Buy Inside The Gear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yPqFy3_Ceg

This game does not go easy on you at the start, from the word go you are thrown in at the deep end.
The puzzles are difficult but fun its just a shame there are only 25 puzzles in total, but then again for the price it's still good value.
The main downside to this game is the control system, It is keyboard only and the controls cannot be redefined. It could have been much improved by adding mouse controls.

Overall a pretty good puzzle game for the price, just a shame about the controls.

Great little physics game. Albeit the controls are something to get used to.

Disclaimer: This review was written with a copy of the game provided to me by the developer, Mykhail Konokh.

I love physics games. I was a huge fan of them on iOS, playing games like Amazing Alex and Stair Dismount. Inside the Gear adds another layer to the genre, with a slight amount of story and some great mechanics.

Inside the Gear is very hard. An hour into the game, and I was only up to the third level, out of the twenty-five available. Trial and error are your best bets for success, and trying to roll the small wheel onto the platform was a challenge that was sometimes completed by a mere fluke. Once that level is finished though, you are presented with something even more complex, testing you to your limits even further. Although these are very complex at times, I never felt like I was achieving anything, and it sometimes began to become a drag playing through basically the same space, just with different objects.

The shapes used as transport for the "wheel" are basic, from passive and hostile planes, to cubes and triangular prisms. Everything is presented in a 3D platforming perspective, and portrays itself in a whimsical mechanism known as "the Gear", an old contraption of noise and steam. Sparks would often fly up from the ground, spraying into the space. The Gear's colour palette are mostly oranges and reds, with a few yellows and pinks dabbled with here and there. They keep the game feeling warm and inviting, but at the same time, all the levels' backgrounds looked similar in aesthetics, so I never felt like I was progressing to a new area, despite the game's increasingly difficult level design.

Inside the Gear's menu is also something that could use a bit of sprucing up. There are no graphics options, so playing with a slower PC is difficult when you can't change the settings. There was an informative help option, but there was nothing to help you in the inevitable position where you were stuck on a certain stage.

The wonderful sound in Inside the Gear is definitely mentionable. The background movements of gears and cogs turning and whirring parts gave it a general feeling that you are actually inside a "living" thing, and your interaction with it manipulates it in some way. My only problem was that in the menu, the same sounds were repeated and got slightly irritating when navigating through it.

Inside the Gear is a game that lives up to its title, delivering some very challenging puzzles that will test your ability. It is worth noting its soundtrack, which is simple but well-fitting, and the great animation used to set the scene for what is otherwise a game that will keep you interested for a short time, but after can become a grind to play through.

For a few bucks you get a little physics game called 'Inside The Gear'.

Although the game looks pretty OK for an indie game, it's the controlls that make this game frustrating to play; There is no mouse or controller support. You have to switch between objects using tab, rotate objects using Q+E and move objects with WASD.

Ofcourse games like this have been done before and have been done better aswell so only play this game if you're really into these kind of games.

Cheap,sweet,addictive.

I'm not sure what I expected from this game... The objestive is very simple, move the round object to the platform with the other objects. Sounds simpe right, well not all the time. There is close to no intructions so you will have to figure it out, and zero options. It would be nice to at least have the options for sound and a choice between windowed/fullscreen.

The gameplay is just ok, background is boring and the sounds are mute worthy.

Overall I would like to see more

Pros:
- the graphics are decent
- challenging puzzles
- simple gameplay
- cheap
Cons:
- sounds are very annoying (no options)
- phyiscs are unnatural (wheel rolling downhill shouldn't lose speed) and glitchy (if your gear falls over, it will hop around and make a terrible noise)
- feels like a school project someone threw together in Unity

3/10 - Even on sale at $4.94 (CAD), I feel like I got ripped off. I've played better Flash-based physics puzzle games.

