Machine Purpose Idea & Testing Strategy

I've come up with an idea for the goal of my Rube Goldberg machine. The idea is a box of dog food being poured into a dog bowl. I thought that there could be an object such as a box, a hammer or a ball falling onto a see-saw, which then pushes a pole upwards and tilts the box of dog food (which will tilt using a hinge constraint in Maya) into the dog bowl. I've started implementing my testing strategy for this idea. My testing strategy is to setup the rigid body dynamics after all the parts have been modelled and positioned correctly. This way I can preserve the geometry in its original state which it was in before it rigid bodies are applied to it. I'm also planning on using particles for the pieces of dog food. To achieve the look of dog food, I intend to model a few different shaped pieces and use geometry instancing and have each one being emitted one at a time. I also thought that I could use a per particle expression to give each piece a random size and random rotation as they emerge from the box. I'm currently modelling the necessary parts.