Indie virtual reality (VR) developer Metanaut launched its puzzle title Gadgeteer back in April on Steam Early Access, supporting headsets like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Recently, the team took to Reddit for community feedback, revealing that an Oculus Quest version is also in the works.
The Reddit post pertained to improving sales of Gadgeteer and when asked about an Oculus Quest version the studio responded: “It’s coming out in just a few months!” Then in a later response regarding an Oculus Quest port, the launch window became a little more specific: “It’s coming out by the end of the year :)”
Offering a mix of physics-based puzzle challenges as well as the complete freedom to build whatever you want with the myriad building materials available, Gadgeteer is all about creating chain reaction machines. A single-player experience, Gadgeteer has a 60 puzzle campaign which also interweaves a narrative surrounding the disappearance of a brilliant but mad scientist and her daughter. Set inside an apartment the campaign is a great way to understand the basics of Gadgeteer’s gameplay before taking on the heady task of creating your own elaborate Rube Goldberg machine.
When it comes to building your own, three tool heads help to create, edit and destroy creations. The sandbox mode has over 50 objects in the inventory to play with, allowing for near-infinite combination possibilities.
Since that initial release, Metanaut has added plenty of improvements to Gadgeteer such as player profiles so multiple people can use the same PC, MixCast support and support for more languages: French, Danish, Japanese, German, Chinese (Simplified/Traditional), Korean, Spanish and Russian.
VRFocus really enjoyed the title, saying in the preview that: “This isn’t a videogame for those who don’t have the patience and time. It’s for those that do. And if that sounds like you then Gadgeteer is well worth a look. Plus, Gadgeteer could be on track to be one of the best VR puzzle titles in 2019.”
Available through Steam Early Access for £11.39, if you’re only interested in fully released VR experiences then Metanaut does expect to leave Early Access sometime in Q1 2020. As further details regarding the Oculus Quest version are released, VRFocus will keep you updated.
In all the time I’ve spent mucking around in Oculus Home and Rec Room—both physics-based sandbox environments that promise to let me do as I please in VR—I always felt like there was a significant time gap involved with creating anything of mechanical or creative depth. Now that Rube Goldberg machine sim Gadgeteer is available, I find myself enthralled both by its extreme simplicity and the perpetual bounty of possibilities laden within its endless supply of stackable knick-knacks and useful doodads.
Developer: Metanaut Available On: Steam, Oculus (Rift) Reviewed On: Rift Early Access Release Date: April 23rd, 2019
Note: This game is in Early Access which means the developers have deemed it incomplete and likely to see changes over time. This review is an assessment of the game only at its current Early Access state and will not receive a numerical score.
Gameplay
Gadgeteer is split between two primary modes: ‘Sandbox’ mode and ‘Puzzle’ (campaign) mode. It also comes with a short tutorial that runs you through the four tools that you’ll use to grab, clone, delete, and freeze objects with your dominant hand.
Physics are central to everything that happens in this game, which makes important the question: ‘are the physics good?’ To frame my answer to this question, after playing for 14 hours—nine of them in ‘Puzzle’ mode and five of them in ‘Sandbox’ mode—I’d like to point out that I’ve constructed an actual Rube Goldberg-style reaction machine exactly once in my life. That machine, which I designed for an 8th grade science project, consisted of a basketball, a ruler, a few dominoes, and a book. Long story short, it wasn’t all that impressive. But if I’d owned Gadgeteer at the time, I’d have felt perfectly comfortable blueprinting a much more elaborate contraption inside of the game and then proceeding to reproduce it at a perfect 1-1 scale in the real world. That is to say: yes, the physics are good. But not without a minor fault (explained in the ‘Immersion’ section below).
The ‘Sandbox’ mode is a true sandbox in every respect. As soon as you enter it, you’re granted unlimited access to all 50+ parts—an infinite treasure trove brimming with various shapes and sizes of dominos, marbles, balls, levers, hinges, and marble tracks. You also get the run of the entire multi-room apartment environment, which is normally cordoned off in the campaign mode until each room is unlocked.
