Bullets and Blenders

06/19/201406/13/2014 - Will Bain Leave a comment

Thanks to open-source programming, there are some very sophisticated and utterly engrossing ways for you to continue the cycle of Keva creation and destruction in the virtual world.

First, check out this video of Keva structures brought low by toy balls and Newtonian physics.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ilojin4vQ8[/youtube]

Then go here to watch more…

These videos were made possible through an open-source physics engine called Bullet Physics and an open source 3d animation application called Blender (which utilizes the physics simulation of Bullet Physics). Both of these programs are free. I can in no way comment on the coding or any other technical aspect of these programs, however, I am thrilled that these tools are out there for kids and adults– for anyone who wants to build and play in a virtual environment that so closely mimics are own.

Keva planks and Lego and Lincoln Logs and all of the other building props that I grew up with as a child were ways that I could turn the virtual world of my imagination into something tangible. These structures led to a richer landscape for my imagination. Physics bound design programs are an extension of this feedback loop. Physical Keva structures can be rendered virtual, which can be made tangible again, which can then be folded back upon itself so many times that no one can predict what will emerge. New shapes and configurations and material properties in the virtual world could result in new toys and building systems that we will be gifting to our grandchildren.

Use the links below to check out Blender and Bullet Physics. You can download from the sites.

http://www.blender.org/

http://bulletphysics.org/wordpress/

Keva Brain Builders

06/18/201406/13/2014 - Will Bain Leave a comment

If you missed my earlier post about Keva planks and the fun of destruction, you can check it out here.

Keva planks are precision cut wooden building blocks. They measure about a quarter of an inch thick and the proportion of their dimensions is 1:3:15 (1 unit thick, 3 units wide, and 15 units long). The uniformity and quality of the Keva plank construction makes them ideal for building very complex and very stable structures.

Turns out, they also make for an interesting brain-teaser.

In essence, Keva Brain Builders is an exercise in architectural design and perspective drawing. The game comes with 20 planks and 30 puzzle cards. The cards are double sided. On the puzzle side is shown a diagram of something the player needs to build. The diagram shows the figure in top view, side view, and front view. The planks are color coded to indicate which side you are looking at in each view.

Your challenge is to build the structure so that it matches the picture on the solution side of the card.

The cards come in three difficulty levels. The easy ones are very simple both in the structure’s complexity and in the amount of balance it takes to create the structure. As the puzzles get harder, the diagrams become somewhat more difficult to suss out, but the manual dexterity to build the solutions becomes much more challenging.

Keva Brain Builders lends itself to free play. Although many of us at Major Fun liked playing with the challenge cards, just as many liked building our own structures. I imagine that there will be many kids who will be perfectly happy to take the planks and make their own designs. I had fun trying to come up with complicated designs that I would then draw in all three perspectives.

Ultimately, this is a great introduction into Keva planks, it’s a nice small building set, and the puzzle challenges are a clever way to improve spatial awareness. It comes in a compact, zippered pouch; although if your household is anything like mine, that will get stuffed with dolls and the Keva planks will be incorporated into some other Frankenstein structure of train tracks, Lego, and toilet paper rolls.

Solo play. Ages 7+

Castle Blast

06/11/201406/13/2014 - Will Bain Leave a comment

Castle Blast As anyone knows who has ever played with building blocks, the apotheosis of the constructive activity is the moment when you bring it all crashing down. For every castle or city or log cabin there is some dragon or dinosaur or marauding army that is merely biding its time.

Castle Blast is a building game that comes with its own wrecking ball. The good folks at Mindware embrace the Truth that what goes up must come down (especially since the game will probably have to go back in the box eventually). It’s about time kids learned that nothing made by human hands will endure.

In the words of Percy Bysshe Shelly, “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! For only my Twinkies and long-chain hydrocarbons remain!”

Or something to that effect.

The rules are simple: build a castle to protect 3 items (a princess, a treasure, and a dragon); roll the die to see how many swings you can take; swing the wrecking ball until you knock the three characters out of the fortification. The game comes with a small game-board and a castle design that you can follow. Or not. Build your own castle and see how it goes.

In the end, it all falls down.

When you successfully knock a character out of the castle, you get a token that corresponds to that character. Collect all three character tokens to win. Depending on how many players you have, you will probably have to reconstruct the castle multiple times.

The game looks great. The wooden blocks are solid and smooth and colorful. The rules are simple and provide several variations of play for those who want to add some variety to the endless cycle of creation and destruction. If you already have wooden blocks scattered underfoot and in the bottom of toy boxes, you could incorporate them in very easily.

Things fall apart. The center cannot hold. Major Fun is loosed upon the world… (apologies to Yeats)

2-4 players. Ages 5+