Clowns falling down stairs: the ultimate physics game
by Bonnie Ruberg 
{ Mar 7th 2007 at 6:23PM }
Yesterday, in his talk at the Independent Games Summit, Matthew Wegner beat up clowns. To be specific, he showed a physics sim clip of a dozen full-costumed clown ragdolls tumbling helplessly down a spiral staircase. Wegner, head of the physics game site Fun-Motion, called clowns falling down stairs "the ultimate physics game." Why? Because it's a lot easier to identify with clowns in peril then, let's say, a bunch of shapes. Besides, it's just hilarious. Later on, Wegner also showed a sim of a few hundred cows falling through a mess of painful looking barriers. Also very excellent.The thing that Wegner didn't mention though is what's up with all this sadism? Physics games are definitely fun, but what's most fun is destroying stuff--clowns, cows, ragdoll fighters, whatever. So why the connection? Regardless, if I were a clown at GDC right now, I would probably be in hiding.
Get a WordPress.com Blog
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sizer @ Mar 7th 2007 7:06PM
No video of either? I'm sure this is only because you don't have it, but I don't want to hear about hundreds of cows doing Posturvat if I can't see it in action.
Brendon @ Mar 7th 2007 7:26PM
Clowns scare me.
LordMinogue @ Mar 7th 2007 7:33PM
I saw two collision detection demonstrations that were not in real time, but still awesome.
1. A mile high 50 by 50 stack of deck chairs falling to the earth
2. A million trout raining on the golden gate bridge to the 1812 overture in a thunderstorm
REUYL @ Mar 7th 2007 8:50PM
Clowns Falling Down Stairs: the ultimate horror survival game.
Reginald @ Mar 7th 2007 10:08PM
I wonder if it was it anything like this?
http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/tetka.html
It's a physics sim of a model falling on rock-like structures (bubbles).
If she gets stuck just refresh the page.
Weird.
Reginald @ Mar 7th 2007 10:16PM
RE:
http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/tetka.html
...one more thing. You can control the model by clicking and dragging her around.
You know, just in case you ever wondered what it would be like to drop a bikini model over a rocky cliff. FYI: I didn't create this; just found it a while back.
Hakobus @ Mar 8th 2007 3:38AM
Stair Dismount and Truck Dismount are already hella fun, but I must admit that adding clowns to the equation sounds like pretty much the only way to improve it.
You can find both dismount games here: http://jet.ro/dismount/
Matthew @ Mar 10th 2007 5:56PM
I'll post my presentation and demos to Fun-Motion soon. The clowns falling down the spiral stairs demo really is more fun than it should be.
I thought about commenting (seriously) on the sadistic aspects of ragdoll games. The only reason I didn't is because of time constraints. I think it actually reinforces my point about association being a requirement. It isn't sadistic to throw a bunch of crates around, but it *is* sadistic to throw a bunch of clowns around. A really obvious point, I know, but designers can employ it in more subtle ways.