[Edit: Formatting]

If your grew up in the 90s and you had a decent computer, chances are you had played or at least heard of a game called The Incredible Machine. It was a game that asked you to, for example, toast some breads using bombs, lasers, switches, conveyor belts, etc, in a Rube Goldberg style. The idea was novel and the game contributed to hours and hours of fun, even though I was too young to understand much of it.

Then few years later, another similar game called The Incredible Toon Machine came out, which from what I remember, added a few animals like Al the cat and Sid the mouse. It was not officially part of the series; everything looked more cartoonish, but I still spent even more hours blowing stuff up. I was older (therefore wiser), and it was still in the 90s.

Toon Machine was the last game in the series I played. Fans like me have waited many, many years for a remake of this classic game. Imagine my joy when I saw Contraption Maker on Steam, made by none other than the creators of the original TIM.

The game itself has over 100 official puzzles, not to mention the plethora of user-made puzzles on Steam Workshop. The developer continues to update the game with new stuff, and the puzzles are challenging. They may seem easy in the beginning, but as you go through them, especially in the medium and hard section, you may find yourself pulling your hair when you cannot toast those breads after 20 tries.

In short,

* if you had played The Incredible Machine and loved it, you will very easily love Contraption Maker.
* if you (god forbid) had not played or heard of TIM before, but for some reason you like toasting breads with bombs and lasers, you will very easily love Contraption Maker.
* if you had not played or heard of TIM before, and don't like Rube Goldberg machine, then I regret to tell you that you are missing out the fun and want to thank you for reading my review anyway.

As an extra motivation, you will get two copies when you buy now. Give it to your buddy and let them toast some breads!


With bombs and lasers!

Very Interesting game. You are able to feed a cat by dropping a ball to turn on the electric cat feeder and then publish it directly through youtube on your gaming channel.
I said I would never write another game "review", but the option to publish your recorded game directly to Youtube or download it and edit for Youtube is great.
There is also an extra copy to gift to a friend ( 2 copies 1 price )
I am sure I will be playing this offline on my laptop when I am away and cannot acess the internet.

There was a time, I swear to you this is true, that "video games" were "core gamer" without knowing what that meant, intelligent, puzzling, and awesome. Games are still awesome. In fact they have gotten riduclous in their awesomeness. However, what I like isn't the same thing that I would let my child(ren) play. Thus far Contraption Maker is definitly part of that Venn Diagram. Overalapping old school "spiritual succussion", intelligent puzzle, fun animations, and some "core gamer" sensibilities.

Build the perfect rube goldberg. Free the mouse, Feed the dog. Just don't do it simply....use a laser, a floating ballon, some switches, maybe a pulley and a treadmill. Sound the least bit interesting? Then you know you're in the right place.

Do you remember those really entertaining contraption games when you were younger? This game tops them all. Contraption Maker is developed by the same people who were behind the legendary The Incredible Machine series, it brings back those awesome memories from over 15 years ago where you really had to test your imagination to accomplish the goals set out for you.

I'm really glad to see a successor to The Incredible Machine and that the team behind Contraption Maker are still capable of doing what they do best. With the addition of the Steam Workshop, Contraption Maker has tons of content available to provide several hours of game play and gives you an opportunity to test your creativity and share it with others.

When you pick up this game, you get an additional copy to do with as you please, I gave mine to my youngest brother as he used to play the original as much as I did. Buy the game and spread the word!

I bought this game because I enjoyed "The Incredible Machine" when I was a kid, and since then, these kinds of games have always appealed to me, although I was never able to find one which matched it in quality. This was on sale for only a quid, so I took a chance on it. I was amazed at its quality: The music is great, the mechanics were excellent, the UI is nicely designed and the graphics are nice as well. I was shocked, I did not expect this game to be good.

I then looked up the company who made it and it all made sense. They're the same people who made "The Incredible Machine" in the first place! I was so impressed by how good this game is that I picked up another 5 copies to give to people in the future. I really, really hope they do a big DLC. They do free updates, but I'd be more than willing to pay money for a lot more puzzles. Not even new components, just new puzzles would be fine.

