Crazy Machines: Inventors Workshop is a creative puzzle game inspired by the Incredible Machine series by Sierra, which was extremely popular in the 1990s. The title is the result of cooperation between two German studios: FAKT Software and Pepper Games. The game was initially released only in Germany and neighbouring countries (including Poland), and its “export” version called Crazy Machines: The Wacky Contraptions Game appeared in the world almost a year and a half later.

The mechanics of the game is based on the concept of the so-called “Rube Goldberg machine” – an American inventor and draughtsman who used various bizarre machines in his cartoons. In the game we play the role of an inventor, whose task is to create a machine from predefined elements, able to perform the task set before us. It can be e.g. placing an object in a given place of the board, supplying power to a device or lighting a fire to boil water or bake a sausage.

In total, we have more than a hundred different riddles to solve, with increasing difficulty and complexity. In each of them we receive a specific set of items, which we can use to create our own, unique construction. These will include wooden beams, pipes and tools, a wide range of balls, gears of different sizes, various light and fire sources, as well as steam boilers and power generators. Each of these objects is, of course, characterized by different physical properties, which can be used in different ways in the final construction. More than one path can lead to a solution to a given problem and a lot depends on the player’s invention.

In terms of binding Crazy Machines stands at an average level, which, however, in this type of productions is rather a secondary issue. The authors focused on the most realistic rendering of the properties of individual objects, using a specially created physical engine for this purpose. An additional attraction is placing in the game an easy to use editor, thanks to which we can design our own, imaginative machines.

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