A review of Line Rider, a flash physics game created in September 2006 by Boštjan Čadež.
If you've trolled the waters of the world wide web, you are probably familiar with the many phenomena which have become seemingly ubiquitous. Portal sites like YouTube, which allow users to publish their own videos and reach a huge audience of millions, have become widespread and popular these days, along with Photobucket, Facebook, and other social networking sites. These sites, some the creation of teenagers with innovative ideas, captivate us, and in their simple addictiveness endlessly consume our time.
Line Rider is just another of those phenomena. Created in September 2006 by Boštjan Čadež, a Slovenian university student, whose internet alias is Fsk, it has now risen to fame, with thousands of people engaged daily in the process of making tracks and publishing them on media sharing sites, such as Youtube. Line Rider is a sandbox game, with no real goal, no system of scoring, and no real method of winning or losing. It involves a boy on a sled, dubbed "Bosh" by its creator, and the player draws lines for which Bosh to ride upon. Using glitches in the physics engine, it is now possible for very complex tricks to be executed, and the creator has included "green" lines, which do not affect the sled in any way, allowing scenery to be included. Some line artists, as they are called have used this simple system to masterful effect.
Most players of Line Rider share their tracks with others by using a screen recorder to capture video, then editing to add some music and titles, and then uploading the video to Youtube. There have been several online communities created where players can share their tracks with each other, and get feedback, as well as finding an audience for their content. Some of the more notable tracks have achieved several million views on Youtube. My personal favorite is "Make Believe" by Techdawg. It is one of the earliest (and best, in my opinion) tracks.
I myself am a member of Techdawg's I Ride The Lines, located at http://www.iridethelines.com. I have found the forums helpful, both in terms of a place to get tips on how to make enjoyable tracks, as well as a place to socialize with others. So, I recommend that you give the game a try here. Who knows, you may just get hooked!
