But every now and then, indie games would still come along and blow me out of the water. Braid is one such game. Although I have to also confess that I still haven't gotten around to fully paying attention to World of Goo. I don't know, perhaps I have strange issues with that game, but I seriously got to sit down to it one day.
Here, I'm going to talk about Crayon Physics Deluxe. The game's a tiny software, seriously removed from any shiny 3D graphics. It's all 2D, looks as if drawn by a 7-year old kid with crayons, but here's the fun catch. All the simplistic drawings of objects like squares and circles in the 2D world move according to physics and weight, and puzzles have to be solved by drawing in objects that come to life.
So if for instance, I had to nudge a ball down a gentle slope towards a star I have to collect, all I had to do was draw in a square just above and behind the ball, and it would appear in the world, drop down and hit the ball to roll down the hill. It's almost... "magical".
You have games like Braid and World of Goo that challenges your brain into coming up with exciting solutions to exciting puzzles, but Crayon Physics Deluxe is seriously the anti-puzzle in that regard. Why? There is no timer, no number of lives, if you screw up a puzzle, just try again. The level is small enough it fits one frame, and most can be completed in under 5 minutes each. You collect a star at every puzzle and accumulate enough to move islands, of course the challenges getting more elaborate as you go on. There is no story to compel you, just a continuous string of "drawings" or puzzles that surprisingly are very unique from one another almost all the time.
But the most anti-puzzle aspect of this game is that almost all puzzles can be completed based upon what you think is the best physics solution to the problem. There is most likely an "elegant" solution - the one that best represents the puzzle in complement, but it is also entirely possible to wing it by drawing absolutely anything that could nudge the ball along, even if it is crude, messy, and completely experimentative. Thus, whilst the sandbox element is refreshingly fun, it is also the game's biggest flaw.
As a puzzle game, it fails to make you see the revelationary solution to each puzzle, instead saying that you have free rein to do what you like and possibly miss the point everytime. To me, it feels more like a toy in that regards. There isn't that awesome satisfaction and warmth in my belly I get with games like Braid when I've solved a hard one. There is no sense that I one-upped the creator Petri Purho.
And that's why after awhile, if you have my extremely short attention span, you're going to find each puzzle get more and more tedious. Just draw enough lines, cubes, bridges, and pulleys to drag the ball in the right direction, even if it necessarily doesn't work the smoothest. When you start playing, the easiness of the initial challenges as well as its simple accessibility make you keep doing puzzle after puzzle, and I pretty much breezed through half the game in under 30 minutes. But they do get harder and require a little more thinking after awhile. But because they hadn't felt rewarding in the first half, nor give me any concrete validation that the puzzles require a special angle to tackle, I just didn't feel like going on entirely.
I am trying my darndest to keep at the game, as it seems anyone else who touches it thinks its gold. It probably is, in that magical, feel good sense that most commercial games of today seem to be devoid of, and yet once again, I find it hard to see this game as anything other than a toy. The physics is top-notch and doesn't feel very awkward, and it is definetly very polished.
When you draw an object to life, it isn't like some other games where all you are really doing is swishing your mouse about to nudge a pre-set object to existence. This game really is fantastic in allowing you complete control over the 2D shapes you make, and it is funny to see them all come to life in crudity and oddness.
Crayon Physics Deluxe won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival in February 2008. That should convince you to give the game a try, and yet, I think I still preferred the game in its prototype demo stage back last year. It just had four or five levels, and the only thing you could draw was a square, as opposed to the Deluxe which let you draw any shape to life. The shorter span gameplay meant it really honed in on the novel idea that things you drew came to life, and that they came to life in a 2D world with realistic physics. There isn't really much else that could be expanded on that idea, and that's where to me, Deluxe fell short.
The graphics are pleasant to the eye and never tiresome in its simple garishness. Lines and objects you draw change color each time, and the animations are very Little Big Planet-esque in their "magical" cartoony kiddy-ness - for the lack of a better description. Unfortunately, the music didn't appeal to me as much. Braid and World of Goo had mega soundtracks of atmosphere and epicness, which I think indie games have to tap into for a holistic experience. With Crayon Physics Deluxe, there are just three ambience tracks that loop over and over, and whilst they are soothing, hearing them over and over again kind of negatively adds to the idea that the game is a never-ending trial and error draw-fest to win.
Probably this game would appeal to anyone other than me, but also be exciting for casual/non-gamers. The high level of responsiveness with the drawing of your mouse/finger (it's on the iPhone and iTouch too)/tablet PC makes it a fun experience for those who've never tried it. And for those that are going to enjoy it immensely and want more, a level editor is included to build your own, or play around with others.
At the end of it all, it should be given a chance, but it could either be well-liked or just cynically destroyed as in my case. Perhaps I've lost all the innocence and good in the video gaming world, and I just like to see results. But that's the beauty of the game I guess, it doesn't pressure you into thinking anything about it nor tell you this is how you are supposed to play it. It just exists, and to charm your life for a little while.
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