Steam workshop integration is a huge bonus and means that you never really run out of levels anyway - I just prefer official ones as they're more consistent in difficulty and quality. Achievement integration would be hugely appreciated as well, this game has potential to use achievements in the way they were intended: For doing crazy things which the game doesn't actually require you to do at all.

Overall, I would highly recommend this game to anyone.

The original creators of The Incredible Machine have returned to bring a childhood favorite back from the dead. SO MUCH YES.

The Incredible Machine is a physics puzzle game. It's not just just any physics puzzle game, though; it was the first! Before Scribblenauts, before World of Goo, before Garry's Mod, even before all those crazy flash games on Newgrounds, it was The Incredible Machine that let gamers discover the joy of physics sandbox chaos. Many hours of fun were had feeding tiny children to alligators and dropping huge piles of cats onto trampolines. The puzzles themselves were sublime, teaching foresight and out-of-the-box thinking in ways that were unheard of at the time. I'd go so far as to say that The Incredible Machine 3 is probably my top pick for best puzzle game of all time.

There have been clones and copycats over the years with varying levels of quality (Bad Rats, anyone?), but now you don't have to settle for imitations! This is the same game as it was 20 years ago, only with a new name and a fresh coat of HD paint it so greatly deserved. All the old machine parts are back, puzzle size and complexity is UNLIMITED, and Steam Workshop integration means that the world can see the puzzles you make (rather than just whatever friends or family you could trick into playing your custom puzzle). The music is almost as good as the old soundtracks, and just try not to shed a tear of nostalgia when you clear a puzzle and hear "whew!"

The interface still has some annoying kinks to work out, and some of the animal animations are atrociously ugly, but overall this is an amazing effort and deserves the time and attention of any puzzle gamers, especially those who enjoy programming-style games.

I'll tell you what, I'm really loving this fad of ridiculously old puzzle games being brought back by their original creators. So besides this, we now have Chip's Challenge back as Chuck's Challenge, DROD is still going strong, Shadowgate just got a modern remake... what's next? Boulder Dash? LaserTank? Dr. Brain? ...Oh my god, Dr. Brain. Somebody please bring Dr. Brain back. Get a kickstarter going or something. Now. I'm serious.

Many hours being sunk into this great game. It relaxes me. Gives my brain a different outlet for creativity and logic. Helps with lateral thinking.

I enjoy solving puzzles yes, but I must say I truly love creating engaging and fun puzzles for others to solve. Make people think about parts in a new way.

Very satisfied so far with this great game and the support of the developers and I'm pumped for the future updates to come!

Well worth the money if you enjoy puzzles or creating crazy contraptions in a physics environment.

=)

sweet back2basic 90's gaming. 30year olds will like it for the nostalgia and their kids will love it for the game it is.
make sure to check out the steam workshop, it's filled with awesome mods and modes.

Great puzzle game for killing some time.

If you're at all a fan of Rube-Goldberg machines or the original Incredible Machines, this game is a no brainer purchase. If you're not, it's still a very solid puzzle game with tons of official content, community content, and just fun tools to play around with.

My favorite childhood game is back. :')

This one gave me a real nostalgia rush. I played the original "Incredible Machine" as a kid, and boy, this was 1992 ! This awesome remake has everything the original had and a lot more. No fuzz, just really good puzzles. Some unagitated humor. And as the best part: Steam Workshop Support for an unlimited fresh supply of puzzles (although the offical ones will steal you hours of your life). Lovin' it!

Awesome. Just awesome. I love games like this, and the incredible machine needed a fantastic reboot.


THIS IS THE ONE Incredible/10 Would play for the next 20 years

I'm not even past the tutorial levels yet but this game is amazeballs. For those who have played The Incredible Machine it will be a great nostalgia trip. However, I feel this is also one for those completely new to TIM-style games, young and old. Contraption Maker is the one game that will make you unleash your creative inner-child. It's highly enjoyable! If there was a star rating system I'd definitely give this a solid 5/5.

