Crayon Physics Deluxe Download

[Evelina Browder]

CrayonPhysics is one of those games that captured the interest of the Opposable Thumbs staff early on. Ever since the initial game was developed in the summer of 2007, it has managed to garner much press and acclaim, especially since developer Petri Purho revealed that he was working on a deluxe version of the game that would include improved physics and more levels. Now Crayon Physics Deluxe has finally been released, and it turns out that the game is just about everything we'd hoped for.

The basic idea behind Crayon Physics is that gamers have to get a ball to a point that is marked by a star. This is accomplished by drawing a number of different items that can act in a variety of ways to help get the ball from Point A to Point B. On a basic level, the drawings act as ramps or barriers, while more advanced implementation accomplishes a number of feats like creating weights and levers, as well as malleable platforms that can be affected by other creations. It's sort of like The Incredible Machine, but what that game would be like if a creative kid with a set of crayons was solving the puzzle instead of relying on the set items provided by the game.

What makes Crayon Physics so entertaining is that there are a number of different ways to solve each level, thanks to the fact that no one is going to draw the same things in exactly the same way. It requires players to be creative and solve each puzzle through whatever means they can conceive, as opposed to only having one convoluted method as the only solution.

However, the most powerful thing about the game is its charm. The visual presentation is meant to look like a folded up piece of paper that a child has been doodling on with crayons. Not only that, but the soundtrack is extremely unobtrusive and soothing. These combined factors actually make playing the game feel fairly relaxing, even as the puzzles become increasingly maddening: I never felt frustrated, even when I found myself stuck in certain areas while I worked through the first fifty levels. I only felt curious about what I could create that would allow me to progress further.

Despite its appeal, there are a couple of glitches with Crayon Physics, the chief complaint being that I couldn't get my Wacom tablet to work with the game. Most of the time, the game didn't recognize the mouse input from my tablet, and it would only work in the most basic ways; even though I had the pen calibrated so that one of the buttons was set to act as the right click on a mouse, it just wouldn't work. It's really a shame, because this could have made the game a lot more appealing for digital artists. The other problem I occasionally encountered was that when I would delete items that were located close together, the wrong drawing would go away and I'd have to reset the level.

Overall, Crayon Physics Deluxe is one of those games that is a rarity, thanks to the charm and delight it provides. If you're a fan of puzzle games, or even just a creative type who enjoys doodling random shapes, then it's probably a safe bet that you'll love it.

Kids can learn basic concepts of physics, including weight, leverage, gravity, and momentum, and some simple machines (levers, planks). Although there's no data or formulas, kids can experience how physics works. Kids also draw shapes, practice quick-thinking skills, and follow multistep directions. Crayon Physics Deluxe encourages kids to create elaborate, innovative, and unique solutions that showcase physics as a fun engine for making things work.

Parents need to know that Crayon Physics Deluxe is a nifty puzzle game that can teach your kids some physics. Play is drawing-based, wherein your cursor becomes a crayon, and once you draw something it immediately assumes mass and weight. There is nothing about the content to concern parents, unless your kids are old enough to tackle the puzzles, which start out easy but get progressively harder. Although kids as young as age 6 and 7 can play the early puzzles, the later puzzles are better for kids age 8 and up. Since there's no story line, this is a game best played by kids who like to do puzzles.

CRAYON PHYSICS DELUXE is a puzzle game set in a familiar, childlike environment of crumpled paper with crayon drawings. Yet this juvenile environment houses a powerful physics engine that turns your scribbles into objects that have weight and mass. The game consists of 76 puzzles, all of which share the same goal: get the little red ball to roll over to the yellow star. Your cursor is a crayon, and you can draw anything you can imagine to solve the puzzle.

At first, solving a puzzle can be as simple as drawing a line between the ball and the star and clicking on the ball to get it to start rolling. But you'll quickly learn how to draw objects that fall, as well as platforms and ramps. As you progress, new concepts are introduced through drawn instructions. For example, you will see a small, round pushpin and dotted lines outlining a mallet. When you connect the dotted lines, the mallet appears, rotates around the pin, and hits the ball so it rolls over the star. The puzzles get more challenging by introducing levers and pulleys.

