Tuesday, September 18, 2012

New Linden Lab Product: Day-Glo Minecraft with Physics?

Since Patterns seems to have no avatars, I decided to add my own.

After a lot of speculation, Linden Lab announced two of the games it's been diligently working on for the past year. Patterns look like a day-glo version of Minecraft plus physics:
Explore caverns and valleys, while you harvest substances with real world densities. Build large scale structures that reach the sky or bridges that traverse chasms. Challenge real-world physics to see which creations will tumble -- or withstand -- the power of gravity.
Creatorverse is an iPad application that seems very reminiscent of Crayon Physics Deluxe.
Become an inventor as you design unique creations and then set them in motion. You’ll never know what to expect as you watch your creations bounce, roll, tilt -- or even accelerate on the screen. Let your creations come to life as you play with different joints, forces, motors, and teleporters and then watch what happens next.
At first glance, they both look pretty derivative of other people's products, but we'll have to wait until they're released to see how much originality Linden Lab brings to the mix.

2 comments:

Gwyneth Llewelyn said...

"Derivatives" are not necessarily a bad thing. After all, they will tap into existing customers of a specific genre who will be familiar with the concept! Being "too original" sometimes means a slow growth. Just look at Second Life! After a decade, it still remains a tiny niche :)

Botgirl Questi said...

I agree with you. It depends on whether new products offer enough of a twist to make it comparatively compelling, which could be additional features, better UI/UX or triangles instead of cubes. :)