With the success of his first book, Daniel Laughton decided that a second editor was in order.
The 25-year-old local teacher penned his first book last year. When the majority of Laughton’s physics class skipped to go play the latest released video game, he spent the next couple of months working on a pet project. He wanted to write an introductory to physics book that involved some of the more incredible aspects of video games.
He put it up for free online and the demand for the book continued to increase. Laughton said that many people from across the world wanted a physical copy of the book.
“People were saying they were reading to their kids at night,” he said. “They were saying that they were doing poorly in physics but now they understood. They gained more interest or I have people who graduated from school saying ‘we now really enjoy physics and want to learn more’.”
The book, called Physics of Video Games Part Two: the Lost Levels, expands on the first edition. The 166-page book looks at the plausibility of video game characters like Nintendo’s Kirby, who is able to copy enemy moves by inhaling them, or teleporting like in the puzzle-solving game Portal.
He said he wanted to take more unrealistic situations found in video games and attempt to make them real. One suggestion he took asked how a character could fly without wings.
It was a suggestion that really got Laughton thinking.
“I take these ideas, which are just crazy and just try to figure something out,” he said. “I think it makes great analyses and gets people thinking. It has just been wonderful to try to prove these situations correct.”
The book is available for purchase on Amazon.
