Creative Gaming

A friend of mine told me about a game I might like...it's called Crayon Physics and it's a delightful little thing that really is quite creative! The point is to get a ball to collect all of the stars in a level and to do so you must draw shapes a devise a way to get the ball where it needs to go. Everything you draw appears as a shape (in this version only rectangles but in the delux version-anything!) in the game and falls into the ball's environment. The whole game is designed on notebook and construction paper and everything is crayon-drawn. It's really a fun little whimsical thing-and it's free!

So I'm not a big gamer though I enjoy a good thinking game when I have time. But I was reading up on this game (and playing it) and also checking out the creator's blog, which lists several more games created by like-minded programmers and all of the sudden I realized I'd discovered a little world of creative games! They're all basically simple in design and function but what's creative is the concept and the artistry. The artwork is crafted specifically and with noticeable care, the game concepts are different and fun. For instance, "Cortex Command", featuring an extremely detailed 2-d world you are a disembodied brain that controls a host of robots and dummies to enact your military and economic goals. Working in the realm of basic 2-d simple line animation, an animator named Cactus and a clever DJ name John have designed an interesting repertiore of little games, including a basic ship-shooter named "Protoganda" designed to look like an old Russian propoganda film from the 40's, complete with cyrillic titles and english subtitles.

It's a cool little world to appreciate, even if you don't particularly care for gaming. You have to appreciate the thought and care that went into such programs-these people really care! Most are free, so it's not as if they get a lot for their work-they have the satisfaction of creative production in their field, and that's enough. Check em' out! Here's the website for "Crayon Physics". It's free anyway! Try it!

http://www.kloonigames.com/crayon/