Crayon Physics Deluxe from Petri Purho on Vimeo.

Crayon Physics is an incredible game that applies the laws of physics to your drawings. Balls roll, hammers hit, see-saws catapult objects when a heavier one is placed on the opposite side, and you can even create intricate pulley systems. I really like the concept for the game because all interaction and creativity is left to the user.
This feels like a child’s dream come true; what if my crayon drawings came to life? (Ironically, there is a game called “Drawn to Life,” but it doesn’t seem to offer this same realization of creative objects). The user is not constrained to anything but their imagination and the (simulated) laws of physics.

http://fantasticcontraption.com/
Fantastic Contraption seems like another fun interactive physics game, except here you use predefined physics objects to achieve your goal. What I like about this one is the community tools available for people to share their creations and contraptions.

This post was inspired by the following videos:

(2:00 to 3:30) This first video shows a demo of “Half-Life 2” at the E3 Expo in 2003. I remember being in complete awe after seeing life-like physics in an interactive environment.

This tech demo shows “Digital Molecular Matter” which simulates the physical properties of different types of materials.