Comparison

Contraptor vs Things In Motion

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Contraptor

Create intricate machines to solve physics-based puzzles. Design your own challenges, share them with the community, and compete on leaderboards. Learn physics principles through hands-on tutorials.

Highlights
  • Build with real 2D physics
  • Solve community challenges
  • Design and share custom puzzles
  • Climb leaderboards
  • Hands-on tutorials
  • Universal app for iPhone and iPad
Features
Read full description

Contraptor is a Rube Goldberg physics playground where you build machines to solve hand-crafted puzzles. Drop in rods, wheels, pins, motors, and welds, wire up a contraption, hit Play, and let real physics decide how it works. NEW TO BUILDING? START WITH PLAY. Thirty short levels teach the whole game one trick at a time. Your first level hands you a single oval. Thirty levels later you're wiring motors, bracing with ghost rods, and threading payloads through wormholes. Every level keeps the machine you built to beat it, so you can come back and watch it run. Beat them all and you earn a Certificate of Completion with your name on it. THEN TAKE ON THE COMMUNITY. Every challenge is a puzzle: get the payload (or many payloads) to the target(s) using whatever that challenge allows. Some let you shove pieces around, some ration your parts with Twists, some bend the rules with wormholes. Solve it and you've earned bragging rights. Then flip it around: design your own challenge, prove it's solvable if you like, and dare everyone to crack it. • Build with real 2D physics — mass, gravity, momentum, friction, bounce, damping, and motors • Arrange tools to flip, align, and evenly space your pieces • 30 hand-built levels that teach all the core tools, plus a certificate at the top • A growing library of community challenges, with search • Design your own, prove they're solvable if you want to, and post them • Share any challenge or solution with a link and a short video of it running; friends open it right in the app • Twists: cap the parts, cap the speed, or hand solvers exactly the toolbox you choose • Win rules: all at once, hold-to-capture, or a Grand Tour of every Target • Wormholes, slow-motion zones, and other rule-benders • Rate and follow other builders • Hands-on tutorials for the core tools with more coming • Universal — iPhone and iPad Seeing a solution isn't the same as building one. That skill gap is the whole game. Free. No ads. Contraptor uses your iCloud account for community features (posting, rating, following, usernames). You can play every level, follow the tutorials, and browse and play everything in the Community without iCloud — it's only needed to post or interact. iCloud is free. Designed by JohnCowMilk · Built in Xcode with Apple's Coding Intelligence and Claude · Physics by Box2D

About

Things In Motion

Features
Read full description

Can you make it move? Things In Motion is a playful mechanical puzzle game about building machines, understanding motion, and finding clever ways to make simple parts work together. Start with 30 handcrafted challenges built around gears, pulleys, ropes, springs, ramps and gates. Experiment, rebuild and discover your own solution — there's more than one way to solve each. Then leave the rules behind. Open a blank bench and build whatever you want — walking machines, marble runs, a mechanical piano you can play, or something nobody has thought of yet. Explore 42 blueprints to see complete machines in action, understand how they work, and take them apart for your own creations. • Solve 30 mechanical challenges • Build freely on an open-ended sandbox bench • Explore and learn from 42 working blueprints • Experiment with gears, cams, pulleys, springs, ropes and magnets • Create walkers, marble runs and musical machines • Share videos, with sound, and invention files with friends • Watch every part interact in real time Free to start: the first 5 challenges, a starter kit of parts and 13 fully editable blueprints. Every machine runs for everyone. The Full Workshop unlocks 15 more challenges and 12 more parts. Two packs add more: Boom & Bang (drums, strings, bombs, a confetti cannon and fireworks) and Magnets (bar magnets, electromagnets, a compass and a coil lamp). Each is one purchase, yours on every device. No ads. No subscriptions. There isn't always one right answer. Sometimes the best part is simply asking: What happens if I connect this to that? Build something. Make it move.

Screenshots

Contraptor4 screens
Things In Motion4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Contraptor at none against Things In Motion's 3. Things In Motion's advantage is device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On price, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Things In Motion sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Contraptor asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Contraptor ships an update every 5 days, Things In Motion every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Contraptor versus Things In Motion: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterContraptorThings In Motion
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.7 (3 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS18.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size41 MB26 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJohn CoumerilhMitali Pandey

In-app purchases

None

Contraptor

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Things In Motion

One-time3
  • Magnet Pack$2.99
  • Boom & Bang Pack$2.99
  • Full Workshop$4.99

Questions

Is Contraptor free?
Contraptor is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Things In Motion free?
Things In Motion is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Contraptor or Things In Motion have ads?
Neither Contraptor nor Things In Motion shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Contraptor or Things In Motion?
Contraptor ships an update every 5 days, and Things In Motion every 4 days. Most recently, Contraptor was updated on October 31, 2026 and Things In Motion on October 24, 2026.

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