If, like me, you spent countless childhood hours pining for expensive motorized Lego, Capsela, and Erector sets, the aptly named Fantastic Contraption will be right up your alley. You begin each short, two-dimensional level of this impressive physics-based puzzle game with an unlimited amount of five basic components: three wheels and two connectors, each with different properties, that you may assemble any way you choose. Your goal is to build a small machine that will drag, push, drive, or otherwise propel a single object into an end zone.

The first few levels don't require much creativity, and some basic physics know-how will get you through them in no time. It won't be long, though, before you're forced to think way outside the box. You'll be building what look like tiny robot vehicles, with specialized parts that allow them to climb steps, catapult over gaps, and negotiate piles of rubble. The inevitable "Eureka!" moments are immensely satisfying, and you may find it hard to resist the urge to refine successful machines into more efficient and aesthetically pleasing contraptions.

Sign up for an account, and you can save and share your machines online for free. You could easily while away an hour just browsing other users' mind-boggling creations. If you're willing to drop $10 for the full version you can also build, share, and play user-created levels.

Fantastic Contraption is a great example of how rewarding in-game construction can be, especially in a community setting. It's the same principle employed by upcoming titles like Little Big Planet and Spore, just on a much smaller, much simpler scale.

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Ongaku is a rhythm-based game for people who lack rhythm but love music and painting. You can go the regular route of timing your actions just right, or you can press the corresponding arrow key long before that crucial point of no return. Your little musical note avatar will then "scoop" the keys into itself. Now that you're not too worried about mashing buttons, you can take in the game's brilliant art stylings. The background starts out as a blank canvas. Literally! As you progress through the stage an image will slowly come to life - from a black and white Seussian sketch to a tie-dyed extravaganza of colors.

For those of you that are slaves to habit, Ongaku rewards your excellent timing with points to open up more levels and cash to spend in the game's shop. Save up enough music dollars and you'll be able to upload an image of your own to play through. For the award-minded gamer, there are achievement stars to unlock as well as a valued spot on the game's leaderboards.

Unfortunately there are a few minor timing issues, and long strings of arrows may bog down your computer (causing you to miss or forcing you to scoop). But the musical tracks are blissfully short and there's a lot of joy in watching the paint blobs fly. Sure it's yet another in a long line of music-meets-reflexes games, but Ongaku reminds you to consider the poor, neglected backdrop that faithfully supports the scrolling foreground we so often tread.

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Shift 3 features a maze of monochromatic puzzle-laden and trap-filled rooms that would be inescapable were it not for the player's ability to shift, or flip, between positive and negative space. Shifting turns empty space into solid matter, and vice versa. It also reverses gravity. And it really messes with your head.

All of the Shift games employ jumping puzzles, key hunts, and other platforming standbys, but it's the shift ability that really sets them apart. Shift 3 shows quite a bit more polish than Shift 1 and Shift 2, but they're all worth checking out. Shift 3 improves upon the series' previous releases by adding an autosave feature, some new puzzle mechanics, and collectible and bonus items. It also comes with its own level editor. My only gripe is that its simple story isn't nearly as cool as the underlying gameplay, which (as the fan-created bonus levels demonstrate) is clever enough to stand on its own.

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Polish graphic artist and flash auteur Mateusz Skutnik populates artfully photographed landscapes with little bearded hideaways in Ten Gnomes. Each game begins with a panoramic black-and-white photo, but no visible gnomes. To find them, you'll need to click and scroll through a series of detailed images. You have ten minutes to locate all ten gnomes.

Skutnik intends to release one Ten Gnomes episode per month this year. So far his evocative hide-and-seek locations include a shipyard, a public park, a garden, and more. Gnome-hunting draws you deeper into each landscape. In an episode that begins with a city skyline, for example, you'll find your way to a single rooftop, then a solitary window, and then inside a room to explore a windowsill. By the time you've found each gnome you'll have developed an intimate knowledge of the larger setting. It's really quite brilliant.

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Floribular makes me wonder if people will ever stop coming up with new grid-based, match-3 casual games. Is there any limit to the number of potential variations on the theme that spawned Bejeweled?

Floribular plays out across a 6x6 grid occupied by charmingly pixellated flowers. Place a new flower in a column occupied by at least two identical flowers, and the new flower and those like it in the same row and column disappear. Fail, and four new randomly placed flowers appear on the grid. Once the grid is full the game's over. The goal is simply to keep on playing.

That little description doesn't really convey what Floribular's all about, though. It's a bit like sudoku, but with flowers instead of numbers. Like any good casual game, its simplicity belies its depth.