For puzzle lovers, this is a fabulous game. Because the environment is made up solely of paper and crayons, it's a comfortable place in which children (and adults) can stretch their creative and scientific muscles. Its genius is that there's no right way to solve a puzzle -- it's all about how you use your creativity. The game also provides you with a way to create your own puzzle levels, and it allows you to upload them to the Crayon Physics Playground for others to share. Uploaded puzzles can be rated by stars, similar to the user-created content found in Little Big Planet.

Although your solutions are drawn on the screen with a computer mouse, you don't have to be good at drawing to play this game. It's about exploring how physics affects the objects you draw. What makes this game so good is it encourages you to expand your thinking -- if something doesn't work, you have to figure out why and try something else. If you really get stuck, you can check out video solutions shared by others on YouTube.

We've done Audiosurf and World of Goo, two of the Seumas McNally Grand Finalists at the Independent Games Festival next month, and now we come to our early favourite, Crayon Physics Deluxe. Drawing is best.

In my house we have a phrase. Well, in my house we have about four hundred phrases, including, "Mmmm-mmmm, so good", "That light bulb had one day left 'til retirement", and "Shotgun!" But today we're discussing "PHYSICS!"

This phrase is shouted at specific moments, rather than some sort of Oxbridge version of Tourette's. It's when we drop something, or something falls over, or the cat falls off his elaborate cat tree. Anything that exhibits the properties of gravity will be met by this cheer. And why? Because physics are best. And that, in a big way, is why Crayon Physics Deluxe is looking so great.

Another big part is just how remarkably charming the whole thing is. Here's the idea: you have a little crayon circle that needs to reach a crayon star. Your task is to draw crayon shapes that, once drawn, behave in the world according to that-there physics. If you played the under-rated Pac-Pix, imagine it combined with 1993's The Incredible Machine. (That's the most perfect comparison imaginable, for the seven other people who will have played both.)

There's something sublimely magical about drawing something and having it come to life. It's like being Penny Crayon without the squawking horror of Su Pollard providing your voice. Combined with the childhood pleasure of the thick, comforting lines of a crayon, you've got a puzzle game that hurts your brain while making you feel warm and safe at the same time.

If you played Kloonigames' Crayon Phyics (and if you didn't, go and play it for free so you have a much better idea what this is about), you'll know that the concept was wonderful, the delivery a little limited. It can only generate oblongs, which often provides frustration. The splendid news is, Crayon Physics Deluxe makes some dramatic steps forward.

Things start easily enough. You can draw blocks that allow the ball to roll down a slope, after dropping another block on the ball to get it rolling. Draw a sloping triangle if you prefer. Or how about a big circle to roll along? And as you progress, far more elaborate and joyful complexities reveal themselves. How about drawing a small pivot, and then building a seesaw? Or perhaps you'll create a giant golf club that swings around and knocks the ball into the air? You can use pivots to dangle blocks from other structures, and then attach these together to create incredibly wobbly bridges. In fact it's building the most astonishingly stupid and over-complicated solutions to puzzles, involving elaborately peculiar mechanisms, that's most rewarding. There's almost certainly a much more sensible way to complete the level, but damn it, your way worked. And that means you're as great as Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

The build we have is still not finished, and there are still some issues in there. The most easily fixed is the lack of options, such as turning the music off. But that does lead to an interesting discovery. The piece of music used in this, and the previous Crayon Physics game, is just wonderful. I have listened to it on a loop for quite a few hours now, and it took a really long time before I needed it to go away. That's quite remarkable, considering normally the first thing I do with any puzzle game is switch it to silence. Some more tunes of this standard would be very splendid.

There's also a slight issue with more complicated shapes. Some odd-shaped blocks will confuse things, and cause objects to float awkwardly. Clearly this opens up opportunities for interesting exploits, but it also can prevent some neat solutions from working. However, this is a minor niggle, especially when compared with the leaps and bounds the technology has taken from Kloonigames' previous build.

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