Poor Devil! - Physics Game

Dozens of balls are bouncing around in two boxes, and the Poor Devil can open the gate between the boxes.

The aim of this rather addictive game is to help the Poor Devil separate the fast balls from the slow ones.

With each new level the number of balls increases, and so does the difficulty of the game.

This physics game, designed by physicists Federico Tibone and Danilo Cinti, is based on a famous «thought experiment» proposed by 19th-century Scottish scientist James Clerk Maxwell:

If we conceive of a being whose faculties are so sharpened that he can follow every molecule in its course, such a being [..] would be able to do what is impossible to us.

Maxwell’s Demon, as it became known, would be able to defeat the Second Law of Thermodynamics and produce a reduction in entropy, a physical quantity that normally always increases.

This is exactly the Poor Devil’s task: each level of the game starts with maximum entropy, and is only completed when (with some help from the player!) entropy is minimized.

Poor Devil! can be played freely up to level 10. The full game, up to the final level 60, is then accessibile through an in-app purchase

All players can access a constantly updated Hall of Fame which lists the world’s ten best scores for each level.

In addition, every 5 levels each player is granted a selfie with the Poor Devil, that can then be shared with friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Please visit www.poor-devil.com for more information on the game, including screenshots and a video trailer (http://vimeo.com/115966586).

The developers

INFMEDIA Srl (www.infmediaweb.com) specializes in the design and development of science-related multimedia software for companies, institutions and schools.

Created as a spin-off of the Italian National Institute for Condensed Matter Physics (CNR-INFM), INFMEDIA Srl can boast a solid scientific background, deep roots in the research community and a strong push towards innovation.

INFMEDIA Srl have been granted international awards for their multimedia productions Edumat, From Silicon To The Computer (winner of the Pirelli INTERNETional Award 2000 and finalist at the Prix Moebius Multimedia 2000) and Energy And Its Transformations (Alice Generation Award in the Pirelli INTERNETional Award 2003).