Meet the Domino | In Gadgeteer In Product | By By Peter Kao

Intro

Welcome to the first article in our blog series, Meet the Gadgets. In this series, we cover tips, tricks, and techniques to help you build an elaborate chain reaction machine in our VR game, Gadgeteer.



In Gadgeteer, you use what’s called gadgets to build your machines. These gadgets connect to each other to carry a chain reaction from one place to another. The first and most popular gadget we’re going to cover is the domino gadget.

The domino gadget is the basic building block of your machine. As our level designer, Quinn MacDonald, puts it:



“The domino is like the walking & running of the game”

Dominoes have a wide range of uses. They’re good for quickly traversing long distances, getting over small discrepancies in height, and adding aesthetic flair to your machines. And since Gadgeteer is a game based on physics simulation, what you can do in real life with a set of dominoes, you can do in our game!



Here are some domino techniques that pro domino builders use in their machines:



The Split



If a domino line is the walking & running of the game, then the split is the jumping. The split allows you to branch out your chain reaction of falling dominoes so that you can create synchronous and asynchronous reactions in your machine.

Here’s a how-to for the split:

Sonimod

Most of us place dominoes on their ends, but you can place them on their sides as well! Doing so creates a faster domino chain. This domino technique is called the sonimod, which is ‘dominos’ spelled backwards.

Here’s how to build one:

To see what pro domino builders can do with a sonimod chain, check out Hevesh5’s video below:

Domino Wall

The domino wall is a simple structure that is so satisfying to see topple over. It comes in many variants but the one we’re going to cover is the column technique.

Building a domino wall can be trickier than the previous techniques we’ve covered; it requires more precision and patience but the payoff is worth it!

Here’s a step-by-step building process for a domino wall:

Speed Pyramid

The skinnier cousin to the domino wall is the speed tower. It’s an easier structure to build than the domino wall, and what it sacrifices in stability it makes up for in speed.

Here’s how you build a speed tower:

Crossover

Now we’re getting to the fancier domino tricks! This technique is called the crossover. It allows for a chain reaction to cross through itself.

Here’s how you build a crossover:



Fallback

Another fancy domino trick is the fallback. It allows for a chain reaction to loop around vertically—falling back onto itself in the process.

Building steps for a fallback:

90 Degree Turn

Sometimes in life, you want to make a sharp turn instead of a smooth turn. This aptly named domino technique allows for just that. Here’s the 90 Degree Turn in action:

Here’s how you build a 90 Degree Turn:

Spiral

Last but not least, here’s a domino spiral for added mesmerizing effect!

Build instructions for a domino spiral:

That’s it for now

Hopefully, you’re now more familiar with the domino gadget!



People often mistake Gadgeteer as a “domino building game” but it is so much more than that. In our next blog post in the Meet the Gadgets series, we’ll be introducing a gadget that pairs well with the domino: the spinner gadget.



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Have a great week!

PS: Please add Gadgeteer to your Steam Wishlist! https://store.steampowered.com/app/746560/Gadgeteer/