Rube Goldberg Game Instructions

Start with the classics. To pique your interest even more in the "Mousetrap" game, consider the game's premise: Each player has a mouse piece that he moves according to a dice roll. If you land on a "build space," add a piece of the mousetrap to the board. Once the trap is completed and you land on a "turn crank" space while a rival player is on the "trap space," you can turn the crank and capture the player. The last remaining player wins.

Continue with digital games. In 2011 Google, Inc. released a Rube Goldberg-inspired game called Nexus Contraptions (youtube.com/user/nexuscontraptions). This simple and fun game requires you to get a ball -- that's dropped from overhead -- into a funnel placed below. To do so, place objects to bounce the ball strategically past obstacles.

Enter a contest. Every year, organizers at Purdue University organize a Rube Machine contest. Each contestant must make a creative and ridiculous contraption that performs a simple task, such as "water a plant." The more complex and original, the better your chances are to win.

Play with groups. A collaborative way to play Goldberg games is to have groups draw designs in the Goldberg spirit. Pick a theme, such as "water a plant," "crack an egg" or "turn off an alarm clock," and have each group draw a complex design that incorporates common, household materials. Then build the machines. Have all the group assemble and demonstrate their machines in action. Make a party out of it.

Envision the bigger picture. Embrace the spirit of Goldberg-inspired games, contests and machines by remembering the larger meaning. Goldberg drew his designs to highlight the turn-of-the-century obsession with building machines to simplify daily life. The point was that these machines, under the guise of simplicity, may in fact complicate matters.