Skip to content
Elliot Mousseau
All projects
Game Backend

Super Contraption Series

A 2D and 3D physics sandbox with 3M+ players.

Role: Owner and sole developer (InventaPlay) Period: 2014 to present
supercontraption.com

Summary

A 2D and 3D physics sandbox game series with 3M+ players globally and a server-backed user-generated content sharing system. Three releases since 2014.

Problem

Most physics sandbox games on mobile are toy-grade. The original Super Contraption (2014) shipped a real physics engine with creation tools, social sharing, and cross-region distribution on a one-person budget.

Architecture

Original Super Contraption: custom Java engine with Ruby on Rails backend on AWS for content sharing. Super Contraption 3D (2016) and Super Contraption Maker (2019): Unity + C#, with the same Rails + S3 backend evolved across versions. All 3D models, animations, and material textures created in Blender and GIMP.

Outcomes

  • 3M+ players worldwide
  • Three game versions across the franchise (2014, 2016, 2019)
  • Active on Google Play and iOS App Store
  • User-generated YouTube content from players in multiple countries
  • Continuous backend operation since 2014

Hardest bits

  • Original 2D physics engine in pure Java
  • Cross-region user-generated content sharing on a one-person budget
  • Backend continuity across three game versions and 11+ years of operation
  • Every visual asset (models, animations, textures, UI) created solo in Blender and GIMP

Stack

Java Unity C# Ruby on Rails AWS S3 RDS Blender GIMP