Line Rider (www.linerider.com)
© 2007 inXile Entertainment
If you don't mind a LOT of seedy advertising, LineRider is a free creativity "toy" designed by a Slovenian university student Bostjan Cadez. Using a simple palette of drawing tools, you sketch a line on the screen which, with a little imagination, becomes a track. Pressing "start" causes a bike rider to start coasting along the track. The goal is to get the rider to stay on the bike while adding interesting ramps, jumps and other elements to the courses. The process is simple and addicting, and tracks can be set to music and shared as movies. Some of the sample tracks provided in the gallery are complex works of art, incorporating creativity and timing. Line Rider was purchased by US publisher inXile Entertainment. Line Rider requires no downloads -- just a standard Flash plugin on your browser. It could be used as a creative programming activity; e.g. for a quick group contest to illustrate how vector-based graphics can be applied online. Visit www.linerider.com for more information or try Windows title Line Rider 2: Unbound for a more sophisticated program.
Internet Site
Teaches: creativity, simple programming, art