Review: Crayon Physics Deluxe

[Jordan Deam]

Review: Crayon Physics Deluxe

Watch your drawings come to life ? without the need for mind-altering substances!

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[The_root_of_all_evil]

"Expecting it to take off" whilst firing rockets at each other?

Is that a pun I hear Susan?

 

[Cogzwell]

i still actually found this game strangely annoying because of its music and the fact you would also sometimes do something that would make it so that you wouldn't be able to complete the puzzle, and the puzzles are alot easier then they think they are. but all in all its a fun game, i like world of goo better

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

Rock, Paper, Shotgun and PixelVixen 707 both made a point about the game that I can't shake off: it's really easy to break the puzzles. You just slap two bolts onto a platform and then draw whatever bridge you need to the star, then nudge the circle along.

The question I get stuck on is if the game has an obligation to make me be more creative, which is possible, or let me suffer by rendering the whole thing dull. It's sorta like Far Cry 2, the game is boring if you don't experiment and take your time. Is that a bad thing?

 

[Russ Pitts]

Rock, Paper, Shotgun and PixelVixen 707 both made a point about the game that I can't shake off: it's really easy to break the puzzles. You just slap two bolts onto a platform and then draw whatever bridge you need to the star, then nudge the circle along.

The question I get stuck on is if the game has an obligation to make me be more creative, which is possible, or let me suffer by rendering the whole thing dull. It's sorta like Far Cry 2, the game is boring if you don't experiment and take your time. Is that a bad thing?

Any game can be made un-fun by a knucklehead with a chip on his shoulder. Anyone with an older brother knows what I'm talking about. I don't see it as the obligation of the game designer to create an environment in which it's impossible to side-step the objective. If your solution is to draw a straight line and nudge, then, go you. I suppose that's an accomplishment of some sort.

 

[Zallest]

I remember playing a little flash game of sorts like this game. I found it rather amusing to play and it was always kind of fun to find a wacky way to get the circle from about A to B.

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

Rock, Paper, Shotgun and PixelVixen 707 both made a point about the game that I can't shake off: it's really easy to break the puzzles. You just slap two bolts onto a platform and then draw whatever bridge you need to the star, then nudge the circle along.

The question I get stuck on is if the game has an obligation to make me be more creative, which is possible, or let me suffer by rendering the whole thing dull. It's sorta like Far Cry 2, the game is boring if you don't experiment and take your time. Is that a bad thing?

Any game can be made un-fun by a knucklehead with a chip on his shoulder. Anyone with an older brother knows what I'm talking about. I don't see it as the obligation of the game designer to create an environment in which it's impossible to side-step the objective. If your solution is to draw a straight line and nudge, then, go you. I suppose that's an accomplishment of some sort.

I agree that you can definitely level break any open ended game but at least with Metroid Prime or GTA you know you're breaking the level. I like the game, I'm not shooting it down, it's just that I've never seen a puzzle game that required me to motivate myself to make solving the problem more complicated than it has to be.

It's just a sort of Gordian Knot dilemma, the reaction is to slice it with a sword not untie the knot.

 

[Kross]

Can you use the crayons to draw Occam's Razor?

 

[Jordan Deam]

I don't necessarily think the game requires you to come up with the most complicated solution - it's more a question of what you find fun at the time. In your case, it seems like collecting stuff quickly and unlocking new levels is more fun than simply messing around in the sandbox. That's completely understandable - I ended up using the same pulley system for what felt like a couple dozen levels jut because it worked so well (and I was on a deadline).

I think Crayon Physics will likely prompt many of the same criticisms that LittleBigPlanet has - mainly, hardcore games will wonder, "Why am I playing this? Where's the game here?" There's nothing wrong with preferring a more structured experience.

