Computer Game A Mash-Up Of Crayons, Physics

A new computer game went on sale this week. It's not a blockbuster like Halo or World of Warcraft. There's no first-person shooting, no sports, no guitar, no microphone. Instead, there's a crayon.

The game is Crayon Physics Deluxe. It's a simple, mesmerizing game created by a 25-year-old independent games designer from Finland named Petri Purho.

"It's a game where your crayon drawings come to life," Purho tells NPR's Melissa Block. "You draw stuff and your drawings behave physically correctly.

"As soon as you release the last button, the laws of physics are applied to your drawing."

Crayon Physics Deluxe does not have the elaborate, high-production values seen in other games. Purho says when he first showed his mother the game, her reaction was not what you might excpect.

"She was very disappointed ... and then she told me it looked like it was made by a 5-year-old," he says.

Purho says he first got the idea to create the game during his school summer vacation. When that didn't happen, he took a six-month break from school. That didn't work, either.

"I had to take another six months' break from school and then another one and another one," he says. "Now it's taken me a year and eight months."

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.