against the Pumpking, which bounced around a room. He felt the bouncing pumpkin looked "cool" and decided to base the sequel's gameplay on this aspect. Although unsure about the idea, the other team members proceeded with development. Intended to mimic a bouncing ball, the pumpkin's movement could change direction only if force is applied to it while it is in contact with a surface that provides friction. This mechanic prohibited the pumpkin from changing directions while in mid-air, and proved problematic for the programmers to implement. Issues included difficulties with collision detection, unpredictable movements that led to glitches, and troubles with the firing mechanism. The pumpkin's ability to fire projectiles was intended to provide offensive game mechanics to players. In early designs, however, the projectile inadvertently generated a force that changed the pumpkin's direction. The programmers tried to correct this, but were unable to create a perfect solution. As the gameplay designs were being implemented, Brown switched his focus to the game's aesthetics. Scenes from the game were sketched on storyboards to aid development. Cauldron IIs game world, the witch's castle, was designed to resemble Palace Software's logo as an advertising tactic. Brown photographed separate screens of the game and assembled them into a complete map, showing the shape of his company's logo, for video game magazines. Enemy designs were similar to those in the previous game, based on the Halloween holiday. Brown envisioned a graphical effect for the game's narration, showing a book whose pages turned as the story is read. However, technical limitations at the time prohibited the implementation of such a visual effect. Brown also wanted the game's visuals to