Jeff Tunnell Productions
| The Incredible Machine | |
|---|---|
Screenshot from The Incredible Machine version 3.0
|
|
| Genres | Puzzle |
| Developers | Kevin Ryan |
| Publishers | Dynamix |
| Creators | Kevin Ryan |
| Platforms | DOS, 3DO, Windows, Macintosh, iOS |
| Platform of origin | Mac OS |
| First release |
The Incredible Machine 1993 |
| Latest release |
The Incredible Machine 2011 |
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings |
The Incredible Machine 65.00% (iOS) The Incredible Machine 3 70.00% Return of the Incredible Machine Contraptions 78.33% The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions 76.00% |
| Metacritic |
The Incredible Machine 71/100 (iOS) |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| IGN | 8.4/10 (Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions) |
| PC Gamer (US) | 90% |
| Gamezebo |
  (The Incredible Machine, iOS)
|
The Incredible Machine is a series of video games that were originally designed and coded by Kevin Ryan and produced by Jeff Tunnell, the now-defunct Jeff Tunnell Productions, and published by Dynamix; the 1993 through 1995 versions had the same development team, but the later 2000–2001 titles had different designers. All versions were published by Sierra Entertainment. The entire series and intellectual property were acquired by Jeff Tunnell-founded PushButton Labs in October 2009. Pushbutton Labs was later acquired by Playdom, itself a division of Disney Interactive, so as of now the rights are held by The Walt Disney Company.
In 2013, Jeff Tunnell announced a new game, called Contraption Maker, that would be the spiritual successor to the Incredible Machine series. Contraption Maker was produced by Spotkin Games, a company founded by Jeff Tunnell, and featured the same developers of the original Incredible Machine. It was released through Steam for Windows and OS X on July 7, 2014.
The general goal of the games is to create a series of Rube Goldberg devices: arrange a given collection of objects in a needlessly complex fashion so as to perform some simple task (e.g., "put the ball into a box" or "start a mixer & turn on a fan"). Available objects ranged from simple ropes and pulleys to electrical generators, bowling balls, and even cats and mice to humans, most of which had specific interactions with or reactions to other objects (for example, mice will run towards nearby cheese). The levels usually have some fixed objects that cannot be moved by the player, and so the only way to solve the puzzle is carefully arrange the given objects around the fixed items. There is also a "freeform" option that allows the user to "play" with all the objects with no set goal or to also build their own puzzles with goals for other players to attempt to solve.
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Wikipedia