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The Joystiq Free Game Club: Fantastic Contraption

by Justin McElroy on Aug 11th 2008 9:00PM

Your first reaction to Fantastic Contraption is going to be one of complete befuddlement. Not only will you not understand the game, you won't be able to comprehend why we selected it for the FGC. But trust us: Hang in there. Because once the game's intricate mechanics reveal themselves to you, we predict you're going to have a really hard time stopping.

The idea is, at its core, simple. You're trying to build a contraption that can get a pink ball to a pink square. You don't even have that many tools to work with, just a few different types of wheels and rods. The challenge (and the joy) is figuring out how those components all work together in-game.

If we have a problem with FC, it's that the tutorial could be a bit better. But at the same time, we can understand why playing with the physics is probably a lot easier than trying to get someone to understand them. Give it a spin and let us know what you think.

[Thanks, BitPicnic]

Source

Tags: free-game-club, joystiqfeatures, PC

Reader Comments (28)

I played this a little over a month ago, it was awesome but it got so aggravating in the later levels...

And that's what made it fun.

I found this game a few weeks ago and I absolutely love it. I honestly had to give up on a few of the levels because they were so difficult.

This game is reminiscent of Armadillo Run, by the way. AR is more complicated, though, and has a lot more tools to utilize.

http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=366671

I love these type of games. It's like Crayon Physics and Armadillo Run.

Has no one here realy never heard of the Incredible Machine?

A lot of gamers aren't old enough to remember that spectacular game. Speaking of which, i should find myself a copy.

Well, the creators of the game have "heard of it" since they give props to it in the credits.

Yeah, TIM was a great series of games. Can you even find them anymore? I'm getting all nostalgic.

Looks very much like that old Sierra series of puzzle games called The Incredible Machine...even the title seems to be an homage to it, and, based on the screenshot alone, the mechanics seem similar. Looks like fun...

I'll vouch for the amazing awesomeness of this game.

...ruled my life for a week.

The best thing about it is that you can save your solutions as links. The forums have some absolutely insane ones. Here's my proudest moment, a solution to the final "unpossible" level (which, obviously, is a giant spoiler ):

http://fantasticcontraption.com/?designId=367286

This is the first time I've ever played this and...I'm an addict already.

this game lost me a couple of days of my life. Here's the result:

tried to build most of these using the least amount or simplest ways possible, except level 20
(just copy/paste the ID# to view for the rest... joystiq only lets you post 3 urls) *WARNING, SPOILERS*

http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=64428
http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=64435
http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=64380
64477
67970
68020
68101
68493
68680
105428
129225
49985

lvl 19+20
76709
66121

19+20 the first time i tried. You can see the progress in grasp of game physics and mechanics.
59503
60405

Bonus level!
39350
(just use the blue one)

and my solution:
69150

They seem so simple now, you should have seen the sorry excuses I came up with.

Wow- if you really devised these in "a couple of days" then you are amazing. "Two Wood" (64380) is particularly well done, as are your later level solutions.

I totally admire the minimalist approach (which actually takes the most work)- though sometimes maximalist solutions can be impressive or even funny.

I've been wanting to try this out for a few days now, but the page won't load neither safari nor firefox. Any suggestions?

i'm only eighteen, but the incredible machine was one of the most played games during my high school years. (after unreal tournament 2004 which someone loaded on the servers and for some insane reason it never got detected by our administrater guy)
any,way this is my first time playing this game and i am totally stuck on the big ball level. any ideas?

Look above you.

If you like Physics based games, try out Phun. Available for Mac and PC, its a crazy awesome 2D physics sandbox.

Fantastic game... I'd recommend going as far as you possibly can in the game before looking at others' solutions. Then, have some fun on the forums. I would definitely recommend looking at the thread titled "Overly Complex Solutions" .. they are just too damn funny! http://fantasticcontraption.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=37

http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=341112
http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=361966

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, THE PINK BALL WACKER 9000 and THE POWER WEDGE-O-MATIC! Enjoy.

Ball Wacker 9000 - http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=373700

Power Wedge-O-Matic - http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=372371