A great deal of strategy and teamwork go into choosing the ideal path and placement of a stone for each situation, and the skills of the curlers determine how close to the desired result the stone will achieve. This gives curling its nickname of “chess on ice”. (image: Curling stones on rink with visible pebble by Wikimedia Commons)
Suwon, June 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Curling-themed mobile game application has been launched by Gyeonggi-do, the most populous province in South Korea on June 10. The curling game caught a nationwide popularity during the latest Winter Olympics in Sochi.
With an aim to promote the organization’s advancement in policy planning — and attract the public to be more interested in curling game, Gyeonggi province was working on developing the “chess on ice”game available on smartphones. Currently, the province sponsors a women’s Curling team, who played in the Olympics as a national team.
In a “real” curling game, in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice towards a target area which is segmented into four concentric rings, the mobile sports game has been designed to embody actual curling game and its rules but it includes a couple of “fun” elements.
Like a three-cushion billiards game, the online curling game has allowed a user to harness “cushion effect” using a wall on the game screen: Adding a little bit of extra fun by putting up a wall on the sides of the lane which players could use to bounce off a curling ball, as if playing a pool.
You can change the direction of a stone from left-to-right to right-to-left, and vice versa, using some touch-friendly drag; when you speed up sweeping, the pace of stone sliding increase accordingly.
Curling Game Rules and History
Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called rocks, across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a circular target marked on the ice. Each team has eight stones.
The purpose is to accumulate the highest score for a game; points are scored for the stones resting closest to the centre of the house at the conclusion of each end, which is completed when both teams have thrown all of their stones. A game may consist of ten or eight ends.
Curling was invented in medieval Scotland, with the first written reference to a contest using stones on ice coming from the records of Paisley Abbey, Renfrewshire, in February 1541. (source: Wikipedia)
The mobile game is only available on Android Market as of now and will be available in Apple App Store by June 24 for free.
Written by J. H. Kim (jhkim@koreabizwire.com)
