What could possibly be more welcome than colorful geometric shapes with corners gently rounded for virtual safety? How about if they had googly eyes? What if they could come to life? What if you breathed life into the inhabitants of this bright and innocent Blocksworld? Doesn't that sound like a pleasant sort of god to be?
Linden Lab is all about creating, or at least they have been since Rod Humble took charge, transforming the company behind Second Life into a company that creates creativity. It was as if Linden Lab only made doughnuts before he arrived, and now they're making a wide variety of pastries. The delicious, sexy, wildly-deviant doughnuts are still there, but then so is Creatorverse and Patterns and Blocksworld and maybe, if we're very good, some scones.
The point is, now I'm the friendliest god ever, placing together plastic polygon pieces and giving them life through a relatively simple set of tools. If I want my creation to jump, I slide an action trigger onto it, then a button, and then the jump command. It's scripting, but in a very simple, beautiful sort of way.
Using those simple tools, I can create life, like this hover-mans. Look how happy hover-mans is.
Hover-mans is smiling. Yes, part of that's because he can hover. Another part is the simplistic 3D world he lives it, rocky and comfortable on his bottom. But mostly he is smiling because I — well, someone like me, I'm sure — created him for the sole purpose of having a good time and being colorfully orange.
Even when he is terrified, inside he is happy. That's what I tell myself as the control go a bit wonky. You can create many things in Blocksworld's blockscape — planes, cars, boats, animals, lawyers, large rocks. You can animate them, add controls, establish behaviors and such. None of them control perfectly, but well enough for a virtual thing you create with a few taps of your majestic fingertips.
There are several ways to establish your mastery over Blocksworld. For example, you can simply dive right in and build away to your heart's content, or at least until you run out of blocks. Then you'll have to buy more, or win some by participating in a number of pre-built kits.
The kits are sort of like boxed playsets. Say you are a godlike being who wishes to see a little hovercraft flying about. There's a set for that exact purpose. You're guided through the process step-by-step, until you have something vaguely resembling what you were going for. They you can ride it around in a challenge mode of sorts. Upon completind the challenge, more pieces are yours! It's like you are creating matter where their was none before.
Are you not creative? Are you incapable of making your own thing? Well that's fine too, as there's an entire community sharing creations within the app. I'm sure they've got room for one more.
Building blocks of matter matters, even when that matter is virtual. Blocksworld wants to be your iPad LEGOs, and it makes an incredibly strong case for just that. There's very little free-to-play-pain involved (you can buy blocks and sets, but you don't have to), and so much room to creatively spread your influence over this blocky paradise.
Oh look, hover-mans has a laser.
Oh dear. So does he.
Blocksworld
Genre: Building Tool/Virtual Playground
Developer: Linden Lab
Platform: iOS
Price: Free