Clockwork Palace: Mysteries of the Mughal Mechanicum

Adjusting clocks and time over and over again is just not very interesting. Doing so a couple of time in the whole game would have been fine. But to do that over and over again is extremely boring and mind numbing. The game needed variety and a lot more of it.

This is a really cool game. I love the style and themes, which are quite unusual and original - I don't think I've ever seen an aesthetic quite like it. The art is very beautiful, and it pulled me into the game's world. I like that I got more challenging as it progressed, though I can't comment on how well it suits its intended demographics (you may need to test it out and see how well they learn). I think this will do a great job with what it set out to do. There are a few areas which could do with refining, mainly relating to presentation and formatting. For one thing, I felt the colour scheme was often a little too muted or subtle. For example there was something odd about the AM/PM buttons - I reckon the inactive colour setting could be a little more greyed out, to distinguish it more clearly from its active/"on" form. The scrolling mechanism would benefit from having greater sensitivity, or sensitivity settings, as it felt too unresponsive when I tried it. In the third section, the little item ball confused me a little. I dragged it as prompted, but there wasn't a clear explanation as to what it was for or what it indicated. I was also confused in the sections where the items sat in the corner, as I couldn't see where they were supposed to fit. They weren't used in some of the question; in those cases I think they should be greyed out or hidden, to make clear that they don't feature in the solution. I also reckon there should be a prompt that allows the player to repeat the tutorials. I felt the written 24 hour times don't stand out enough, as I found them hard to read. I think a clearer (and more customised) font, and sharper contrast between the colours of the font and background, would make it easier to read. There were a few issues with clarity in the instructions. I felt the prompt "Solve all the elements" seemed a bit too vague, and it wasn't immediately apparent what the task was. Here I believe more specific phrasing, for example "Make the times on the clock face match the 24 hour times. They need to match both before and after the time changes", or something along those lines, would make the instructions clearer. WRT proportion, I noticed there was a lot of empty space in the backgrounds. I presumed it would be filled soon enough, but pending that I reckon the clocks should be larger and take up more space relative to the screen. As it is, the numbers drawn on the clock face might be hard to read on smaller screens. The section in the middle between the two clocks is too small, and I could barely read the numbers written on them. The numbers on the items are not large or bold enough to be seen clearly; and the colour of the numbers is too similar to the background colour of the items. I think a sharper contrast, bigger font, and bolder colours will fix it. Another area that could do with clearer contrast is the clock face. The highlighting colour scheme which indicate whether they need amending are currently a bit too subtle. Lastly, when I got a section right, I noticed there was a little animation. I reckon an accompanying sound, like a bell or a click, would make that feedback clearer and more satisfying. This is a very neat game with some cool and original ideas, and I really enjoyed playing it. I found the aesthetics really interesting, and I think you should definitely explore that vibe and build off of it, as I feel there's a lot of interesting narrative potential there. Your team is very creative and talented, and I look forward to seeing the finished product.

Clockwork Palace is a fun puzzle game that cleverly uses time to create engaging puzzles. Each one feels unique and offers a fresh challenge from the last.