As always, graphics and sound first. Typomagia is simple in both areas, but not so simple that it feels dated. The creatures you spawn are simple pixels, and the whole screen is smoothly animated and designed. The sound is as simplistic as the graphics, with only a few sounds for different actions and a booming, godlike voice that says a spell's name when you cast it. It's just minimalist enough to get you involved without cluttering the screen up with unnecessary fanciness.

The gist of Typomagia is that it is a duel between two mages that summon creatures to eliminate the other. This manifests itself as one of three creatures that move along the bottom of the screen. However, in order to summon monsters and enhance them, you must gain mana by completing words. This mana can then be used to cast spells, with the spell strength roughly equivalent to the amount of mana necessary to cast it. The amount of mana you get is also linked to the length of the words, but it's not altered greatly by length, so simply completing words as quickly as possible is the preferable choice.

Creatures in Typomagia come in three flavors, each of which is useful in a specific situation. To summon a creature, you simply type its name when you have the appropriate amount of mana. The creature will then appear at your portal to the far left and begin to move to the right. As you can only type words for mana on the part of the field that belongs to you, there is a border mechanic where a creature will push the territorial edge, giving you more word choices and your opponent less.

• The Imp is a low health, low damage creature. They exist as little more than cannon fodder for the larger creatures to demolish. However, they move extremely fast, enabling them to take territory quickly and expand your front (or even kill the enemy!) if the opening should arise. They cost approximately one third of your mana. As they gain territory quickly, they are a great opener for expanding your options in word choices.
  
• The Orc is the medium creature. He deals an average amount of damage, has an average amount of health, moves at an average pace, and costs an average (average being two-thirds) amount of mana to summon. This is your standard trooper, and the one creature you will probably summon the most.
• The Troll is the heavy hitter of the creature choices, with massive health and damage. He moves like a rock, however, and takes a whopping entire bar of mana to summon. This is your rear guard and last line of defense in most cases, but you can use him to press the offense if you really want. His slow speed makes territory control unlikely, reducing the amount of word choices you have.

On top of these three creatures, there's a total of four enhancements that you can stack onto a creature. Enhancements must be performed before the creature is summoned, so make sure you know what you are going to summon before you start stacking those enhancements! More than one enhancement of the same kind can not be stacked on a creature, but each enhancement can be stacked on a single creature.

• If you enhance your creature to go Faster, then they do exactly that. They move about 25-50% faster than their normal rate, allowing them to advance quickly and regain territory. The most obvious choice for this is the Troll, thanks to his slow move speed, but the Imp is also a good choice thanks to the already rapid movement and low cost. Faster costs the least of all the spells in the game.
• Stronger, much like steroids, makes your creature grow larger muscles and punch harder. They hit about 25-50% harder than normal, allowing them to eliminate enemies quicker. This also has a small side effect of reducing damage taken, as an opponent that dies fast is an opponent that can't attack you. This is best stacked onto the Orc or Troll, thanks to their decent damage. Stronger costs more than Faster, but less than Imp.
  
• When you want a creature to take a lot of damage, you make him Tougher. This increases his overall health by 25-50%, allows him to deal more damage (as he survives longer) and take on more opponents. This enhancement goes best on Imps, which are already extremely weak and could use the boost, and Orcs, who have a moderate amount of health and often act as the shock troopers. Trolls do not need Tougher as much, as they are already incredibly hard to kill. Tougher is more costly than Imp, but less costly than Orc.
• Regenerating is your most powerful enhancement, and for good reason. Your creature's wounds will stitch back together on their own over time, allowing your creature to take a licking and keep on ticking. There is only one creature that this should be placed on with regularity, and that is the Troll. His slow speed allows him to regenerate more and more health as he moves, making him difficult to kill. The spell is simply not cost-effective on any other creature. Regenerating costs more than an Orc, but less than a Troll.

That is all there is to Typomagia. An incredibly easy to learn game, sure, but one with enough strategic depth to keep most thoughtful gamers interested. There is a Quick Battle and Story mode, but no multiplayer at the moment, which is a shame. You can download the game from the developer's website as well as offer feedback. Sorry Linux and Mac folks, native to Windows. The requirements are incredibly small, though, so it's easy enough to emulate on another OS.

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