Contraption Maker is a creative sandbox / puzzle game currently in development by the makers of The Incredible Machine. It hit Steam's Early Access program a few days ago, giving us the chance to sit down and tool around with the bits and bobs that make up the untamed world of digital Rube Goldberg machines.
If you've never played The Incredible Machine, you probably have an undiagnosed condition we'll refer to as Incapable of Having Fun...itosis. Or something. The basic premise of it and Contraption Maker is to place items from your inventory to solve simple puzzles using realistic physics. Ball falls here, turns on toaster, shoots toast to activate rocket, that sort of thing. Ready to make a smoothie? Fortunately, all you have to do is turn on the blender. How do you turn on the blender? Glad you asked. Contraption Maker never does things the easy way, which is why it's so fun, even in such an early stage of development.
%u200B
Puzzles involve stringing together long chains of events that eventually accomplish a simple task. The smoothie level, for example, supplies you with some platforms, several bowling balls, a mouse in a cage, and a blender at the far end. All of this stuff is fixed in place, all you can do is drag and drop a few lever platforms, a springboard, and a few other items from your inventory. Sit and experiment all you like, pressing the "play" button after each tweak to see how things work. Eventually you'll come up with a contraption that flips the blender's switch, producing a delicious green smoothie to drink.
The key words with Contraption Maker at this juncture are "alpha", "early", and "access". Well, those last two go together, but you get the message. Contraption Maker is very, very young in its development cycle, resulting in a few unannounced crashes, inconsistent UI elements, and more than a fair share of miscellaneous errors. This is all to be expected, however, as not only is this the alpha release of the game, but it's also a complex game to develop. The slightest tweak in how a pair of scissors cuts something can break entire groups of puzzles.
The availability of official levels is in flux, as certain stages are pulled from time to time so the team can make more seamless adjustments to the game. The creation lab and community puzzles are out in full force, however, so there's still plenty to play around with. Creations you so carefully craft might not work in the same way from version update to version update, so try not to get too attached to your rotating cat cannon pinball machine.
The saddest news of all is that co-op doesn't exist in the current incarnation of Contraption Maker. The team is working on it, and it will at least involve both building and solving levels with friends, but the details aren't set just yet. Naturally, we'll keep close tabs on the game and throw up a signal flare or two once you can get your buddies in on some cooperative conveyor belt basketball tossing action.
Contraption Maker is still a little shaky on its newborn legs, but you can tell it's going to be a juggernaut of a game. Already it feels like a true successor to The Incredible Machine, only more refined and easier to play. And with Steam Workshop support, you can bet the flow of user-made content will never stop.