Inside the Gear is pretty interesting physics puzzle game with a deceivingly simple objective - activate the pressure plate on the platform by using the round object. Making the object touch the platform is not as easy as it sounds and will require your creativity and patience.
There are no options whatsoever, but I don't really feel that I'm missing something - there is no music, just the ambient sound and the occasional rolling sound of your gear, so I don't need the adjustable sound sliders, the keys are listed in the help screen and are not remapable, but work just fine and I didn't feel the need to change them. Now don't get me wrong, having those options would definitely be good, but the game gets away nicely without them.
Now, as good as the keyboard controls are, I would love to see some mouse support implemented in the game, as that will clearly make the control of the objects more intuitive.
Once you complete a puzzle, you move onto the next one, out of a total of 25. Most of them will require you to fine tune your available object's position and angle, and I would just love the option to save my original and unorthodox solution, so I can easily show it to a friend, without wasting a couple minutes, trying to emulate it.
With the ambient sounds and the slowly moving gears in the background, surrounded by mist or in some kind of liquid, I could agree, that the game is atmospheric and I don't think, that the lack of music is that noticeable.
Overall, I think the game delivers quite enjoyable experience for all puzzle fans, but might be quite strange / irritating for players new to the genre or lacking the patience to complete the puzzles, because it's one thing to understand what you're supposed to do, and another, to actually carefully position the objects and succeed. The price tag, the steam trading cards and the fact that I love puzzles, make this an easy recommendation!

TL:DR you can check my overview video, as I complete the first 9 levels of the game:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=346369054

Inside the gear is a unique physics puzzle game, you are inside a big rusted old machine. You have to get a little wheel onto a platform, to do this you will use various intractable objects such as cubes,planks and planks that defy gravity. Sounds easy? NO. I am not ashamed to say I didn't do the level 1 on my first try but once I got a feel for how the game works it wasn't to hard.

The game includes 25 levels all with different puzzles that will make you think, you might have to make a seesaw and launch the wheel over to the platform or maybe drop the cube to push the wheel. If you studied mechanics then that should give you a leg up on the competition but don't worry its not required. If getting something wrong annoys you and then just give up then you probably won't get very far with this game.

The game doesn't have music it has mechanical sounds to really get you to feel like you are inside a machine(everyone's dream come true, I'm sure). The game is 3D but you can only interact in 2D fortunately but you can sometimes have spinning cubes and wheels rotating and landing on their sides.

As for the looks of the game the machine is old so things are a bit rusted in there so if you don't like the colour orange your out of luck, there are some other colours though so don't worry. The game looks like an old machine as it should with big moving gears and floating platforms.

Obviously this game isn't for everyone, if you do not like puzzles then you probably won't like a physics puzzle game. The game can annoy you but also make you think and completing a hard level can make you give yourself a pat on the back or if you are really stuck I am sure some people will do walkthroughs/guides.

The game has no tutorial so you are just thrown straight into the puzzles there is no holding your hand here, to find the controls just look under help which the game tells you to do.

to summarize I believe the game is well made as I haven't encountered any bugs or glitches, depending on your skill level the game could take you several hours or if you have know what you are doing it could take you just 1.

The game is fun if you enjoy puzzles and obviously not fun if you do not, for the price it is easily worth it to pick up. I give this 8/10 clearly a well made puzzle game with a high enough difficulty to keep people thinking.
original post
https://gamingmalarkeyreviews.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=37&action=edit&message=6&postpost=v2

Interesting idea but the controls are just too awkward.

Puzzles may be smart and there may be physics involved ... but

(-) Absolutely no learning curve
(-) Awkward controls
(-) The menus are horrifying
(-) Its ugly. Seriously.
(-) That font!

I've played better game dev school projects than this. With proper difficulty curve, menus, art ...
I bought this through IndieGameStand (they do daily indie game deals ) for 1,5$ ... and I kind of regret it.
At 5€ this is an absolute NO.

How this got into Steam baffles me.

why would you make a puzzle game about moving objects without mouse support? controls are terrible

I bought the game because the screenshots looked interesting and it was only one dollar at that sale. I wouldn't buy it again, even for that price, and I've hid it in my library. It's incomprehensible to me how this game even made it on Steam, as it is clearly a half-finished product. It feels like a first-year project at a game development school.

(+) The graphics are simple, but atmospheric and relatively consistent. I can't think of any other positive aspect.

(.) The sound is ok, but nothing to remember.

(-) The levels don't have much of a learning curve.
(-) The controls are unintuitive and not changeable.
(-) There is only little visual feedback. No real HUD, no real markers of which object you are controlling and which are controllable except for a small movement when you cycle through them.
(-) Even the simplistic menu is lacking the most basic things. The selected menu entry is only slightly larger than the rest. This should be covered in UI Design 101.
(-) No options at all.

There is a demo, so if you are still interested, try that out first.

Looks and plays like an Amiga public domain tech demo,