Crayon Physics and Sir Isaac Newton
Howdy folks. I’m Bob Schulz and I’m the product manager for WorldCat.org. I also like to pretend that I’m a superb Guitar Hero shredder.
I am not.
So it’s science fair project preparation season and as I avoided blogging about it I ran across this little item:
2008 IGF Awards Topped by Crayon Physics Deluxe
The Independent Games Festival celebrates achievements by, well, independent game developers. Small game shops, or people sitting in their basements, are creating some of the most innovative, exciting, and, frankly, addictive games available today. I urge you to check out the winners and nominees.
But I digress. The concept of Crayon Physics is simple: draw objects on the screen that will move the circle so that it touches all the stars. The objects the player creates move realistically, have weight, turn on axes, etc. The increasing difficulty of the levels forces the player to experiment with more complex objects, and sets of objects, to achieve the goal. Behold this lovely video:
What an elegant, intuitive, and fun tool to introduce kids to the fundamentals of Newton’s laws of motion and theory of universal gravitation. The game also provides a level editor so players, students, teachers could create new challenges. Wouldn’t this be a great addition to the computers in schools and libraries? Say “yes, Bob, it would.â€
Unfortunately, the Deluxe version is not yet available, but the original prototype, which the developer wrote in less than 7 days, can be snagged freely from Kloonigames’ site. Download it and have at it.
On March 4, 2008 at 2:03 PM Andy Havens said:
Crayon Physics is most awesome, Bob. A very cool thing, and I can't wait for deluxe.
Interested parties may be... er... interested also in "Phun," a 2D physics sandbox, downloadable here:
http://www.acc.umu.se/~emilk/
It's not a game, per se, but there is lots of fun to be had... including the ability to turn any object into water. My 8-year-old and I have had fun building a lever that flips a sad little stick figure man up and into a tub of water when you drop a big circle on the opposite arm. Good times, combining virtual, stick figure violence and learning.
The Sodaplay Constructor series (http://sodaplay.com/) is yet another good example of build/science/fun/game thing.
On March 4, 2008 at 2:22 PM Andy Havens said:
Ooh... And Bontago:
http://www.bontago.com/