Klocky

About the Game

Tooth by tooth, wheel by wheel

The world moves too fast.

Under the lamp lies an old drawing. On the bench, a box of brass and steel: gears, a pallet fork, a balance wheel, a mainspring. No timer, no failing, no one hurrying you. Just the next part, and the place it belongs.

Slip the pallet fork into the escape wheel, then drop the balance wheel's little red pin into the fork. The moment they meet, the whole machine starts to tick, one beat at a time.

Every tooth really drives the next

Nothing in Klocky is a canned animation. Tooth counts, ratios, arbors and layers are all worked out like a real clock. How the machine moves is decided by the parts you put in.

• The 70-tooth centre wheel drives the third wheel's 7-leaf pinion; the 66-tooth third wheel drives the seconds wheel's 11-leaf pinion: 70/7 × 66/11 = 60. So the seconds hand turns once a minute, and the minute hand once an hour.
  
• Gears only mesh on the same layer, at exactly the right distance. Close three gears into a loop and the machine locks up.
  
• As long as the parts truly work together, they can sit anywhere. Your layout can differ from the drawing and it will still run.

One drawing, one step

Every machine is a stack of hand-drawn assembly drawings. The top sheet tells you what to fit next: click a line on the list and the part lights up; set it to the layer written there, drag it into place, and with a green flash it's in. Finish a sheet, turn to the next.

30+ machines

It starts with a little counter that counts seconds, and each machine is finer than the last. For example:

Rose engine　The paper turns slowly on a turntable while a crank pushes the pen back and forth. The two motions add up into a many-layered flower.


Calendar moon clock　A wheel that turns once a day steps the date, the weekday and the moon phase on by one each day, and the moon slowly waxes and wanes in its arched window.


Orrery　Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars circle the sun at their true relative speeds. The moon rides on the tip of Earth's arm, carried round by a small gear rolling on a fixed wheel.


The Blacksmith　Four cams on a camshaft push their followers, and the little smith on the stand swings his hammer, nods, works the bellows and turns the iron with his tongs.

Put on your headphones

Inside a single tick, many parts touch lightly. Each has its own voice: the fine click of gears meeting, the soft snap of a star wheel jumping a notch, the whirr of a fan, the pluck of a music comb. Fit different parts, and the machine sounds different.

The ticking is recorded from real clocks, with four sets to choose from: pocket watch, alarm clock, mantel clock and wall clock.

Features

• 30+ machines, each with its own stack of hand-drawn assembly drawings
  
• Mechanisms worked out like real gears: ratios, escapements, jump springs, cams, count wheels, planetary gears
  
• Parts stack in layers: cut away to any layer, or pick up the whole machine and turn it in your hands
  
• Speed up time, or skip to the next hour, day or year and watch the calendar turn and the moon wax and wane
  
• Free play: an empty bench and every part to combine as you like
  
• 4K and multi-monitor support