My Latest Addiction Is Line Rider

Not too long ago, Jeff Atwood lowered the overall productivity of software developers everywhere when he wrote about Desktop Tower Defense, a game that he calls fiendishly addictive.

I chose not to play the game as I had too much going on. But now I have family visiting and my brother (Hey Brian!) introduced me to yet another fiendishly addictive flash game, Line Rider. Damn you brother!

It’s not even really a game in the sense that there’s no objective other than to build really cool courses. It’s quite similar to a physics drawing tool. You simply start drawing lines and hit play to watch a some little dude with a red scarf sled down your course.

engin2.162.swf (applicationx-shockwave-flash Object) - Mozilla Firefox (2)

The tools themselves are simple. You have a free-hand pencil tool and a line tool. There are 3 colors of lines you can draw.

  • Blue - Draws a line where the sledder can sled at a normal pace.
  • Red - Draws a line that accelerates the sledder.
  • Green - Draws a line that doesn’t affect the sledder.

Using this simple set of tools, you can create some very interesting courses across a limitless canvas.

I was quite pleased with myself for executing a loop-de-loop until my brother showed me some of the amazing stuff that people have put together on YouTube like these two videos:

Sadly, I am completely hooked.

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What others have said

Requesting Gravatar... Rob Conery Aug 19, 2007 5:06 PM
# re: My Latest Addiction Is Line Rider
OK I just wasted 30 minutes... You suck!

Hey why is your MVP pic so big? Tryin to say somethin there?
Requesting Gravatar... Mike Minutillo Aug 19, 2007 9:56 PM
# re: My Latest Addiction Is Line Rider
Alas, the Line Rider craze must've hit before I started with my current employer as the url is blocked by IT. Given the fact that there's only 5 minutes left of my lunch break that is probably a really good thing. us.icio.del.add( linerider );
Requesting Gravatar... Steven Harman Aug 20, 2007 7:49 AM
# re: My Latest Addiction Is Line Rider
The new black hole of geek productivity has arrived! My favorite so far might be Line Rider + Super Mario Bros. It brings back such great memories... I need to go did my NES out of the attic and waste some more time!
Requesting Gravatar... engtech Aug 20, 2007 12:03 PM
# re: My Latest Addiction Is Line Rider
Line Rider should be coming out for the Nintendo Wii (or was it Nintendo DS?)
Requesting Gravatar... Sara Aug 26, 2007 4:30 AM
# re: My Latest Addiction Is Line Rider
That is hilarious! Thanks for sharing!
Requesting Gravatar... kevin Sep 06, 2007 7:06 AM
# re: My Latest Addiction Is Line Rider
I guess there could be worse things to be addicted to ;)
Requesting Gravatar... Casey Dec 17, 2007 5:29 PM
# re: My Latest Addiction Is Line Rider
why is it that with all programs now uasing quicktime, i am getting a big "Q" with a question mark? Never did that before? New version lately?
Requesting Gravatar... k May 24, 2010 1:21 PM
# re: My Latest Addiction Is Line Rider
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