App Army Assemble: Componut – How many quirky contraptions can you make in this 2D physics-based puzzler? | Articles

Componut is a 2D physics-based puzzler where players have to create a variety of contraptions to transport a donut back to its box. Whether the sweet treat has escaped or misses its home, I’m not entirely sure. Either way, we decided to hand the game over to our App Army to see what inventions they could create.

Here’s what they said:

Michael Purdy

Componut is a construction game where you build a structure in order to get a donut to the box. You can build whatever you want in the blueprints with the materials you have. The graphics are very appealing and it has a fun tone. I appreciated that when selecting a tool to use, it gave you a zoomed-in window to view what you are doing with greater precision. Though the controls take some getting used to. As a bonus, I let my son who loves to build things try it out, and he had a blast with the game!

Paul Manchester

I am a sucker for sandbox construction puzzlers and this game was a nice twist on the construction genre. The levels built up in difficulty nicely and were open to multiple solutions (some of mine looked completely bonkers but still somehow worked!). Its bright and clean graphics kept things simple and avoided any on-screen confusion when placing or connecting pieces, even when things get a little bit messy.

However, the controls are some of the strangest I have ever used, seemingly complex and unintuitive. Just to carry out simple actions felt like I was rubbing my belly whilst patting my head. This certainly took away from my enjoyment, although as there are no time limits or pressure during the building phase, at least I could rectify any mistakes (although even deleting pieces is a lesson in frustration). Sort out the controls and this could become a nice little game, not groundbreaking or revolutionary, but still a pleasant distraction for construction fans.

Oksana Ryan

I would have enjoyed this game had it not been for the controls. Being right-handed I found myself crossing over hands to draw out the structures and press the construction button at the same time. This made playing really annoying. That said, the puzzles were interesting and although there are other games that are similar, I found it held its own in the genre. The graphics were colourful, fun and it had good background sounds which didn’t have me heading for the mute button. If the controls problem hadn’t blighted my enjoyment I think this would have been a winner.

Torbjörn Kämblad

Physics puzzlers getting object A to point B have been a long-running genre on mobile devices. It is generally a perfect fit combining problem solving with light-hearted graphics and casual difficulty. Componut checks most boxes of the genre for sure. You must construct contraptions and devices to move a donut into a donut-box. The bonus objective for each level is to grab a coffee by getting the donut to touch it.

The presentation is cutesy, colourful and with some casual easy to ignore tune in the background. The building mechanics take some getting used to, and one-handed gaming is impossible. You select the tool/object to build. Touch the blueprint area, and the build-tool to build. To me, this was rather cumbersome, and quick trial and error is hard. If you just want to tweak the design you generally have to delete sections in the blueprint area.

The cumbersome controls detract somewhat from my enjoyment and make the generally compulsive genre less so. I tend to play a level, and upon completion, I just quit out of the game to come back for one more level later. A more streamlined control mechanic could have made this a more casual addictive experience. Still a game I would recommend with that caveat. There are games that better represent the genre in the App Store such as the Bridge Constructor series.

Mark Abukoff

I’ve played one or two other games like this, and I’ll admit that I found this one more interesting than most. I liked the use of different materials for different effects and the little bit of engineering that occasionally went into it. As the game progressed it got a little more complicated and the sometimes problematic controls, as well as the small blueprint space that you have to work in, overshadowed the initial interest for me. It’s not a bad game if you like this kind of thing. Probably better than most in my opinion. Is it worth the price? For fifty levels of creativity (at ten cents apiece on iOS) and the ability to save and share replays and assuming you like games like these, I’ll say yes.

Robert Maines

Componut is a puzzle game where you must arrange various elements like steel rods and wheels to guide a donut into a box. This is complicated by the fact that you can only place these elements in a small part of the screen called the blueprint. The problem is that placing elements is fiddly, requiring two fingers which is awkward enough on an iPad but frustrating on the small screen of a phone. Plus the amount of elements you need to complete a level rapidly increases and the game becomes a slog of trial and error. The graphics and sound are ok but the game is just not fun.

Mike Lisagor

Componut is a puzzle game where you build contraptions to get the donut back in the box. We have seen other games with similar concepts. Quite honestly, Componut does a very poor job with the concept. I have walked away from this game and returned several times to give it another chance but I just get no pleasure out of this painstaking process. The instructions are minimal and the touchscreen controls are tedious. There is no fun here and there are better alternatives in the App Store. I’m giving up on Componut as my patience has run out.

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