MELISSA BLOCK, host:
I've been playing around with a new computer game that went on sale this week. It's not a blockbuster like "Halo" or "World of Warcraft." There's no gun, no guitar or microphone. Instead, there's a crayon. "Crayon Physics Deluxe" is a simple, mesmerizing game created by a 25-year-old independent game designer from Finland named Petri Purho.
Here's how it works: You draw shapes on the computer screen. It could be a line or a stair of steps, a square or a hammer, anything you want. Then you use those shapes to propel, roll or otherwise maneuver a crudely drawn red circle over to a crudely drawn yellow star. My six-year-old daughter had a blast with the game, even though we both got snagged as the levels got more intricate. It's easy to show the appeal on a computer screen, and if you're near one, I would encourage you to visit npr.org, where you can see a demo of the game. But it is kind of hard to put into words, as I asked Petri Purho to do when he spoke with me from Helsinki.
Mr. PETRI PURHO (Designer, "Crayon Physics Deluxe"): Well, it's a game where your crayon drawings come to life. You draw stuff, and as soon as you release the mouse button, the laws of physics are applied to your drawing. So, gravity kicks in, and the thing starts falling down until it hits something according to the laws of physics.
BLOCK: You know, if I think of the world of video and computer games - and I probably don't think about that world very often, but when I do - I'm thinking about really elaborate, high-production-values stuff that, you know, costs a lot of money to develop, probably costs a lot of money to buy. This seems like a really different model to me.
Mr. PURHO: Doing games that look like they were drawn by five-year-olds?
(Soundbite of laughter)
BLOCK: Your words, not mine.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. PURHO: Yeah. Well, actually, it's the words of my mother.
BLOCK: I see.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. PURHO: When I showed her the game, she was really disappointed because she thought it was this elaborate fantasy game, and then she told me that it looked like something that was made by a five-year-old.
(Soundbite of laughter)
BLOCK: But it does seem like you're sort of standing that tradition on its end of it, no?
Mr. PURHO: Yeah, and I don't think I'm the only one. There's been a lot of really small games that have come out in the recent years, like "World of Goo" and "Braid" and "Aquaria," and these are small games made by using one or two people.
BLOCK: How long did this take to create, "Crayon Physics Deluxe"?
Mr. PURHO: The original idea was, this was a game that I'd do during my summer holiday from school and that failed, so I took six months break from school. And it wasn't done after that, so I had to take another six months break from school, and then another one. So, it's now taken me about a year and eight months.
BLOCK: I gather this all started with a project that you're involved with where you have to create a game in less than a week around a single simple theme. What's the appeal of that kind of game-making?
Mr. PURHO: Well, the idea of that experiment was to try to find out new game mechanics. So, instead of, like, doing all the same stuff that has been done up to now, the idea was to find awesome game mechanics that could actually be awesome games.
BLOCK: And to do it fast.
Mr. PURHO: Yeah. Well, the idea of doing it fast is so that you don't end up spending too much time working on a single idea. If you spend too much time working on something, then you cannot - it becomes too precious for you so you cannot actually try out wacky ideas.
BLOCK: Well, I have the game open here, and I'm going to just try it here.
(Soundbite of music)
BLOCK: This is the - the screen shows what looks like a piece of brown paper folded up. The red circle's in the upper left-hand corner. The yellow star's on a box in the lower right. And if I just draw a sort of sloping line connecting them and touch the circle - there it goes. It's rolling down this little hill. It's touched the star, and I've earned, I guess, a point. Now, that's a really easy one. They do get much more complicated.
Mr. PURHO: Yeah, they do. You're going to start doing really weird stuff with the game once you get a hold of all the mechanisms, So, you can start drawing - well, catapults are pretty obvious. You can build up ramps and cars and actually end up doing all this crazy and wacky solutions to the puzzles.
BLOCK: What was the inspiration for this? How did you come up with the idea?
Mr. PURHO: Well, there's this children's story called "Harold and the Purple Crayon."
BLOCK: Sure.
Mr. PURHO: By Crockett Johnson.
BLOCK: Yeah.
Mr. PURHO: And it's this story about this kid who has this magical crayon, and anything he draws becomes real. And he has this great adventure where he draws everything.
BLOCK: Mr. Purho, thanks so much for talking with us. It's been fun playing your computer game.
Mr. PURHO: Thank you.
BLOCK: Petri Purho is the creator of "Crayon Physics Deluxe." He joined us from Helsinki.
(Soundbite of music)
MICHELE NORRIS, host:
You're listening to All Things Considered from NPR News.