Petri Purho
Encyclopedia
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. This effort eventually ended in the creation of Crayon Physics Deluxe, which was nominated for the Seumas McNally grand prize from the Independent Games Festival
in December 2007 and subsequently won this category at the 2008 IGF Awards on February 20. Many of his games are developed for various competitions such as Assembly
.
library or Box2D
physics engine) and XML
configuration files. Thanks to this, many players created various mods, replacing graphics and even adding new levels or music.
In this game, the player is in control of planet Pluto, which has attached a big baseball bat to itself. In order to score points, the player must hit the meteors so that they will cause damage to other planets in the solar system.
acts. The goal of the game is to chain various circus tricks on two moving trapezes to get bonus points.
, the main protagonist of this game is the rolling boulder, whose mission is to protect two golden statues representing idols of fertility. In order to do so, the player must roll over increasing numbers of archeologists, as they try to humiliate these idols by touching them, decreasing the player's honor meter. This game was created for assembly demo party
game competition, where it won fourth place.
. The main objective of each level is to collect a star with a red ball. The player is only allowed to move the ball, not the star. It starts out easy, but gets more difficult as the game progresses.
Frozenbyte
Frozenbyte Inc. is a Finnish game-developer founded in 2001 and based in Helsinki, Finland. The company has now grown to a professional team of almost 20 people, with its first commercial game being Shadowgrounds for Microsoft Windows...
. 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. This effort eventually ended in the creation of Crayon Physics Deluxe, which was nominated for the Seumas McNally grand prize from 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 December 2007 and subsequently won this category at the 2008 IGF Awards on February 20. Many of his games are developed for various competitions such as Assembly
Assembly (demo party)
The Assembly demo party is a demoscene and gaming event in Finland. The main organizers of the event are Pekka Aakko and Jussi Laakkonen . The event takes place every year between late July and early August, and lasts three to four days...
.
Games
Almost all of Petri Purho's games are created within one week as a project exploring the idea of massive prototyping. Most common element of all games are various bonuses for successful combos and/or chain reactions. His games are created using many open-source technologies (for example SDLSimple DirectMedia Layer
Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform, free and open source multimedia library written in C that presents a simple interface to various platforms' graphics, sound, and input devices....
library or Box2D
Box2D
Box2D is a free open source 2-dimensional physics simulator engine written in C++ by Erin Catto and published under the zlib license. It has been used in Crayon Physics Deluxe, Rolando, Fantastic Contraption, Incredibots, Angry Birds, Tiny Wings, Transformice, Stripe physics2, and many online Flash...
physics engine) and XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
configuration files. Thanks to this, many players created various mods, replacing graphics and even adding new levels or music.
Pluto Strikes Back
The Amazing Flying Brothers
The Amazing Flying Brothers is a game that is controlled by only one button. The player controls a circus artist, who is performing flying trapezeFlying Trapeze
The flying trapeze is a specific form of the trapeze in which a performer jumps from a platform with the trapeze so that gravity makes the trapeze swing....
acts. The goal of the game is to chain various circus tricks on two moving trapezes to get bonus points.
A Tribute to the Rolling Boulder
In a direct flipside of movies like Indiana JonesIndiana Jones
Colonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
, the main protagonist of this game is the rolling boulder, whose mission is to protect two golden statues representing idols of fertility. In order to do so, the player must roll over increasing numbers of archeologists, as they try to humiliate these idols by touching them, decreasing the player's honor meter. This game was created for assembly demo party
Assembly (demo party)
The Assembly demo party is a demoscene and gaming event in Finland. The main organizers of the event are Pekka Aakko and Jussi Laakkonen . The event takes place every year between late July and early August, and lasts three to four days...
game competition, where it won fourth place.
Crayon Physics
Crayon Physics is probably Petri Purho's most popular game. It was Purho's tenth rapid game prototype and was coded in five days. It is a slow-paced puzzle game based on rigid bodies physicsRigid body dynamics
In physics, rigid body dynamics is the study of the motion of rigid bodies. Unlike particles, which move only in three degrees of freedom , rigid bodies occupy space and have geometrical properties, such as a center of mass, moments of inertia, etc., that characterize motion in six degrees of...
. The main objective of each level is to collect a star with a red ball. The player is only allowed to move the ball, not the star. It starts out easy, but gets more difficult as the game progresses.
External links
- Kloonigames - Homepage of Petri Purho
- Crayon Physics Deluxe
- gummikana - Petri Purho's profile at the Experimental Gameplay Project