Have You Played… Crayon Physics Deluxe?

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.

Look, it’s called Crayon Physics [official site]. You could probably invent the game in your mind knowing just that. Now take some crayons and revert to your childhood self. Not too much! Oh, well, you’ve done it now. There’s no way you’ll handle 70 levels of physics puzzles like this.

Then again, maybe you could. Crayon Physics is a light game, easy-going both in presentation and in form. As a puzzle game it is uncluttered, straightforward and just joyful enough to be cute without veering into the territory that gets indie games described as “charming” [spits]. I will not call this one charming but it is strangely relaxing. There's a reason it won the Seamus McNally prize at the IGF.

As a puzzle game it is also built for idiots like me. There are no numbers, no strained chains of questionable logic. You just draw wee shapes and move things about. It’s the game I imagine Gordon Freeman played before his parents enrolled him in the military-funded primary school for rich supernerds that he obviously attended and cheated his way through. That's why he still loves see-saw puzzles.