Your first contraption
- Read the assignment. Gold outlines mark targets; shaded green areas mark destinations. In a large puzzle, choose a Stage button to inspect that mechanism.
- Place your parts. Drag from the toolbox, or select a part and click the bench. Click a placed part to select it. Drag the part to move it, or drag its circular ↻ handle to rotate it. Hold Shift to snap rotation to 15°. You can also use the rotate buttons or Angle slider, or remove the part. Parts already supplied by the puzzle stay in their starting positions while you build.
- Run and adjust. BUILD pauses physics. RUN starts everything together. RESET restores every object instantly and keeps your construction so you can change one part and try again.
A green outline means a part can be placed; a red outline means it cannot. Starting cargo has a reserved area where you cannot place parts. Snap to grid helps line things up.
Connect parts in BUILD
- Control a machine: select a switch or button → Control wire → click the machine. A wired machine waits for power. Fans, magnets, conveyors, launchers and moving platforms run automatically if no switch or button is wired to them. Trapdoors need a connection to open. In connected-machine puzzles, stages marked WIRE REQUIRED also wait for a control wire; those machines do not run automatically.
- Tie a rope: select a movable object → Tie physical rope → click another object or an anchor. You need a rope in the toolbox.
- Use a pulley: select the wheel → Rope over pulley → click the two objects to connect. You need a rope for this too.
- Connect gears: place them next to each other → select the first → Mesh gears → click the second.
Drag between parts to connect, or click each end. The line follows your pointer and available ends are highlighted. Press Escape to cancel a connection. Select a connected part and choose Disconnect to remove its connections. Wires and gear connections cost no parts; each rope costs one.
Look around and earn stars
Drag empty space to pan. Use +, −, Fit or the mouse wheel to zoom. Touch dragging works too. With the bench focused: arrows move a selected part or placement cursor, R rotates, Delete removes, Enter places a selected toolbox part, and Space runs or resets.
One star: solve the assignment. Two stars: stay within the part target. Three stars: also meet the time target. Attempts only make a small, capped difference to points. A valid shortcut counts. Sandbox has unlimited parts and no scoring.