Hi,

I'm a teacher who has a history in programming. I want to begin writing a game which needs the physics of world of goo but not the 3d capability of Unity etc.

If you were to use a development platform like Unity, (or a free one) which would be a good place to start.

It needs to be physics orientated but also able to use / create good graphics.

Thanks for any advice.

N

So you want a game engine, free, in 2D, with physic capabilities?
Do you want access to the engine code or simply using the embedded editor / scripting language is enough? If not, do you prefer one in C/C++, Java, C#, Python? The language is usually very important as a choice for people.

Wikipedia has a good list of free and open source game engines (also check the freeware section down): http://en.wikipedia....of_game_engines

But to be honest, in 2D I don't know what to recommend. LÖVE seems nice at quick glance but I never heard of it.
Most 2D games actually use a 3D engine and limit action to one plane. Unity and even UDK can be used to create 2D games, but it's obviously not optimal.
What I would personally do is take a 2D graphic library (SDL, SFML, Allegro) and create a quick and simple entity system and also link everything with a physic library (Box2D, etc). Of course, it's a lot more work than using an already existing engine, but it's more dedicated to your needs at the end.

Just for the information, World Of Goo is using SDL for rendering and ODE for the physics, but I just learned that ODE could do 2D physics. He didn't use a pre-made game engine, he made it's own.

Or maybe what you are looking for, as a teacher, if you don't want to teach programming but simply show things, use an already existing commercial game called Algodoo. It's MADE for education, there's even a special education package. It provide you with a framework to create anything in 2D related to the physic without even writing a line of code! Of course, it's not free, but probably the best choice for you. Check this presentation video, at least it convinced me .

For 2D game you can use the Gadget2D engine(http://roswellgames.com/gadget2d/) and use Box2D(http://box2d.org/) for your physics. That should be all you need to attain your goal. All the best.

Thanks for you advice people this is excellent and showing me resources I'm un-aware of.

A little more detail.... I'm hoping to get kids designing games for mobiles (android / iPhone) so want a system that'll easily package up for distribution on those platforms...

Any more advice is very greatly received.

Thanks - Nick