Online building toy

A system comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a processing system, coupled to the memory, the processing system causing:
• a user interface presenter to provide a user interface for creating a game, the user interface facilitating user selection of parts for the game;
• an editing engine to place a set of parts selected by a user in a three-dimensional (3D) world;
• a joint engine to automatically detect, without user interaction, adjacent parts within the set based on proximity of surfaces of the parts in the 3D world while parts are being moved during editing operations of the user and, upon detecting the adjacent parts, to automatically determine, without user interaction, joint types for the adjacent parts and to automatically create, without user interaction, one or more joints of the determined joint types between the adjacent parts, wherein at least some of the adjacent parts are primitive geometric shapes selected by the user for joining with other parts in the set, the primitive geometric shapes including at least one of a block, a wedge, a cylinder and a sphere, and to form one or more models for the game from the set of parts that comprises parts automatically joined, without user interaction, using the one or more joints;
• and
• a physics engine to physically simulate motion of joined parts having one or more joints in the game and motion of the one or more models in the game.

A computer readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed on a processing system, cause said processing system to perform a method comprising:

• providing, by a computer system, a user interface for creating a game, the user interface facilitating user selection of parts for the game;
• placing, by the computer system, a set of parts selected by a user in a three-dimensional (3D) world;
• automatically detecting, without user interaction, by the computer system, adjacent parts within the set based on proximity of surfaces of the parts in the 3D world while parts are being moved during editing operations of the user;
• upon detecting the adjacent parts, automatically determining, without user interaction, joint types for the adjacent parts;
• automatically creating, without user interaction, by the computer system, one or more joints of the determined joint types between the adjacent parts, wherein at least some of the adjacent parts are primitive geometric shapes selected by the user for joining with other parts in the set, the primitive geometric shapes including at least one of a block, a wedge, a cylinder and a sphere;
• forming one or more models for the game from the set of parts that comprises parts automatically joined, without user interaction, using the one or more joints;
• and
• physically simulating, by a rigid body physics engine, motion of joined parts having one or more joints in the game and motion of the one or more models in the game.