Hi Folks, I'm Jon of ProperBostin, introducing "TraptionBakery" (for iOS).
TraptionBakery is basically a huge contraption, in the spirit of Heath Robinson or Rube Goldberg. The contraption is a bakery and the ultimate aim is to bake a loaf of bread (a nice one if you can).
TraptionBakery is three things in one: a puzzle, and a baking simulator, and an intriguing bit of art in its own right.
The Puzzle Aspect:-
Find-out how to operate the contraption, follow the cables, follow the pipes listen to the sounds, try the levers, see what happens, and ponder. It is pretty hard, but at the same time it's not meant to be solved in one go, its the sort of thing you can have a go at for 20 minutes here and 10 minutes there and have a ponder, sleep-on-it maybe. There’s a hints page for players that get stuck: http://www.properbostin.com/traption_bakery/hints.html but some people don't need the hints page to get the contraption going, people with a engineering-y type minds for example, everyone is different. There are a number of bits of equipment that you can figure-out how to use individually, some easy, some hard, so you can figure things-out bit by bit then figure-out how to use it all together.
You are free to pan about to any part of the scene and zoom-in to see a lot of detail... framing the piece of machinery you are operating to get the best view of the moving parts and associated things is part of the skill, and some are easier in portrait and some easier in landscape. It is a help to have the sound on, and even more help to use headphones so that you can better tell where the sounds are coming from.
I have not made any trailers/movies of the game yet because it’s nice that you get to see the machinery work for the first time when you solve the various puzzles. I will probably leave it at least a month before doing a movie so as to give early adopters a chance to discover things for themselves, also it gives people a chance to post a video on youtube of them solving it, or even baking a good loaf, and have the pleasure of being the first to show the world... maybe you'll be the first.
The Baking Simulator Aspect:-
Once you’ve worked-out how to operate the machinery it’s time to mill some flour, mix some dough, and bake a loaf. Just completing the steps is not enough, you have to have the proportion of water and flour correct and you have to remember to add the yeast and salt and leave it to prove and you have to bake at the appropriate temperature and for the correct time (depending on loaf size)... well, if you're aiming for the perfect loaf anyway, you can instead have fun baking horrible burt offerings if you're so inclined :-) When all is done you get an appraisal of your efforts in the form of a letter from the manager of the orphanage next door -- the loaf you have been baking is for the children: you wouldn’t want them to go hungry, would you?
The Art Aspect:-
It's not up to me to say if it's art but that is what I was aiming for: an interesting and intriguing picture in its own right.... but then you find that it's a picture that you can bring to life of course. The theme of the art is British post imperial existence (since about 1950) so if you want a break from mechanical puzzle solving just have a pan about the picture and try and solve some of the pictorial puzzles and find references -- there are little themes hidden in the scene, for example: what is the theme of the fallen weathervane on the factory roof? And can you work-out what the two pictograms are. You cannot quite appreciate the artwork from any screenshot because in the game you can really zoom-in loads.
The app is for iPad (or iPhone and iPod touch). To get it go its web page:
http://www.properbostin.com/traption_bakery
or search for “traptionbakery” on the Apple App Store.
If you enjoy the game please leave a review on the App Store -- that would be a really big help because although it has had a few 5 star reviews it still shows-up as zero rated on Google searches because there aren't enough reviews yet.
Questions or comments welcome.
Features:-
- A fully working mechanical contraption.
- Vector graphics used so that you can zoom-in to get more detail.
- Interesting artwork.
- Alien Space Minkey temporal technology to speed-up bread proving and baking.
- Upcyclepunk: the contraption is made-up of repurposed objects.
- Puzzle and simulator.
- Produced from 500 individual drawings and 300 sound effects.
- Official Hints and Tips page
traption_screen_shot.jpg
traption_bakery_ss3.jpg
traption_bakery_ss4.jpg
traption_bakery_ss5.jpg
TraptionBakery is basically a huge contraption, in the spirit of Heath Robinson or Rube Goldberg. The contraption is a bakery and the ultimate aim is to bake a loaf of bread (a nice one if you can).
TraptionBakery is three things in one: a puzzle, and a baking simulator, and an intriguing bit of art in its own right.
The Puzzle Aspect:-
Find-out how to operate the contraption, follow the cables, follow the pipes listen to the sounds, try the levers, see what happens, and ponder. It is pretty hard, but at the same time it's not meant to be solved in one go, its the sort of thing you can have a go at for 20 minutes here and 10 minutes there and have a ponder, sleep-on-it maybe. There’s a hints page for players that get stuck: http://www.properbostin.com/traption_bakery/hints.html but some people don't need the hints page to get the contraption going, people with a engineering-y type minds for example, everyone is different. There are a number of bits of equipment that you can figure-out how to use individually, some easy, some hard, so you can figure things-out bit by bit then figure-out how to use it all together.
You are free to pan about to any part of the scene and zoom-in to see a lot of detail... framing the piece of machinery you are operating to get the best view of the moving parts and associated things is part of the skill, and some are easier in portrait and some easier in landscape. It is a help to have the sound on, and even more help to use headphones so that you can better tell where the sounds are coming from.
I have not made any trailers/movies of the game yet because it’s nice that you get to see the machinery work for the first time when you solve the various puzzles. I will probably leave it at least a month before doing a movie so as to give early adopters a chance to discover things for themselves, also it gives people a chance to post a video on youtube of them solving it, or even baking a good loaf, and have the pleasure of being the first to show the world... maybe you'll be the first.
The Baking Simulator Aspect:-
Once you’ve worked-out how to operate the machinery it’s time to mill some flour, mix some dough, and bake a loaf. Just completing the steps is not enough, you have to have the proportion of water and flour correct and you have to remember to add the yeast and salt and leave it to prove and you have to bake at the appropriate temperature and for the correct time (depending on loaf size)... well, if you're aiming for the perfect loaf anyway, you can instead have fun baking horrible burt offerings if you're so inclined :-) When all is done you get an appraisal of your efforts in the form of a letter from the manager of the orphanage next door -- the loaf you have been baking is for the children: you wouldn’t want them to go hungry, would you?
The Art Aspect:-
It's not up to me to say if it's art but that is what I was aiming for: an interesting and intriguing picture in its own right.... but then you find that it's a picture that you can bring to life of course. The theme of the art is British post imperial existence (since about 1950) so if you want a break from mechanical puzzle solving just have a pan about the picture and try and solve some of the pictorial puzzles and find references -- there are little themes hidden in the scene, for example: what is the theme of the fallen weathervane on the factory roof? And can you work-out what the two pictograms are. You cannot quite appreciate the artwork from any screenshot because in the game you can really zoom-in loads.
The app is for iPad (or iPhone and iPod touch). To get it go its web page:
http://www.properbostin.com/traption_bakery
or search for “traptionbakery” on the Apple App Store.
If you enjoy the game please leave a review on the App Store -- that would be a really big help because although it has had a few 5 star reviews it still shows-up as zero rated on Google searches because there aren't enough reviews yet.
Questions or comments welcome.
Features:-
- A fully working mechanical contraption.
- Vector graphics used so that you can zoom-in to get more detail.
- Interesting artwork.
- Alien Space Minkey temporal technology to speed-up bread proving and baking.
- Upcyclepunk: the contraption is made-up of repurposed objects.
- Puzzle and simulator.
- Produced from 500 individual drawings and 300 sound effects.
- Official Hints and Tips page
traption_screen_shot.jpg
traption_bakery_ss3.jpg
traption_bakery_ss4.jpg
traption_bakery_ss5.jpg