Archive for the 'Crayon Physics' Category

Crayon Physics Deluxe Preview

Saturday, January 19th, 2008

I made a New Year’s resolution to update this blog more often and with more meaningful posts. Ironically this blog posts marks a very special occasion, it’s been 18 days since my last blog post which is officially the longest I’ve gone without updating this blog. So I’m off to a flying start this year :)

Anyhow, I wanted to point out that John Walker over at Eurogamer wrote a preview of Crayon Physics Deluxe. Here’s my favorite quote from the article:

Most of all, even playing this in-progress build, what’s clear is quite how lovely Crayon Physics Deluxe is going to be. It’s a warm, cuddly experience, but also a fantastically well-designed one. The puzzles start off simple, and introduce new concepts matching the difficulty curve.

Sweet.

Crayon Physics Deluxe on a Tablet PC

Monday, November 12th, 2007

I got a lot of comments saying that playing Crayon Physics on a tablet PC was loads of fun. I never had a change to test it. Until now. I got my hands on a tablet PC and while it was fun to play Crayon Physics on it, it was way more fun to play Crayon Physics DELUXE on it!

Here’s a little video of me playing Crayon Physics Deluxe on a tablet PC.

The game is still very much in development and the levels here are in a random order. I’m not even sure if these levels will make it to the final game.

Announcing Crayon Physics Deluxe

Friday, October 12th, 2007

The secret project that I’ve been working on for a little while is called Crayon Physics Deluxe.

Screenshot of Crayon Physics DeluxeScreenshot of Crayon Physics Deluxe

The name kinda spoils the surprise, but I’ll explain it anyway. Crayon Physics Deluxe is a “sequel” to Crayon Physics (a prototype of a 2D physics game), but I’m not sure sequel is the right word here. It’s more like Crayon Physics Deluxe is the real game where as Crayon Physics was just a prototype. Real game at least in the sense that I’ve spend way more than 7 days on this one.

There are already a bunch of cool new features. Probably the biggest one being that now you can finally draw any shape you want. And they will behave physically as you would expect them to behave. There’s also a easy to use level editor in the game. Actually all the levels in the game have been done purely in that level editor.

The game is still very much in development. I don’t dare to give you any kind of official release date, but you can trust me that I’ll release as soon as it is done. Which could be a little while.

Here are couple of more screenshots from the game, so you don’t have to visit the game’s “official” site.

Screenshot of Crayon Physics DeluxeScreenshot of Crayon Physics Deluxe

In a couple of days I’ll try to post some video from the game so you can see it in action. I’m really excited about the game and I can’t wait to let you guys play it. I think you’re going to enjoy it very much.

Crayon Physics’ Level Editor Tutorial

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

logr left a great comment on the original Crayon Physics thread. I was a little afraid it might go unnoticed there, so I decided to post it here. It’s a level editor tutorial.

I did some small editing and added the screenshots, but you really have logr to thank for it. logr also wanted to remind people that there is a level editor available in the first place and there are a dozen user made levels you can already play. logr already has a bunch of them and you can download them from his public box.

Well enough talk here’s the tutorial.


(Note from Petri: The level editor isn’t really all that feature complete, it’s more a developer tool. But that said using it isn’t really all that complicated. It may seem that there are a lot of steps to go through, but most of them are pretty self explanatory.)

Download level editor

First of all, download the level editor pack (it’s in the June archive, top of the page), then unzip the files.

Now you have a choice to make. You can unzip the files to a new directory or you can unzip and copy them to the same folder where Crayon Physics (“crayon.exe” and the dll -files) is located.

If you copy them to the Crayon Physics folder, then you can more easily test your levels.

But if you unzip them to a separate folder, it’s easier to manage and to observe how the editor works. I recommend you to unzip your files to a separate folder.

Creating a level

Then you should think about your level : just draw the main parts (the ball, the star(s) and the walls) on a paper sheet. Don’t pay attention to any background now, for the editor really doesn’t care!

A screenshot what you should see when you start the level editor

Now you can start the “Crayon editor.exe” file. You should see something like in the screenshot above. You’ll first have to name your level ( “data/levels/test.xml” is perfect, since you’ll be able to change everything when done with the editor). The editor will ask something about creating new level, just answer yes.

A screenshot what you should see when you're in the editing mode

When you are faced with the black screen (like the one in the shot above) push S to register your level (S saves the level).

