Marble Machine

Marble Machine is a contraption puzzle set on a toy-workshop pegboard. A glass marble waits in a brass chute at the top of the board, and a red cup sits somewhere below. Between them are wooden blocks, shelves, brass pegs, spikes and pits. You get a small tray of parts: planks, springs, fans, conveyor belts, bumpers and portals. Hang them on the pegboard, press Run, and watch the marble roll, bounce and fly. If it lands in the cup, you have built a working machine.

How to play

• Drag a part from the tray onto any free hole in the pegboard. Green dots show where parts can go.
• Tap a placed part to turn it. Planks tilt in small steps, springs aim in eight directions, fans and belts flip direction.
• Drag a part to move it, or drag it off the board to put it back in the tray. Undo and Clear are always there.
• Press Run (or R) to drop the marble. Stop returns you to editing at any time, and the 2× button speeds the run up.

Stars, par and the trail

Every board can be won with the parts in the tray, but the best machines also collect the stars on the way. Some stars sit on the obvious route; others need a cleverer path. Par is the number of parts our own machine uses to collect every star. Matching par with all the stars earns a perfect machine, and beating par is possible on some boards. After each run the marble leaves a dotted trail, so you can see exactly where it went and what to change. The machine behaves the same way every time, on every device: there is no luck, only engineering.

The parts

• Plank: a ramp two holes long. Steeper planks send the marble faster.
• Spring: launches the marble in the direction of its arrow, high enough to clear a wall.
• Fan: blows the marble sideways or up while it passes through the wind.
• Belt: carries the marble along and throws it off the end.
• Bumper: bounces the marble away with extra speed.
• Portals: the marble enters the orange ring and comes out of the blue one, still moving.

Daily puzzle and level pack

A new machine to build arrives every day, the same board for everyone, so you can compare runs and parts with friends and keep a streak going. Share your result as a short line of stars. When the daily is done, the level pack has thirty more boards that grow from a single plank to grand machines with every part. Three short lessons at the start teach the basics in under a minute.

Tips

Start by running the empty board to see where the marble falls. Fix the first problem only, then run again. When the marble stops on a flat shelf, it needs a slope or a push; when it overshoots, try a shallower plank.