If I were feeling uninspired in Sandbox mode, I could load up one of various prebuilt contraptions for reference, such as a pinball machine or a domino T-Rex. I found it nifty to dissect and play with a developer’s completed work, an exercise which gave me ideas for my own devices. That said, I can see other players spending innumerable hours coming up with increasingly complex systems—but I also found solitude in hanging out, poking the game’s physics systems, and playing my own impromptu version of Jenga with my infinite supply of dominoes.
Photo captured by Road to VR
The ‘Puzzle’ campaign mode, on the other hand, offers a set of 60 puzzles that take you from one end of the apartment to the other as you slowly power on the ‘machine’ in the center of the room. Each puzzle only grants you a limited selection of parts to play with, and you complete one by either landing a domino or rolling a marble (or marbles) into the goal chamber at the end, which fills up a green power line leading to the beginning of the next puzzle.
The mysterious machine powers up as you complete the game’s puzzles. | Photo captured by Road to VR
Beating a puzzle also rewards you with a burst of confetti and a celebratory jingle; a little dopamine release that keeps the momentum going as you progress from one scenario to the next. In the later levels, victory brings an especially welcome sense of relief after you’ve spent upwards of 30–40 minutes improvising something that feels like it could totally fall apart and fail at any time. This is to say that, in fact, the physics in Gadgeteer are not deterministic. It’s supremely satisfying to come up with an idea for a machine, iterate on it until each segment is perfect, and then watch as the chain reaction go off exactly the way you want it to. There’s always a chance that something won’t work completely right; a domino might fall in the wrong direction or a marble won’t land hard enough, making part of the challenge of building the ‘best’ machine a matter of tightening your design for the best probable outcome.
But each puzzle is, ultimately, just a very well-designed gimmick that’s intended to teach you how to manipulate a certain set of tools within Gadgeteer’s physics sandbox.
Whose apartment you’re busy making a mess of, as well as the purpose and origin of the mysterious machine in the middle of the room, are not explained in any way until the very end of the campaign. As a matter of fact, the only story in the game is during the big reveal at the end. Thinking back to how some developers like to sprinkle story throughout their worlds in clever nooks and crannies, I haphazardly triple-checked the entire apartment area for environmental story cues scattered throughout. Either I’m terribly inept at finding story bytes, or environmental storytelling simply doesn’t exist here; a missed opportunity for the time spent mulling around and trying to stick dominoes behind random household objects. If you are curious what the story is, you can find it much faster by skimming the game’s official description which talks about “the mystery behind the disappearance of a brilliant mad scientist and her daughter.”
Immersion
Image courtesy Metanaut
While storytelling can no doubt enhance immersion, the lack thereof doesn’t siphon enjoyment from the core experience of stacking blocks and building widgets in Gadgeteer. Aside from a glitch that occurs when colliders get caught on one another (which happens semi-frequently when you push things like metal marble tracks too closely together at odd angles), the physics of Gadgeteer in its early access state are almost exemplary. Though that issue would be less evident if there were a ‘snap’ function that allowed me to quickly align objects before sticking them together. Otherwise, I’m particularly impressed by how many objects I can have interacting with one another synchronously without my computer (an i7 6700K, GTX 1070, and 16GB of RAM smacked into a desktop box) showing much or any visible stress. Note that this is while playing with the game’s second highest graphical preset.
During my five hours in ‘Sandbox’ mode, I tried and mostly failed to break the physics system by throwing lots and lots of dominos at one another. I completely lost count of how many were in my virtual room at peak time, but it was certainly more than anybody in a real room would know what to do with. My framerate did end up eventually taking a hit, though that was expected. What I feel is impressive and worth pointing out, is that (while the framerate was severely dropping) the pile of virtual objects still appeared to behave and react like real objects when I pushed another domino through them to open a path.
