Everyone loves creating; and solving puzzles; and robots. Robots are cool. Indie developer Bad Yolk takes all of that and assembles it for something new with Main Assembly, a robot-building puzzle game coming very soon to Steam Early Access.
Thinking Outside the Bots
“But isn’t a game where you build robots something that’s been done before?” That was my first thought too, but I quickly changed my mind after Bad Yolk showed me their game at Gamescom 2019.
Unlike many other robot-building games, such as Robocraft (which I have put many hours into), you don’t use voxels and blocks in Main Assembly. Instead, you can stretch and move the edges of your creations as if they were made of silly putty. You can also add more pieces and stretch them as well, or add servos, wheels, and engines and connect them to even more pieces.
The team showed me how you could build a car by attaching a plate to a servo and morphing it into a circular shape. Of course, you don’t have to create anything aerodynamic or even symmetrical. Main Assembly gives you all the tools to make something unique and imaginative.
Challenge Assembled
But why should you build these mechanical creations? Apart from the joy of creating something new, Main Assembly has a series of puzzles and challenges for you to complete. Through these challenges, it teaches you the different mechanics of the game.
The earlier levels teach about the physics of the game – driving a car, balancing it, lifting objects and using counter-weight. Main Assembly even has aerodynamics, so you can build a jet (or if you’re up to the challenge – a helicopter). It also simulates damage using mesh physics, making parts warp and break more realistically when you inevitably crash into something.
The challenges will not only let you hone your mechanical skills but also allow you to try your hand at programming. Not to worry, you’re not going to be writing hundreds of lines of code. Main Assembly works with a graphic representation of your program and teaches you by reverse engineering.
Even if you find these puzzles a walk in the park, Main Assembly has you covered – there’s another way to explore the game. Using community blueprints, you will be able to upload your creations and solutions online and share them with other aspiring bot builders. You will be able to download hand-shaped robots (which we’ve already seen someone build) or show off your Godzilla mock-up.
With a great combination of simulation and challenge, Main Assembly has a good chance of appealing to both makers and gamers when it arrives on Steam Early Access on PC later this year.
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