OT: Great game for kids (and, um, dad too)

the new version of "Crayon Physics" is out. My 8 year old pronounced it "better than Madden '09", so that's quite an endorsement...

You literally draw whatever you want on screen, and let physics take over. Hard to explain, but in two seconds you'll "get it" and start playing. I work on a tablet monitor, so that's how we play it. But you can use a mouse, of course. It's a pretty engaging game for kids (and a great time-waster for adults).

Here's a movie of one of the boys trying to solve a puzzle (you collect the stars by getting a ball to roll into them). ...if the ball falls of the page, it will keep giving you new ones until you solve it. First levels are somewhat simple. But it is really amazing to draw whatever you want (wheels, ramps, hammers, etc. and have them 'work'.



The trial version is free, with 18 levels. Check it out. I get no cash from this, i just know the type of engineer-slash-problem-solvers we have on this forum. The intent of the author seems to be not that puzzles can be solved easily (some can), but that it is an open sandbox, and anything goes. more complex, the better...

http://www.crayonphysics.com/

(i am going to get some non-South American lump today after shoveling our snow. We have had pizza and three other dinners cooked in the >gasp!< electric oven this week and that's just wrong. soon my posts will actually be about food.)