Game Construction, The Newtoon Way

Former Edge editor Margaret Robertson has been musing on the nature of play in her Lookspring weblog, and has particularly been focusing on Newtoon, a Java-based play tool by Soda Play that “…lets you make little 2D physics-based games entirely out of balls and springs.”

She notes that “…the game bit comes in through some devilishly simple grammar. Each ball can, if you so chose, be designated a goal, hazard, or player token. The token can be controlled by the arrow keys: touch a hazard and it’s game over, touch the goal and it’s a win.” Robertson’s conclusion?

“I’ve done my time with idiot-proof game creators – with RPG Maker, and Dark Basic and various modding tools, but am usually defeated by the same failings that Meccano used to reveal. With Newtoon, it will take an actual act of an actual god to prevent you from making a game. It’s the Wario Ware of game-makers, something you really can play with for 2 minutes and find rewarding.”

Sounds like a bit of a laugh, then – and yet again showcases the fact that physics is the new black.

Doing it for myself [Lookspring]