| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #5 | 3.875 | 3.875 |
| Use of console | #7 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Overall | #9 | 2.958 | 2.958 |
| Fun | #19 | 2.000 | 2.000 |
Ranked from 16 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Pre-made assets (Optional)
almost all of the sound effects (except the bells which I made myself) are royalty free assets, everything else is by me
I really, really like the concept and how it fits with the theme!
That said, I had difficulty understanding how to play. I had to read the instructions on the page and I’m not quite sure when would I use the different cogs or how to make both bell hammers in the correct direction, so I actually didn’t figure it out 😅
I wish there was a small tutorial level, and a nicer input scheme to make it enjoyable to iterate the puzzle. I’d play a version done in more (eh) time!
Love this principle but quite hard to get it. the look of this puzzle game feel puzzly :D
Love the wheel when you crank that are nicely turning one after another. the sounding overall sound feel great. The took on the theme is well inspirated. It too hard... for me? Tutorial or really simple first little would have been a plus :)
I had difficulty really understanding what I was meant to do this in this game. I think the concept of building a gear box is cool but besides that and connecting it to the bell gears, I didn’t really understand what was meant to be done here. I do think your usage of gears and how they couldn’t form a locking pair was well implemented. I also didn’t really understand what the 4, 5, and 6 sprocket gears were supposed to do, I assume it had something with increasing or decreasing the speed and torque?
Suggestions/criticism:
- this game really could use a tutorial or some kind of information to let the player know how to play and what the end objective is.
- The game also does not run well on hardware and needs some improvements there to have it run more smoothly. As others have said it’s likely an issue with the physics simulations.
- Without really knowing the goal of the game I would say that it would be nice to have different levels to complete. I do think you put in a good bit of work with randomizing the levels.
- I feel that it is tedious to pick and choose each gear. Maybe there could be a level editing mode that allows the player to select what gears they want with the crank and the options could be highlighted using the bottom existing row. Once leaving editor mode the player could then turn all the gears.
Overall I would be happy to play this game in the future if the game could get some overhauls to what is currently there. I think the game you currently have shows great promise and I hope to see more from you :)
Thanks so much for the torough review. I see that you did this for most or perhaps all of the games. I really appreciate people doing that in general, and you don’t even have ‘a horse in this race’ so to speak.
For what you’re meant to do; connect all the gears and belts up (from the driving gear on the left to the ones controlling the height of the hammers on the right) in such a way that the bells strike between 11:30 and 12:00. (Though take note that time only advances as the gears go as well – and even backwards when in reverse.)
As you can probably guess given my answers to the other commenters, I agree with basically all of your points:
It’s badly in need of any kind of tutorial (though the game page does offer some explanation if you do follow that link).
While I could optimize the game – I think, if I where to continue with development, I’d jank out the physics entirely.
Lastly, just as I was revamping the control-scheme to have B toggling between all possible things you can place, rather than ‘physically’ placing the cursor there and selecting with A, my ‘time was up’. (B now only toggles between vertical and horizontal placed rubber-bands.)
I haven’t decided yet wether or not I continue with this jam-prototype, but bespoke levels instead of randomization seems like a good way to go indeed.
Really interesting concept and I'd love to see this game fleshed out a bit. I love this style of micro machine like puzzle games. Although I did have a bit of trouble figuring out what the controls were and what the solution was. Overall a very creative and interesting game. Very good use of the prompt! ⚙️
I would like some a few tutorial levels. just some easier puzzles to teach you what each thing is good for. I think it would be fun to unlock different tools later down too to make the puzzles a little different. Really something to help the players feel a sense of progression to make solving these fun puzzles more rewarding. I hope that helps! Just kinda spit balling
This is a great interpretation of the theme and a natural use of the crank, although I found it quite difficult to understand how to play!
I am too mechanically stupid for this game and that’s a bit on me. That being said perhaps some more helpful instructions/introduction would be nice – what would I want to use a belt or a gear with 4 teeth over 6?
also definitely pushing the little CPU a bit but I liked the idea/atmosphere a lot, just wish I could intuit it better but the theme is targeting a weak spot of mine
Thanks for trying it out! I don’t think people who don’t get this game are stupid, as it doesn’t do a good job of explaining itself – tutorialization in game-jams is a bit of a weak spot of mine.
When you connect a gear with less teeth to a gear with more teeth, one of them will be rotating more quickly than the other. With belts, you can connect two gears of differing teeth together, but they’ll rotate equally quickly (it does require an extra space though). This can be used to rotate the gears that drive the hammers up at differing speed, which can make sure the bells ring at approximately the same (and correct) time, winning the game.
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