Photo captured by Road to VR
Moving away from the physics for a moment, I’d like to compliment developer Metanaut for how polished and clean everything looks—regardless of the graphical preset, the environment is small and there are only a few different types of objects being rendered at any given time. Thus, Gadgeteer is able to make each item look like its real-world equivalent without demanding too many system resources. During my playthrough, this resulted in a much deeper experience that sold me on the machines I was building, as if they were ‘real’ contraptions that I’d put together in my own bedroom.
The soundtrack didn’t do much for me. It’s just a handful of guitar riffs that alternate based on whether you’re building a machine or whether you’re sequencing a chain reaction. I opted turned the in-game music off and played music from my own playlist (in my case, an entire Spotify playlist full of Japanese hip hop), which immediately made the experience more enjoyable.
Comfort
Image courtesy Metanaut
Unless you’re using an Oculus Rift (or Rift S, presumably), there aren’t any options to switch to something other than the ‘grab and pull’ style of artificial locomotion that Gadgeteer natively uses. For non-Oculus users, you can’t use thumbsticks for smooth or snap-turning either. Instead, you need to twist your wrist (or wrists, if two-handed turns are enabled) while you’re grabbing the world. This may bother those who play in smaller rooms and rely more on artificial locomotion to get a better angle of their workspace. It is worth noting, however, that Metanaut has recently added options to turn off the forced-on comfort blinders and the one-handed snap-turns that both made locomotion feel downright choppy when Gadgeteer first launched in early access.
It’s also worth noting that Gadgeteer will never present you with an urgent need to move from place to place. Most of the time, you’ll use artificial locomotion to center yourself in your play area so you can naturally walk and peer around your contraption while you work. Because I could just grab the world to move my position however I wanted, I never found myself craning my head too hard or making myself uncomfortable. I did, at certain points, find myself subconsciously sitting or kneeling down to tweak a machine section to perfection. At that point, the locomotion system had become so second nature to me that I didn’t realize I’d spun the world around and brought everything down to eye level until I consciously made a note of it.
Conclusion
In its early access state, Gadgeteer is both a fantastic Rube Goldberg-style reaction machine builder and, at its most gripping moments, a true example of VR Presence—where the act of building and testing a machine becomes so engaging that you forget you’re playing with code instead of physical toy dominos. The collider occlusion bug within the physics system should still be addressed, and continued improvements toward the locomotion system would be nice. But, content-wise, Gadgeteer is already a complete package out of the box. At $15, I consider it a steal.
Note: This game is in Early Access which means the developers have deemed it incomplete and likely to see changes over time. This review is an assessment of the game only at its current Early Access state and will not receive a numerical score.
As a kid, there was always great fun to be had building weird and wonderful creations with Lego, or designing elaborate courses with Domino Rally. However, there were annoying things in the way to stop that imagination going wild, you know, real-world effects like gravity for example (or a parent’s unwillingness to have the entire living room covered in carefully balanced plastic pieces). Nowadays there are no such issues, thanks to an awesome technology called virtual reality (VR) and titles like Metanaut’s Gadgeteer.
Gadgeteer is a physics-based puzzle experience which allows you to build chain reaction machines (commonly known as Rube Goldberg machines), where you have the choice of completing a series of single-player challenges or simply going wild in a sandbox mode.
Featuring a very clean cut contemporary design in both the UI and the apartment environment where the entire videogame is based, Gadgeteer is equally toy and learning tool combined. Three tools are all you need to work some creative magic, one for grabbing and moving items, one for copying them and one for deleting them. While it’s tempting to head straight for the sandbox mode and play, with over 50 objects to use the training and story modes are well worth a gander.
There is a vague story about a mad scientist and her daughter who have both disappeared, however, it’s rather inconsequential when you really start to get involved in the gameplay. The main campaign helps to introduce all the pieces in a leisurely fashion, with a rather substantial 60 levels to complete. Each has its own particular tiles, ramps, corners, funnels and other objects to help build the necessary courses. The structured nature of the mode is great if you’re stuck for ideas when it comes to the sandbox mode, weaving its way around the apartment.