Interested in a physics domino effect puzzle game: Do Y, to change X, to start Z, to finally perform Q type of puzzles? If so, or if you enjoy solving puzzles then check out Contraption Maker.

Being familiar with The Incredible Machine, I picked this up to reminisce and have some fun with puzzles. Besides, a two for one!? That's great.

For me the puzzles didn't get challenging until hard difficulty. Perhaps I was younger, however, I remember The Incredible Machine puzzles being much harder. Therefore, the previous difficulties seemed to just take time to put the pieces in place.

Play time included about 8-9 hours for me to finish all the official puzzles. Played some of the Editor's Choice community mods and puzzles. There certainly is much more content if you factor in the community puzzles. However, one challenge is that the game fails to keep a progress of what community puzzles you've solved--unlike the official puzzles.

With all that said, it's a great game, and I recommend it. Perhaps a 8/10. Support the developers if you'd like to see more of these types of options.

Certainly have some fond memories of The Incredible Machine, so I'm pleased to see this released!

The ultimate Rude Goldberg Device maker. If, like me, you are fascinated by overcomplicated devices, this is the game for you. It has over a hundred puzzles, where an incomplete device is presented and you have to add pieces to reach a particular goal, and once these are completed, you are free to make your own contraptions or puzzles, or get many off Steam Workshop. However, it is quite expensive, so I'd recommend waiting for a sale unless you know you'll love this game.

When I was a kid, I loved that old predecessor of this game. So I decided to pick it as soon as it is on a sale (basically because I doubted the quality of the game. The mechanics are old and trusted but still... I was affraid to see a soulless clone). Happily, this one brought me a crazy level of excitement and (even!) laughings!
The game is awesome and catchy. Once I laucnhed it to test for a while, I realised I have played like 80 minutes or something. And Contraption Maker didn't bore me at all. The missions are set in a very clever way, so each one is a bit harder then the previous, but not too much. You actually learn to play it step by step.
The puzzles are interesting and (the main thing!) really really different. I guess their puzzle designer is a nice guy with a good sense of humor. Besided, every puzzle has some kind of a plot, so you even start to sympathyse some characters (My fav is Waldo, what a gorgeous cat!).
The game is simple and exciting, it is very light and kind, reminds me the most childish looney tunes cartoons. The music is awesome, and the controls are very intuitive. The only thing I noticed is a small little difference between designs of some elements and characters, but that's not a problem at all, just noticed.
I've picked it for 0.99 on a sale and even recieved an extra copy to give some of my friends. I believe it would be an awesome present.
Hardly recommended. If you are lucky to see it on a huge sale, take it without any doubt. I am not a fan of puzzle games, but this one is awesome even for people like me.

I did play TIM series decades ago and it brought back a lot of fun memories. The puzzles here, however, seem less thought out than TIM puzzles, and many of the levels (including hard levels) were easily beaten by exploiting the set up thus making the objective trivial to accomplish. It doesn't seem the items were used to their full potential to create a complex system either (I don't recall the trampoline being used at all).

Many old TIM items are found here, there are new ones, but also some that don't exist anymore. One I do miss was the monkey on the bike where you pull the shade down revealing a banana then it would start pedaling, which is similar to one of the new items in this game, but without the ability to cancel the pedaling by impact i.e. dropping a cannonball on the monkey's head.

tl;dr
I bought this game for $1.50 and it came with 2 copies.
Puzzles were enjoyable but not very challenging.
Replayability relies on the community as far as I can tell.

7/10 (+2 Price, +2 Enjoyable, +1 Nostalgia, +1 Removed the pointless score system TIM had, +1 Ability to share puzzles with community)

The Incredible Machine meets the Modern age. For anybody whom is a fan of fun things.

An absolutely stunning reinvention of The Incredible Machine.