Contraption Maker - unintended puzzle solutions (Easy puzzles)
7I finally got Covid, so the past few days I've taken it easy and spent my time trying to find unintended and odd solutions in the puzzle game Contraption Maker. I used to play The Incredible Machines on DOS back in the day, so this game in all its similarity has some nostalgia value...
These solutions are for the pack of Easy puzzles, and I placed them in an alphabetical order.
0:00 - "Angry Tims". Normally you'd have to shoot a Tim Angry Birds-style towards the wooden structure, but just placing a trampoline under the structure works.
This is an idea that comes up multiple times in these unintended solutions: when the game's physics engine activates, most physical things in the game world nudge at least a little bit. Even this small nudge can activate devices and cause chain reactions, creating new shortcuts in the puzzles.
0:11 - "Cat Trap". Scissors is an incredibly reactive object. The cage's own physics are enough to activate scissors to cut the cage's rope.
0:23 - "Egg Crusher". You can toggle switches with balls, etc. that nudge even a few millimeters when the physics engine activates. This first solution breaks the egg as quick as possible inside the simulation. Dropping the egg out of bounds doesn't break it; it needs to contact with a physical object, and that's why I place the bellows to the left.
0:41 - an alternative "minimalist" solution that is slower but doesn't use bellows.
1:00 - "Fly Away Blimp". You can activate scissors with the nudge of the thread bobber.
1:17 a more elaborate alternative solution that looked nice enough to include here. As a side note, the physics of the thread bobber can glitch up in a few different ways if placed in a cramped space like this.
1:26 - "Happy Birthday to Steve". You have barely enough room to blow out the candle with bellows from the right side.
1:37 - "Kitty Knievel". Hyper-responsive scissors to the rescue. You can use the physics of the cart to cut its rope.
1:51 - "Light in the Night". The nudge of the basket ball can be used to activate detonator early, creating a small shortcut.
2:18 - an alternative solution where I knock the billiard ball with the explosion instead, skipping one extra step in the puzzle's Rube Goldberg-machine. It's not really any faster or more economic otherwise, though.
2:29 - "Lights Out Laboratory". Same scissors trick as before.
2:44 - "Over the Top". The range of the magnifier glass is quite forgiving, allowing you to skip a few steps in the puzzle with proper placement.
3:05 - "Snowball Struggles". Normally you'd have to melt the falling snowball by activating a device, but you can just place a gear to prevent the snowball from ever becoming an obstacle.
3:17 - "TastyTreat 5000". Skip Rube Goldberg-machine by just pressing the final button with the bowling ball.
3:29 - "Topple the Tower". You can use the box physics to activate flashlight early from the right side.
3:39 - an alternative solution. Unfortunately, while you can topple the pile of boxes with some tactically placed flashlights alone, this is not enough to clear the level: you also need to fire the cannon.