Problem Solving in VR

Back in 2008, a great game was released that enabled players to build contraptions to solve puzzles.  It helped players to think through a problem and then build a contraption using various parts found in the menu.  For example, a player needed to get the pink ball into the goal box by building a vehicle of some type using the tools provided in the game (see the image below).

This was a Flash-based game and was very fun to play.  In fact, you can still play it today! However, the people responsible for this awesome game had always wanted to make this available in a 3D environment but they weren’t sure how they were going to do it until they experimented with the Vive. 

According to Northway Games and Radial Games, the creators of the app,

“The new Fantastic Contraption has been designed from the ground up for room-scale VR. Imagine walking around a grassy island in the sky while you build a machine the size of a horse with your own hands. Press play and watch it trundle off to reach the goal on the other side of the island. With 40+ levels and infinite solutions, it’s a VR experience you and your friends will play for hours. ” 

Needless to say, the application got so much better now that it is available in a VR experience!

Fantastic Contraption is available for the Sony Vive, the Oculus Touch, the Microsoft VR and the PS VR systems for only $19.99.

This game would be a great addition to a physics class or any learning environment where you wanted students to practice solving problems.

What I am waiting for is a multi-player version where two or more people could work as a team to build a contraption to solve the problem.  Now that would make this game just perfect!

Thanks for Reading

Dr. Shannon H. Doak