I’ve always been fond of engineering which ultimately led me to become a physics teacher. I contribute that partially to the games I played as a child. One of my favorite games was The Incredible Machine by Sierra. This puzzle game in which you had to build contraptions to reach a certain goal took up a large part of my childhood. Inventioneers by game studio Filimundus is basically a present-day successor of that game, now available on Nintendo Switch.
Chain-reactions
In Inventioneers the player gets presented a certain problem. These problems range from getting a baby in its cradle to adding a sausage to a stew. Underneath each scenario are certain objects like funnels, conveyor belts, helium filled balloons… that can be used to create a chain-reaction to solve the problem. For instance, an apple could be dropped on a character with a hairdryer, the character starts the hairdryer which sets a ball in motion to roll towards a basketball ring. While concocting your contraption the scenario is in pause mode. When you press play you get to see if your idea works or if it needs resetting to improve it.
Trial and error
The game is very much endorsing the whole trial and error idea. Just try stuff out and find out the purpose of each object yourself. In my professional life as a teacher, I often see kids struggle with this. They tend to be afraid of failure while failure often offers more insights in the matter than success. I absolutely love the way the game tries to implement that idea in the players mind. It encourages the players to be creative and to try using the objects in ways they might not be intended for.
Different themes
Inventioneers offers 8 themed chapters with each 15 problems to solve. Each chapter focuses more on a certain physics concept. As an example, the tropics chapter focuses more on the use of fire while the night chapter focuses more on the use of lasers and mirrors. Each chapter gradually presents harder puzzles to solve to keep it challenging. Solving a problem lets you progress to the next, but you might stay to perfect your contraption a bit. Each scenario has 3 stars to collect. You collect these when a moving part of your contraption touches the star.
Create your own
When collecting enough stars, the game awards you with presents. These presents are certain objects you unlock in the “create” mode of the game. In this mode you can make your own levels to challenge others. This mode can obviously be used just to have fun while making an epic chain reaction. On the other hand, this could potentially be a really powerful tool for parents and teachers to challenge their kids/students.
Work together on a problem
Inventioneers can be played in multiple ways. It can be played in all the different modes the Nintendo switch offers. The touchscreen is also supported which worked best for my 7-year-old daughter. Using the joysticks to place object worked out to be a bit finicky out of the box. The settings let you adjust the sensitivity a bit which helped a lot. As an added bonus, the game can also be played with up to four users. As a result, you can all work together on the same problem which I found a very nice addition.
Looks inviting
The game has that typical angry birds / cut the rope art style to it, which looks inviting enough for its intended target audience. The playful background music goes well with the style of gameplay. The only thing I noticed were some objects disappearing and not returning to the tray beneath the level. Pretty annoying when you had to restart your invention after such a bug occurred. On the other hand, this is probably easily fixable with an update.
Conclusion
Inventioneers is yet another well-ported game for the Nintendo Switch. The original functionality of a tablet transfers well to the Switch. The addition of the multiplayer mode is a great feature if a parent/teacher/other friend wants to help out. This educational title will let your kids have fun in the first place and will teach valuable skills for later.