 

[Virgil]

I present, Exhibit A on why this game is brilliant:

[vimeo=2778083]

 

[Anton P. Nym]

At first I wasn't terribly interested; intrigued by the concept, yes, but I really didn't feel any overriding need to play Crayon Physics. But it just occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, it'd work on my mini-Tablet PC... *scribbles madly with stylus, tongue sticking out of the left side of his mouth*

-- Steve

 

[neoman10]

very good, might have to check this out

 

[domicius]

What platform is this game out on?

 

[oneofm4ny]

Played the demo.

It's a nice toy, but not a good game. Like L.B. Jeffries pointed out, you can draw any shape you like and break the puzzles quickly. Being able nudge the ball left and right with a click makes it only worse. There's almost no sense of accomplishment. The abilities of the player could be more limited. Maybe restricting the number of objects and bolts you could use per level to spice things up.

It's fun for while, but it could have been more.

I really don't like the art style.

Enough pointless ranting

 

[Jordan Deam]

What platform is this game out on?

It's out for the PC and the iPhone/iPod Touch, although I haven't had a chance to play it on the latter.

 

[Mariena]

I can't wait to hear the piracy rate on this game (It's not free, right?). Will it beat World of Goo?

 

[Susan Arendt]

Played the demo.

It's a nice toy, but not a good game. Like L.B. Jeffries pointed out, you can draw any shape you like and break the puzzles quickly. Being able nudge the ball left and right with a click makes it only worse. There's almost no sense of accomplishment. The abilities of the player could be more limited. Maybe restricting the number of objects and bolts you could use per level to spice things up.

It's fun for while, but it could have been more.

I really don't like the art style.

Enough pointless ranting

You can break any game if you try hard enough. The game shouldn't have to put a leash on you to prevent you from not playing it the way it was intended.

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

Erm, there are a lot of staff interested in this one, so I'm not trying to be troublesome or anything. Even with this complaint there are a couple of levels I can't even beat yet despite fooling around for a while.

It's not that you can break the game, it's that there is no incentive to not break it. That just strikes me as unusual. There's no "Cheating is For Losers" incentive, there's no challenge to breaking the game like Metroid Prime. Honestly I don't even know if I'd say I was breaking the game, just focusing on beating the level to the exclusion of other incentives. If I really am supposed to draw elaborate robots and contraptions to play it the way it was intended, why the lack of coercion?

 

[Jordan Deam]

Erm, there are a lot of staff interested in this one, so I'm not trying to be troublesome or anything. Even with this complaint there are a couple of levels I can't even beat yet despite fooling around for a while.

It's not that you can break the game, it's that there is no incentive to not break it. That just strikes me as unusual. There's no "Cheating is For Losers" incentive, there's no challenge to breaking the game like Metroid Prime. Honestly I don't even know if I'd say I was breaking the game, just focusing on beating the level to the exclusion of other incentives. If I really am supposed to draw elaborate robots and contraptions to play it the way it was intended, why the lack of coercion?

I wouldn't exactly call it "cheating," but it's probably not what the designer intended. Even after you've collected all 81 stars, it doesn't really feel like you've "beaten" the game. You can go back to your favorite puzzles and think up new solutions, muck around with the level editor or take a look at other people's levels (some of which are pretty amusing).

On that last point, I spoke with Purho about the Playground and thought I'd post his responses:

1) Will you be patching the Crayon Physics client to allow direct access to the Playground without having to use a browser?

"I'm planning of continuing to update both the game and the Playground. There are plans to integrate the playground directly into the game so that a web browser wouldn't be necessary, but I don't know about the schedule yet."

2) How do you plan to make the best/most intriguing levels more visible to players who may not have the time to sort through them by hand?

"There's the sorting by ratings, but also stuff like featured levels planned."

3) Will there be a way to load Playground files without saving them to your hard drive?

"I hope so "

4) What are your long-term plans for the Playground?

"I'm hoping that it will grow to have a life of it's own with a huge number of interesting levels. It's looking very promising for a week-old community with limited tools. I'm excited to see what will come out of it in the future."