Marble Works

Marble Works is a marble-run toy where the computer does the hard part. You draw a blueprint, or upload a picture of a run, and the computer builds the 3D track and rolls a marble down it. If the marble flies off or runs out of speed, the computer fixes the run (steeper pieces, a drop or a motorized lift where the marble ran out of height) until the marble reaches the cup, and tells you every change it made. Then it is yours to move around.

The blueprint is a plan-and-side-view drawing with a strip of pieces you drag into order: a funnel to start, ramps, curves, drops, loops, spirals, motorized lifts that carry the marble back up, and a finish cup. Pieces have sliders for length, drop and radius. Press Go and a camera follows the marble down your track, or turn on the ride camera to see it from the marble's seat. If your device asks for reduced motion, the camera holds still and only the marble moves, and the ride camera stays off.

The same build can wear any of six kit styles without changing how it runs: Workshop Wood, Lattice Coaster, Primary Plastic, Glow Rails, Paper and Cardboard, and Spaceport. Copy the link and a friend opens your run in the same kit and can change it.

## Challenges

There are eight challenges, such as finishing with four pieces or fewer, taking at least fifteen seconds, going through a loop without passing six metres a second, or using a motorized lift with a low start. Each is judged on the same physics the computer uses, and it can show you its own build for any of them, which you can then try to beat. Stars count only for runs you start yourself.

## Pictures

"Build from a picture" sends your picture to Claude, which reads it into a blueprint; the computer then checks and repairs the run on the physics. It is limited to five pictures an hour from one place and a hundred a day for the whole site, and tells you when the limit is reached.