Clockwork

01The game at a glance

Look, turn, clear, win. Two to four rings with 8 or 12 notches; a tap turns a ring one notch, a drag turns it further. No timer and no fail: stars reward the fewest moves, a hint shows the solver's next move, and restart is free.

• Readable in one look: every rule is drawn on the board.
• One new idea per chapter, brought in on a level the player will win.
• Every level proven by a solver that sets its par.

02Rings, spokes, cogs and padlocks

A spoke is the same notch on every ring; when it is full and one colour it clears. A cog links two rings as a meshing pair of wheels: turn the outer ring one notch and the inner one turns two the other way; turn the inner one and the outer turns back one. A padlocked ring refuses a turn by hand and moves only through a cog.

03Four chapters, one idea each

The rules; four rings and chains; locked rings; everything together. Within each chapter the best line climbs in a sawtooth, from 1 to 8 moves across the game, with a breather after every peak. A one-line tip appears only where an idea is new.

04Levels made and proven

I write each level as a spec: rings, colours, cogs, padlocks and a range for its par. A generator scrambles a solved board with legal moves only and keeps a layout when its par is in range, nothing starts complete and its cogs change the solution. Tests check every par against the solver.

05What playtests changed

One-way cogs read as broken ("the gear mechanic doesn't work"), so they became two-way at 2:1. Levels 9 and 10 were a wall, so a new rule now arrives on an easy level: level 10's best line went from 6 moves to 4. The art went through three directions before settling on a professional free kit.

06Feel, art and next steps

Rings swell when a cog turns them, clears pop in the gem's colour with praise for clears in a row, and wins rain confetti. The look follows Butabi's Mini Casual UI Kit. A monetisation plan (not built), the first KPIs to measure, and a roadmap close the document.