These puzzles are on the small size, placed around books or across shelves. Gadgeteer’s centrepiece is the sandbox mode and this is where you need to be careful; many an hour can be lost in here (in a good way). With a fully realised apartment – living room, bedroom, kitchen, the works – there’s complete freedom to envision all manner of contraptions using the assortment of objects. Unlike the campaign, there are no limitations to how many times one piece can be used.
Careful planning is a must. The controls are fluid and easy to grasp, objects can be rested on furniture or frozen mid-air depending on what can be made. Plus there are undo and play buttons when things go wrong or it’s time to get the machine started. Because the contraptions involve marbles, everything needs to be lined up just so. There’s no snap feature allowing certain items to lock together for a nice smooth run, which can mean if a section is just slightly out the entire machine might not work. That’s not a moan or a negative, just a statement that attention to the little details helps.
If there was a negative it would simply be towards the videogame’s physics. In that, something may work great the first time and then suddenly not the next (this is Early Access after all).
There are certain VR experiences that allow you to get really lost in the moment. Where a quick half-hour gameplay session could turn into hours, and Gadgeteer undoubtedly has that ability. This isn’t a videogame for those who don’t have the patience and time. It’s for those that do. And if that sounds like you then Gadgeteer is well worth a look. Plus, Gadgeteer could be on track to be one of the best VR puzzle titles in 2019.
Metanaut, the developer behind early VR experience MSI Electric City (2016), is releasing its first bonafide game today in Early Access, the very Rube Goldberg-inspired gadget game Gadgeteer.
Gadgeteer is a physics-based VR puzzle game that tasks players with building massive (and silly) machines to solve complex puzzles with a wide variety of parts.
You’ll set up chain reactions using dominoes of different sizes, build tracks to guide marbles, and launch them with catapults to bridge the gaps around the very unassuming apartment space.
In story mode, which includes 60 physics puzzles, you build away in hopes of uncovering the mystery behind the disappearance of a brilliant mad scientist and her daughter. There’s also set to be a sandbox mode that will let you build your wild machines unrestricted using the game’s three toolheads, letting you create, edit, and destroy pieces easily. Of course, there’s also a handy ‘undo’ button too.
The game is said to officially support HTC Vive at its Early Access launch today, however the developers are eyeing more platforms including Rift, Index, and Quest in the future. Technically, the game can work with many PC VR headsets thanks to OpenVR’s broad support, however the developers say the controls were specifically designed for Vive controllers for now.
Metanaut says on the game’s Steam page they intend to release the full game in roughly eight months, or right around holiday season.
Entwicklerstudio Metanaut veröffentlicht heute seinen VR-Puzzler Gadgeteer für HTC Vive auf Steam. Der VR-Titel setzt auf eine eigene Physikengine, um durch den Bau von komplexen Maschinen Kettenreaktionen zur Lösung von Rätseln zu erzeugen.
Gadgeteer – VR-Puzzler für HTC Vive ab heute auf Steam erhältlich
Mit dem Indie-Titel Gadgeteer kommen Freunde von absurden Maschinen, kniffeligen Kettenreaktionen und Denkaufgaben ab heute auf ihre Kosten. Innerhalb des VR-Spiels dürfen virtuelle Maschinenbauer ihre eigenen Rube-Goldberg-Maschinen zusammensetzen, um in zahlreichen unnötig komplizierten Einzelschritten verschiedene Aufgaben und Rätsel zu lösen. Mit verschiedenen Gadgets können die kreativen Hilfsgeräte auf diverse Art in der jeweiligen Strecke eingesetzt werden, sodass durch Stoß-, Dreh- und Wendebewegungen diverse Mechanismen ausgelöst werden.