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Depending on where you work, the gruesome sights and sounds of The Last Stand 2 may be completely inappropriate. It's a dark, bloody game in which thousands of disgusting zombies slowly overwhelm a small band of survivors. The control scheme screen is the only one that's not too unpleasant to show here, despite its liberal use of Scary "Diary of a Madman" Font. Never have the letters WASD looked so horrifying.

The Last Stand 2 takes the simpler zombie shooting action of The Last Stand and adds a rudimentary story and a sense of progression. You have 40 days to get from one small town to another, finally reaching a safe haven in Union City. During the night, shoot down wave after wave of zombies from behind a barricade of upended tables and boxes. The zombies come in several flavors, so to speak. There are shamblers, fast shamblers, dogs, folks who decided to put on a bulletproof vest just before dying, gun toting zombies, and guys holding microphones who appear to be unlucky ex-reporters, or possibly photojournalists. They knew the risks.

The only way to survive is to spend each day scavenging the town for supplies, weapons, traps, and other survivors who can help hold back the nightly assaults. Most importantly, remember to allocate several hours to rebuilding the barricade. It's not an easy task, but eventually our hero can gather enough loot to move on to a larger town, with a better class of zombie, and someday, Union City. And then everything will be all right, right? This is the last stand, so there can't be a sequel. Once we've escaped the undead horde, they'll all moan "No hard feelings, delicious friends," and wave cheerfully at the chopper as we fly away.

Thanks to kaostheory for this week's suggestion. If you'd like to suggest a game for Act Casual, send us a link at our contact form.

My favorite web games are easily ones that require a mouse and one button to play. It's a limiting control scheme, but I rarely want more complexity than that when I'm using the game as the mortar between blocks of actual work. Bowja The Ninja is a fine adventure game in the grand tradition of pixel hunting and absolutely no manual dexterity required. There's plenty to think about as you progress through the levels and those of you who like to compete will appreicate the timer that keeps track of how long you take. Just to get you started, shoot the wire coming out the back of the house. Once you do that, the game should come together nicely for you.

It won't tax you too far, but who needs that kind of pressure on a Monday? If you'd like to suggest a browser-based game for Act Casual, send a link and description using our fabulous contact form.

In Monsters' Den: Book of Dread you lead a familiar band of characters - Warrior, Cleric, Mage and Ranger - as they traipse through a random 2-D creature-infested labyrinth looting, pillaging, and leveling as RPG heroes are wont to do.

If there's anything surprising about Book of Dread, it's how even the simplest and most conventional RPG elements can still suck you in, provided that they're this thoughtfully implemented. Combat is fast, no-fuss, and turn-based, occurring on a simple tactical grid that has you positioning party members according to their strengths and abilities. A friendly series of pop-up tutorials, a slick drag-and-drop tabbed interface, high production values, multiple save slots, and an impressive amount of depth and variety make Book of Dread an easy recommendation for anyone looking for a fun, nostalgic RPG time-waster. For screenshots, click "Read more" below.

Thanks to Chumpy McChump for recommending Book of Dread. If you'd like to suggest a browser-based game for Act Casual, send a link and description to contact@gamerswithjobs.com.

Take control of a zippy velociraptor as it tears across a 2-D sidescrolling landscape, collecting eggs and gobbling small animals while fleeing an approaching meteoric apocalypse. Pixeljam's Dino Run hearkens back to the early days of video games, when the pixels were huge, the controls were simple, and the sound effects were loaded with crunchy white noise.

It'd be easy to write off Dino Run as just another retro-styled sidescroller if it wasn't so clever and completely awesome. It blends old-school aesthetics with new ideas, providing a surprisingly interactive environment where you can hitch rides on passing stegasauri, catch a lift with pterodactyls, and more. Plus multiple difficulty levels, stat tracking, unlockable cheats, and downloadable bonus content. You can even upgrade your raptor by collecting bits of DNA. And there's a drop-in multiplayer race component with a slick, functional lobby. Altogether too much fun.

Thanks to Spaz for suggesting Dino Run. If you'd like to suggest a browser-based game for Act Casual, send a link and description to contact@gamerswityhjobs.com.

This week's Act Casual pick is Chronotron, a puzzle game in which you help a time-bending robot navigate his way through a series of rooms. Each room contains a circuit board, typically tucked away in an impossible-to-reach location, that acts as a sort of exit key. Reaching the circuit board involves repeatedly rewinding time to create a happy little army of robots who can press switches, stack boxes, and the like to clear a path.

Chronotron is a great game built around a clever concept. It's definitely worth checking out, especially if you liked Cursor*10. If any of Chronotron's 40 levels leave you stumped, you can find walkthroughs over at creator Joe Rheaume's website, Scarybug Games.

Thanks to the reader who suggested Chronotron. If you'd like to suggest a browser-based game for Act Casual, send a link and description to contact@gamerswithjobs.com.