(There is one bug I came across: when closing the editor and re-opening it, it seems the editor doesn’t remember the file (when you are to name your level). When it says to create a new one, just answer yes. You’ll get to the black screen with the white lines, provided you haven’t forgotten to push S before closing the editor.)

Here’s a description of the shortcut keys

Drawing with your left mouse button down will create a “free” object (it’s the same as the game)
Holding left shift down and drawing (while left-clicking, of course) will create a “static” object (which I call a wall)
Z adds the ball
X adds a star
S saves the level
L loads the level

Now that you know the shortcut keys, just draw your level (don’t mind the black/white colors until you’re done with the editor). Remember to push S when you’re done.

A screenshot the level I made

Testing your level in the game

You should now have at least two new files in the data\gfx folder : the bmp and the xml files. There will also be a xml file in the data\level folder.

If you’re working in the same folder where “crayon.exe” is located you can skip this next step.

Copy the files from your gfx -folder to the data/gfx folder of Crayon Physics. Also copy the xml file from data/level folder to Crayon Physics’ data/level folder.

In order to test your level in the game you have to edit the “data/level_list.xml”. You can do with your notepad. Just open the file and change the line that says:
<Level completed="1" filename="data/levels/level_01.xml" position="1" >
to this:
<Level completed="1" filename="data/levels/test.xml" position="1" >
of course in the place of test.xml put in the name of the file you gave for your level. And remember to save the file.

(You don’t have to put the level as your first level, but you can extend the number levels you have at your disposal. Just add the level before the the_end.xml. And remember to increase the position numbering.)

Then start crayon.exe

A screenshot my level in the game

You should see the level you created in the editor (with the black background and all).

To change the backgound

NOW, you can add your own background (the black one is kind of dark…) and your own walls (instead of the white lines). So here is what you’ve gotta do :

-First of all, create your background and save it as a bmp files (give it a different name than the first bmp file)
-then open the 2 files with Paint.
-push ctrl+I in the first file to exchange black and white, then ctrl+A.
-Paste it on your background using the “transparent paste” (I don’t know how to put it in English).
-On your background, you should now have black lines (boxes) covering it.
-Just fill the black boxes with anything you want to get your own platforms.

Now you’ve got it! Just save and rename your background so as to replace the black/white background.

All that is left to do is test it again with the new background and have fun playing it.

(I suggest you zip your files and send them to Petri Purho to show your creations)

(Note from Petri: I’d love to see your levels, but you should also thank logr for all the work he’s done for Crayon Physics)

Even More Crayon Physics’ Levels

Thursday, July 5th, 2007

This week was supposed to be No-Crayon-Physics-Posts week, but apparently that’s just impossible.

Just today I received seven new levels to Crayon Physics. And here there are.

Screenshot of Tracy's great level pack
First off all we have a great level pack from Tracy. The level pack includes three new levels and a new end level. The levels are very much in the style of the original game (just check out screenshot). The level pack can be downloaded from here.


Screenshot of logr's newest level
Then we have the Bros level pack from the veteran Crayon Physics level designer: logr. The level pack includes two new levels, very much in the style of Super Mario World. The level pack can be downloaded from here, but it requires a bit more engineering to get working.

Edit 6/6/2007: logr just released another level, called horizontal. It’s pretty cool and original. And turning your monitor 90 degrees helps a lot in completing the level. Horizontal can be downloaded from here.

Screenshot of Ichabod's Donkey Kong level
And also Ichabod has created a new level for the game (his previous level being the blackboard -level). The new one is in the style of Donkey Kong and the object of the level is to get the barrel (ball) to hit Mario (star). Very clever. You can download Ichabod’s newest level from here.


Screenshot of Jak's Crayon Physics total conversion mod
And like that’s not enough I also bumped into a total conversion mod for Crayon Physics by Jak of X-Tray. It’s also a Super Mario themed conversion, and it’s pretty fun. There’s a custom title screen and Super Mario Bros music. It can be downloaded from here. It only has one level, which a bit of a shame, but I hope Jak continues to work on it.


And if I may be so radical, I suggest that logr, Ichabod and Jak should unite their powers and do a total conversion for Crayon Physics. I mean all of their levels are more or less Mario themed and when combined they would already have four or five different levels.

And as a very special treat we also have the first ever Crayon Physics speed run. Well I’m not really sure it’s a speed run, but there’s the solution to the original levels.