Sent to you by Geoff via Google Reader:


Review: Crayon Physics Deluxe for the iPhone
via Geekdad by Todd Dailey on 1/5/09
Back in 2007 Matt Blum reviewed Crayon Physics for the PC, an  
innovative game where you draw on-screen with a virtual crayon to  
solve puzzles. The Deluxe version of that is nearly ready to ship for  
PC, but the iPhone version is already out. I had a chance to sit down  
and give it a run-through.


Crayon Physics Deluxe for the iPhone is a $4.99 game featuring 54  
levels. For each level you have to draw shapes on the screen to move  
the circle over to a star using the gravity and momentum that your  
circles, squares, and other shapes generate. Along the way you have to  
get around obstacles, and as the game progresses you get more complex  
tasks, such as using cables and levers. It's a casual puzzle game in  
the spirit of Enigmo on the iPhone, or, for you old timers, you might  
remember The Incredible Machine series from years ago. (As an aside,  
The Incredible Machine on iPhone could be awesome!) The game features  
a level editor (more on that later) and relaxing background music.  
Each level usually takes only a few minutes at most, especially at the  
lower levels, so it's a great pick-up-and-play game for times when you  
have a few minutes to spare.

The touch controls on the game are intuitive, you just draw the shape  
you want, such as a square, circle, line, or triangle. On later levels  
you might need to pivot your shape, and for that you draw a tiny  
circle, then draw your shape around the circle. There's a pretty big  
bug in the 1.0.0 version I tested where the game appears to run out of  
memory and gives you a "Can't draw" error no matter what you try to  
draw. If you hit this you'll need to restart your iPhone/iPod touch.  
The Application Description on the App Store page says that the  
developer is aware of the issue and will release a new version soon.  
In addition, the level load times and game play can be a bit laggy on  
my iPhone 3G, and there are reviews on the App Store that say the  
problem is even worse on first-gen iPhones and iPod touches. This  
isn't a unique problem for new iPhone games, and hopefully it will be  
addressed quickly.

The initial levels are easy, and most experienced gamers will get  
through the first ten or so levels very quickly. After that the going  
gets tougher, and by mid-game the levels can be quite a challenge, in  
a good way. I haven't made it past level 25, but if the difficulty  
curve keeps progressing the game will be hard enough by the end to  
challenge even the best puzzle masters. There is also a level editor  
included with the game, but unfortunately it is either broken in this  
version or desperately in need of documentation. Every level I tried  
to make would simply drop all the pieces I placed when I hit start.  
There are "pins" that theoretically can be used to pin down the  
pieces, but I couldn't get it to work and there is no help for this on  
the developer site or in the game. It also appears that you can only  
make simple levels, and you can't make spinning wheels or any of the  
advanced features that show up in later levels of the game. You also  
don't appear to be able to share your levels or load levels from other  
players. Overall the level editor feature is promising, but not usable  
in this version.

At $4.99, Crayon Physics Deluxe should be a better game. If  
Kloonigames/Hudson can address the memory issues, frame rate lag, fix  
the level editor, and add the ability to load levels from other  
players then it will be well-worth the price. For now, though, I have  
to recommend holding off until some of these issues are addressed. Or  
you might want to pick up the PC version for $20.

Strangely, there is almost an exact clone of Crayon Physics Deluxe for  
the iPhone called Touch Physics. It is a far less-polished game with  
only 30 fairly-easy levels, no level editor, and much simpler play,  
but I found no bugs in it and it is currently only 99 cents (normally  
$1.99) "for a limited time". Anyone know the story behind these two  
almost-identical games? Let us know in the comments.





Things you can do from here:
Subscribe to Geekdad using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your  
favorite sites