Dafür stehen verschiedene Spielmodi zur Auswahl. Innerhalb eines Story-Modus werden insgesamt 60 verschiedene Rätsel angeboten, deren Lösung das Verschwinden rund um einen brillanten, aber wahnsinnigen Wissenschaftlers sowie seiner Tochter aufklärt. Innerhalb des obligatorischen Sandbox-Modus dürfen sich die Spieler dagegen kreativ austoben und ihre eigenen Strecken, Maschinen und Hindernisse aufbauen. Mit über 50 verschiedenen Gadgets, drei Werkzeugtools und der Möglichkeit in jeder Situation Anpassungen vorzunehmen, steht den verrückten Bauwerken nichts mehr im Wege. Die erzeugten Level sind daraufhin mit anderen teilbar. Eine eigene Physikengine sorgt für einen realistischen Ablauf sowie ein entsprechend optimiertes Gameplay.
Der VR-Titel wurde laut den verantwortlichen Devs aus einer simplen Idee heraus geboren: die Spieler mögen es einfach mit der Physik innerhalb der VR zu experimentieren. So heißt es innerhalb der Pressemitteilung:
“Die Leute nehmen gerne Dinge auf, werfen sie weg, stellen sie ab, um zu sehen, wie die die Dinge in der Welt reagieren. Und wir alle in unserem Team sind damit aufgewachsen, einfache Objekte in unserem Haus zu verwenden, um rudimentäre Rube-Goldberg-Maschinen zu bauen. Also kamen wir auf die Idee, dass Gadgeteer das perfekte Spiel für die VR ist und sich somit als perfekte erste, kostenpflichtige Veröffentlichung unseres Studios eignet. Es ist das Spiel, das wir uns selbst immer in VR gewünscht haben.”
Das VR-Projekt war ursprünglich unter dem Namen Ruberg bekannt und wurde im Jahr 2016 mit dem ersten Preis bei der VR-Communityveranstaltung VanVR in Vancouver ausgezeichnet.
You know those incredible videos full of dominoes and balls and levers and rails that all combine together perfectly to create a symphony of motion and reaction? They’re called Rube Goldberg machines and Gadgeteer lets you build them in VR with unmatched interactivity.
The closest thing I’ve seen to a game like Gadgeteer in VR so far would have to be either Fantastic Contraption or Bounce, but neither of those really let you build things to this kind of scale. The level of intricacy is just incredible here.
According to an email from Peter Kao, Co-Founder and CEO of developer Metanaut:
“Gadgeteer is a physics-based VR puzzle game where you build chain reaction machines to solve fun, intricate puzzles. Your machines will use gadgets to launch, bump, twist, and turn—creating chain reactions that may even end up tearing apart the fabric of space-time. It is a game that’s designed for players who are: Tinkerers, Builders, New-comers to VR who want: Replayability, Depth, and Well-thought-out design.”
Fortunately Gadgeteer also includes a wide variety of game modes so it’s not just a puzzle-focused sandbox for tinkering. There’s gonna be a story mode with 60 different physics puzzles to solve that follows a plot about a mad scientist and her daughter, as well as a sandbox mode to create the machine of your dreams with reportedly zero restrictions. With over 50 unique gadgets there is a lot to do and see in this one.
Gadgeteer hits SteamVR with support for HTC Vive on April 23rd and within a few weeks from then will support Oculus Rift, as well as both Index and Oculus Quest in the future. You can find out more about Gadgeteer on the game’s official Steam page.
If you’re a fan of building things in virtual reality (VR) there are a number of apps and videogames that fit the bill. Fantastic Contraption, for example, encourages you to solve puzzles by using a basic set of building materials. Then last year Crazy Machines VRcame along offering Rube Goldberg machines to build. But if you’re after even greater control and freedom then Metanaut’s Gadgeteer will be arriving next week for HTC Vive.
Originally called Ruberg back in 2016 before being rebranded as Gadgeteer, the title has been built specifically to give you total freedom to build all sorts of weird and wonderful chain reaction machines. Gadgeteer will be exclusive to HTC Vive when it arrives on Tuesday, 23rd April on Steam Early Access.
It’ll feature two game modes: sandbox and puzzle, where you can let your imagination run riot, or complete the campaign which includes 60 puzzles to solve with a story revolving around the disappearance of a brilliant mad scientist. Both modes feature over 50 unique gadgets to build those crazy contraptions, and three tool heads to create, edit and destroy creations. Plus any mistakes made can easily be undone.
