Physics Games and Physics-Based Game Downloads

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Ski Stunt Extreme is my name for a series of custom levels I created for Ski Stunt Simulator a few years ago. The game data for Ski Stunt Simulator is exposed as plain text. The terrain is a series of 2D points and the stage pass/fail logic is TCL. With a little bit of hacking it was easy enough to figure out how to make brand new levels. Michiel van de Panne has graciously allowed me to distribute this modified version. So, for the first time anywhere, I present a Fun-Motion exclusive: Ski Stunt Extreme!

What to Add?

Ski Stunt Simulator has a dozen or so levels, which is decent amount for a physics game, but an addicted player will quickly exhaust the game’s content. In addition to simply more content, there are a few things that I specifically wanted to try:

Bigger Jumps

The original levels have a few large jumps, but for the most part the levels are fairly small. I wanted to see how the game would play with very large jumps and, in general, larger levels. I did this with Extreme by creating a “Mega Jump” stage and two “Long Jump” stages. The new levels let you catch a ridiculous amount of air.

Trickier Terrain

The original Ski Stunt levels are fairly smooth. With the exception of Road Jump and Death Valley, the terrain is rather unobstructed and very naturally shaped. In Extreme, I tried an abstract loop stage, added items like springboards to existing levels, made another Jetpack level, and created a longer skill course level with more unusual contours.

The wrong way to do the skill course stage:

And, for the record, a successful run:

Per-Level Control

It’s actually possible to set the ski binding strength on a per-level basis with the game’s scripting language. This allows the level designer to create levels that would be nearly impossible with the default binding strength, or to create levels made to be played with very low binding strengths. At the start of each of the levels I added text with the level goal, binding strength, and other information.

I also tried a few different stage goals, such as a long jump level that requires minimum air time but without any rotation. The original game focuses a lot on required flips; I thought it would be interesting to try a jump without a flips (it’s a lot harder than it sounds).

Ski Stunt Extreme Features

• 7 new levels
• More Jetpack Fun
• Insane Level Goals (how does an 8x flip sound?)
• Expert Difficulty

(Ski Stunt Extreme Game Screenshots)

Game Download

Download Ski Stunt Extreme here (6.13 MB). It’s just a ZIP file, for now, so run bin/SkiStunt.exe after you extract the game. If you haven’t played the original game and need the key, use:

User: freekey
Key: 5D5B-9D2A-50CA-ED67-FDEE-7827-B7F9-690F

The Future of Ski Stunt

I think there’s a lot more to be done with Ski Stunt Simulator modification. With some cleverness one could even set up longer levels that play more like a platformer than a ski simulator. There are a lot of other fun concepts that could be tried, too: a half-pipe, huge vertical drops, tunnels that snake around, etc.

Every now and then I get the itch to do more with Ski Stunt. Please leave your feedback in the comments–if there’s enough demand I could try my hand at another round of levels. It’s a lot of fun to make levels for one of the great physics games.

In our Ski Stunt Simulator interview Michiel mentions he’s considering releasing the game’s source. I really hope he does. A game like this is ripe for a community that could take things to a bold new era of physics-y goodness. And I do loves me the physics-y goodness.

Michiel van de Panne from the University of British Columbia graciously took the time to answer my questions regarding his work on Ski Stunt Simulator, perhaps my all-time favorite physics game. His gives his thoughts on academia/game industry collaboration, his varied success with commercializing Ski Stunt Simulator, low-level physical play control, his development process, and more.

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(Rate this game! 103 votes, average: 3.22 out of 5)

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Pogo Sticker by Jetro Lauha is a simple freeware physics game inspired by, quite obviously, pogo sticking. Jetro is most known for his Dismount games, although he has long been involved in the demo scene and currently works for Sulake Corporation (developers of the famed Habbo Hotel).

In Pogo Sticker, you control a rather abstract-looking pogo man. Clicking the mouse increases your jump height, and moving the mouse to the left or right of your little dude will steer him in that direction on his next jump. Your power meter slowly reduces over time. You need to be sure to keep increasing it, although be careful: Hitting your head too many times will fail the level, as will coming to a complete standstill.

The 12 levels in Pogo Sticker are fairly varied and rise quickly in difficulty. The game starts off as simple enough, but soon ends in frustrating disaster. The only means you have as a player to learn how high to jump in certain areas is to fail, again and again. This pain is exacerbated by the quantized power meter; one mouse click equals one defined increase in jump height. I think the game would be much better served by some kind of analog power definition, where you could more finely control your jump power. Oftentimes I feel like I know my jump meter won’t have enough power for what I want to do, but I dread giving it another click on account on the braining that’s sure to follow.

(Pogo Stickers Game Screenshots)

All in all, though, Pogo Sticker is a fun enough game and an interesting implementation of a real-world physics game. Pogo Sticker tracks your fastest time on each level and rewards you with various medals. Personally, I find the game a little too hard to control to warrant that kind of replay, but perhaps others will disagree. Either way, it’s a well-produced game and a good way to kill a few minutes during a work break. And hey–the game’s free.

Download Pogo Sticker game here (1.11 MB) or head on over to Jetro’s website for MacOS and Linux versions.