Behind the Build of Rube Goldberg Workshop: Talking MR with Free Range Games

Today, Free Range Games launched Rube Goldberg Workshop to the Meta Quest Store after finding wide-spread popularity on App Lab under the app name Gizmo Builder. Made for mixed reality, Rube Goldberg Workshop taps into players’ imagination and inspires them to think bigger as they find themselves building fantastical machines using any combination of over 80 virtual components. We caught up with Producer Stephen Scholz to learn about the development process behind Rube Goldberg Workshop and how core Presence Platform capabilities were used to deliver an optimized mixed reality experience. Plus, don’t miss tips for growing an audience on App Lab.

Stephen Scholz: Rube Goldberg Workshop is our first game to come out of a research project—it was developed around specific Meta Quest Presence Platform SDKs. We had a specific goal to not just utilize the new tools like Scene Capture and Hand Tracking, but really develop around those capabilities. Our initial brainstorming was helpful and we tabled a lot of ideas simply because they did not “need” to use those tools.

SS: I think the novelty was something we gravitated towards, and the possibility of being among the first in that area was definitely a motivation. At the time, VR games had been around for a while, but mixed reality was uncharted territory. We have a number of VR properties in both gaming and enterprise, and the possibility of adding mixed reality to our repertoire was compelling.

SS: From our first design documents, we intended this to be a Rube Goldberg Machine® simulator. There really is no other term for these machines, although we called the machines other names before we were working with the Rube Goldberg Institute. Before this, we weren’t sure they would be interested in a mixed reality product—luckily, they were!

“Gizmo Builder” was pretty generic, and many people didn’t know what to expect from the experience based on the title. But naming the game “Rube Goldberg Workshop” really sets expectations about what you’ll get when you play the game. It also gives proper recognition to the man who inspired us all.

SS: The game was developed with Hand Tracking in mind and takes advantage of recent updates—and it honestly provides a better experience than using the controllers. Human beings build with their hands, and the building, nudging, and tweaking experience of our game really uses it. Hand tracking also informs how we present the various virtual objects players can use.

SS: With Scene Capture, players are able to use their own rooms and furniture in the game. It may not seem like much, but the simple act of rolling a ball across your desk, or behind your couch, is super fun. Incorporating real, physical space means that players have a natural way to interact with things in the same way they would naturally would without a headset: putting objects on tables and desks, hanging shelves on their actual walls, placing virtual objects on floors, and countless more.

Additionally, the nature of our game requires a very precise location of objects in order for them to interact consistently each time a player launches the game. Using Spatial Anchors ensures continuity for players by enabling us to anchor objects in the same place between gaming sessions.

SS: We don’t throttle players, and there’s no game limit on the number of objects that can be created. That means it’s potentially possible to create thousands of objects. When that happens, there are unavoidable performance issues.

We decided to err on the side of player autonomy and we don’t prevent players from building very large machines, but we do deliver a pop-up warning when the FPS dips as a result of there being too many objects.

SS: The marketing team prepared posts across our Reddit, Discord, and other social media channels to get the word out. This involved making short gameplay clips and researching a variety of non-obvious outlets, including the Rube Goldberg subreddit. We made sure to prepare at least a few weeks worth of social content to help support the launch.

We also worked closely with Sidequest, as they were offering advertising credits in their Discord server and helped support a key giveaway for Gizmo Builder. That platform is a key discovery channel for a game in App Lab.

Lastly, time was spent rebranding the game and working with the Rube Goldberg Institute itself. We had to follow some guidelines for our key artwork, our description, and our in-game objects. Rube Goldberg’s cartoons and creations have a distinct style, and it injected a great sense of fun and energy into the game. To our fellow indie developers, using an existing IP for your game really does a quick job of explaining what your game is and eliminates a lot of the challenge of establishing your new brand with gamers.

SS: We have a small but dedicated team in Quality Assurance (QA), and an informal group of playtesters in the form of our production, marketing staff as well as people across our company, including those not on VR projects. We encouraged everyone to push the game to the limits, to build the most elaborate machines they could think of. We were often surprised by the creativity of our QA staff. I think they were pretty excited to get a chance to really stretch themselves creatively since that’s what a lot of QA involves.

SS: Meta’s mixed reality capture support was a big deal for us. It required a lot of ingenuity and patience, as we were linking the headsets to PCs and then recording the gameplay at high resolution from the monitors. So a lot of the builds you see in the trailer or on social media were made with us tethered to a nearby PC or a powerful laptop. Advertising VR is already an interesting challenge as you have to message an experience in a 2D trailer and static artwork. But mixed reality is especially unique, so the best thing we could do is show gameplay using Passthrough. I think it’s especially cool-looking with our color footage recorded on Meta Quest Pro.

SS: You never really know where an app is going to be used. Is it a small corner of a living room, a galley kitchen, or someone’s spacious garage? Allowing for movement is always a good idea, demanding it is not.

Never assume that players have completed the various Meta Quest tutorials, particularly for mixed reality or Hand Tracking. If you can create engaging tutorials for your game, your audience will appreciate it.

Lastly, nothing breaks immersion more than a player’s senses giving them different inputs than what’s being presented in-headset. If a player’s eyes tell them there’s a door but in fact there's a wall, or they expect there to be a table and there is none, it breaks immersion and you can lose them. Providing an easy means to get people back to the room setup is a smart idea.

Rube Goldberg Workshop is available to download from the Meta Quest Store!