Infinifactory
Fiendish factory arrangement in this challenging 3D puzzle game
£18.99 Developer Zachtronics, zachtronics.com
Requires OS X 10.9 or higher, 2.0GHz processor
You’ve been abducted by aliens for whom you now must build conveyor belts that will automate the assembly of whatever your overlords need. Infinifactory’s narrative is light, revealed mostly in audio ‘failure logs’ found on the corpses of other abductees. It’s really an excuse for the real draw: puzzles.
Each puzzle is a self-contained space with one or more inputs that produce a steady supply of a certain kind of block, and one or more desired outputs built from evermore complex combinations of these blocks. At first, this requires little more than a chain of conveyor belts, but soon you’ll be constructing complex machines that push, rotate, and lift components into place.
Puzzles are 3D and can require a lot of moving and rotating things to make them fit. Often you’ll find yourself floating above the space staring at it for ages as you try to mentally plot a solution, but the more difficult puzzles require trial and error. You’ll need to remember smaller solutions as your machines will become sprawling, cobbled together from these patterns.
An infinite allowance of blocks removes the ability found in similar games to be guided to the ‘correct’ solution. Here, many solutions are possible, and your only performance metric is charts after puzzles, which compare you with friends. Solving those puzzles is extremely satisfying, though. Jordan Erica Webber
Multiple solutions to puzzles
The puzzles’ level of freedom has you floundering at first but leaves you feeling like a genius on completion.
Compare yourself to friends
A light, funny narrative
Some puzzles require legwork