Metanaut plan on keeping Gadgeteer in early access for just a year, with that time being used to further improve the experience by taking in user feedback. The studio does intend to add more gadgets, tool heads, and special events while the machine is running, plus the option to share and play other users creations.
The studio did run a beta release a couple of months ago where you could access a basic version of the title, and enter a competition to win codes. That has now closed, with the demo download no longer available on Steam.
There are only a few days to go until the release of Gadgeteer. For any further updates of announcements keep reading VRFocus.
Physics-based puzzler Gadgeteer has launched a free beta demo on Steam alongside a contest to see who can build the coolest chain reaction. As a VR puzzler, Gadgeteer stands out for allowing you to build your own Rube Goldberg-style reaction machines, positing direct physical interaction and creativity at the center of its approach to solving problems, toying around in its sandbox mode, and moving through its campaign.
While it has existed in a pre-alpha or alpha state for some time, managing to land on PC Gamer’s top anticipated VR games of 2019 list, it has only now emerged back into the limelight as it hurtles towards an (estimated) April release window.
In fact, you can play the free beta right now by downloading it on Steam, and enter to win the beta contest. Developer Metanaut is currently hosting a giveaway contest; the top three “chain reaction builders” will win a copy of the full version of Gadgeteer as well as a Klutz LEGO Chain Reactions Kit. Note that the contest entry window ends on March 26.
Image courtesy Metanaut
Metanaut has stated in an official press release that the launch build of Gadgeteer will come with the following features:
Build with freedom. No restrictions on where and how you build your incredible machines.
Create, edit, destroy with 3 powerful toolheads.
Chain together 50+ unique gadgets to build your crazy machines.
Painlessly undo your mistakes.
Two ways to play: Puzzle / Story and Sandbox.
Solve 60 puzzles using your creativity and wit.
Never step on a LEGO brick again!
While its story mode seems contained within narrative limits, the inclusion of a sandbox mode that promises shareable builds could give this title a much longer shelf life for players who burn through its initial 60 puzzles.
Games allowing for custom made levels can sometimes take on a life of their own, fueled by community creativity and sharing. This can be seen both outside of VR (with games like LittleBigPlanet) and even inside VR (with games like Rec Room). Gadgeteer’s sandbox mode has potential to hook a community of passionate players building custom maps for one another.
Expect more information on final details regarding Gadgeteer’s official release over the next several months.
Ever love building domino sets or watching that Honda commercial where one contraption would activate by hitting another? Well if you do then Metanaut has the virtual reality (VR) videogame for you, Gadgeteer. Originally called Ruberg back in 2016, the title was rebranded last year and today you can get your first hands-on test with a free beta demo.
Gadgeteer is a physics-based puzzle experience that challenges you to build all sorts of weird and wonderful chain reaction machines. Featuring two game modes: sandbox and puzzle, the latter includes 60 puzzles to solve with a story revolving around the disappearance of a brilliant mad scientist. While both modes feature over 50 unique gadgets to build those crazy machines, and three toolheads to create, edit and destroy creations.
”Some of our fans have been following the development of our game since our first Reddit post over two years ago”, claims Peter Kao, Co-Founder and CEO at Metanaut in a statement. “After hearing their opinions about our game, we’ve expanded our team and have made huge improvements”.
The Gadgeteer Beta Demo which is available now will give you a taste of what’s to come, with just the sandbox mode available in a small area. The full version will take place in an apartment-sized environment filled with interesting surfaces, furniture, and everyday objects to build on.
And to mark the launch of the demo, Metanaut has launched a competition. Between now and 26th March 2019, the studio will be giving away prizes to the top 3 chain reaction builders. All you need to do is build something and share it. Each winner will receive a Steam key of Gadgeteer as well as a Klutz – Lego Chain Reaction Kit. For further details on how to enter follow this link.
Winners will be announced on 16th April 2019. Gadgeteer is due to launch in April via Steam solely for HTC Vive. For further updates from the team, keep reading VRFocus.
