Crayon Physics
Encyclopedia
Crayon Physics Deluxe is a puzzle game designed by Petri Purho
and released on January 7, 2009. An early version, titled Crayon Physics, won the grand prize at the Independent Games Festival
in 2008. It features a heavy emphasis on two-dimensional physics simulations, including gravity, mass, kinetic energy and transfer of momentum. The game includes a level editor and enables its players to share and download custom content via an online service.
The game challenges players to come up with creative solutions to each puzzle, and provides additional rewards for elegant solutions that don't rely on "brute force" methods. It comes with more than seventy levels, and also features a level editor and an online Playground, where players can upload and download custom levels.
license. The game was inspired by descriptions Purho had heard of the children's book Harold and the Purple Crayon
. On June 10, 2007, Purho announced that he would be developing a level editor
to permit user-created levels, although by June 15 fans of the game had already worked out the level format and had released new levels for the game. The level editor was released on June 30.
Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival
in February 2008. Chris Baker of Slate Magazine also wrote that Crayon Physics Deluxe was more talked about than Gears of War 2
at the 2008 Game Developers Conference
.
, Crayon Physics Deluxe was released for the iOS on January 1, 2009 and in Spring 2010 for the iPad via Apple's App Store. A version for the PC was released six days later. An unofficial clone was made for the DS, but only in free play mode and under the title of Pocket Physics. A port for Windows Mobile was also made, but later pulled. It can still be downloaded unofficially.
Petri Purho
Petri Purho is a Finnish computing science student and rapid game prototyper. He has worked at Finnish independent game studio Frozenbyte. In September 2006, he made a promise to himself, that he "will create a new game every month" based on the experimental gameplay development model...
and released on January 7, 2009. An early version, titled Crayon Physics, won the grand prize at the Independent Games Festival
Independent Games Festival
The Independent Games Festival is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in video game development and to recognize the best independent video game developers...
in 2008. It features a heavy emphasis on two-dimensional physics simulations, including gravity, mass, kinetic energy and transfer of momentum. The game includes a level editor and enables its players to share and download custom content via an online service.
Gameplay
The objective of each level in Crayon Physics Deluxe is to guide a ball from a predetermined start point so that it touches all of the stars placed on the level. The ball and nearly all objects on the screen are affected by gravity. The player cannot control the ball directly, but rather must influence the ball's movement by drawing physical objects on the screen. Depending on how the object is drawn, it becomes a rigid surface, a pivot point, a wheel or a rope, and the object can then interact with the ball by hitting it, providing a surface to roll on, dragging, carrying or launching the ball, etc. The player can also nudge the ball left or right by clicking on it, and in some levels, rockets appear and can be used as part of the solution.The game challenges players to come up with creative solutions to each puzzle, and provides additional rewards for elegant solutions that don't rely on "brute force" methods. It comes with more than seventy levels, and also features a level editor and an online Playground, where players can upload and download custom levels.
Crayon Physics
Crayon Physics, the original prototype of this game, is Purho's tenth "rapid-prototype project" inspired by the rules of the Experimental Gameplay Project, and was developed in five days using resources freely available under the Creative CommonsCreative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
license. The game was inspired by descriptions Purho had heard of the children's book Harold and the Purple Crayon
Harold and the Purple Crayon
Harold and the Purple Crayon is a 1955 children's book by Crockett Johnson. Johnson's most popular book, it led to a series of books, and inspired many adaptations.-Plot:...
. On June 10, 2007, Purho announced that he would be developing a level editor
Level editor
A level editor is a software tool used to design levels, maps, campaigns, etc and virtual worlds for a video game. In some cases the creator of a video game releases an official level editor for a game, but other times the community of fans step in to fill the void...
to permit user-created levels, although by June 15 fans of the game had already worked out the level format and had released new levels for the game. The level editor was released on June 30.
Crayon Physics Deluxe
On October 12, 2007, Purho announced Crayon Physics Deluxe, which would feature an intuitive level editor, more levels, and a modification to the game engine to preserve the player's drawings instead of turning them into rectangles. The follow-up took a year and eight months to develop. It won the Seumas McNallySeumas McNally
Computer game programmer Seumas McNally , was the founder, president and lead programmer of independent game development company, Longbow Digital Arts...
Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival
Independent Games Festival
The Independent Games Festival is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in video game development and to recognize the best independent video game developers...
in February 2008. Chris Baker of Slate Magazine also wrote that Crayon Physics Deluxe was more talked about than Gears of War 2
Gears of War 2
Gears of War 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games with lead design by Cliff Bleszinski, and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. It is the second installment of the Gears of War series. The game was officially released in North America, Europe and...
at the 2008 Game Developers Conference
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference is the largest annual gathering of professional video game developers, focusing on learning, inspiration, and networking...
.
Platforms
Published by Hudson SoftHudson Soft
, formally known as , is a majority-owned subsidiary of Konami Corporation is a Japanese electronic entertainment publisher headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with an additional office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. It was founded on May 18, 1973...
, Crayon Physics Deluxe was released for the iOS on January 1, 2009 and in Spring 2010 for the iPad via Apple's App Store. A version for the PC was released six days later. An unofficial clone was made for the DS, but only in free play mode and under the title of Pocket Physics. A port for Windows Mobile was also made, but later pulled. It can still be downloaded unofficially.
External links
- Crayon Physics Deluxe; offers a free demo and the full game for sale
- Gameplay of Crayon Physics Deluxe using a tablet PC's touchscreen on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
- Crayon Physics Deluxe for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch
- Crayon Physics free prototype