It looks like I didn't get the good ending lol. the promise of eternal life wasn't for me :) I checked the solution and will have to try it again to get the good ending. Well done this is a cool game. I've played with inform a bit but never had good luck. Was this your first inform game? Thanks for making it!

Thanks for playing, @fabdynamic! I haven't really done any inform outside ludum dare, but my six LD games are all inform. I did play a bit with it before that, but I'd never made anything remotely finished then.

Did you play the original submission (with RC4 in the URL) or the post-compo one (with RC5)?
!> the original one doesn't list the escapement in the room description inside the watch, which is kind of critical and I'm not sure how I managed to miss that. It's mentioned in some of the other object descriptions, but you'd still have to examine anything listed anywhere to find it, which is definitely asking too much

wow. I'm always impressed by how hard these can be! I tried both versions and got stuck in an infinite loop and felt like the game nailed the theme somehow. I'm always impressed by how hard these can be! wow. I'm always impressed by how hard these can be! I tried both versions and got stuck in an infinite loop and felt like the game nailed the theme somehow. I'm always impressed by how hard these can be!wow. I'm always impressed by how hard these can be! I tried both versions and got stuck in an infinite loop and felt like the game nailed the theme somehow. I'm always impressed by how hard these can be!wow. I'm always impressed by how hard these can be! I tried both versions and got stuck in an infinite loop and felt like the game nailed the theme somehow. I'm always impressed by how hard these can be!wow. I'm always impressed by how hard these can be! I tried both versions and got stuck in an infinite loop and felt like the game nailed the theme somehow. I'm always impressed by how hard these can be!wow. I'm always impressed by how hard these can be! I tried both versions and got stuck in an infinite loop and felt like the game nailed the theme somehow. I'm always impressed by how hard these can be!wow. I'm always impressed by how hard these can be! I tried both versions and got stuck in an infinite loop and felt like the game nailed the theme somehow. I'm always impressed by how hard these can be!wow. I'm always impressed by how hard these can be! I tried both versions and got stuck in an infinite loop and felt like the game nailed the theme somehow. I'm always impressed by how hard these can be! ;)

Very cool story and take on the theme! I enjoyed playing through and exploring.. a few times now, and I learned a lot about watches! I still haven't solved it and made it to the 'good ending'.. but I've read many good things along the way with each attempt.

I'm not sure how to respond to that, @commanderstitch :) I promise you can get out of the loop again! Thanks for playing!

Thanks, @redhermit! I hope that if you read enough, the needed information should be there :)

Neat game :)

I definitely needed the walk-through to give me a bit of a hint to figure things out with the lever. But I really enjoyed it!

"A strange game. It seems the only winning move is not to play."

I found a couple of the endings on the original build <spoiler>(the door, the life-sucking one)</spoiler>, but I don't think I'm likely to find the "optimal" ending without spoiling myself (assuming it's neither of the ones I found).

Still, very fun and extremely on theme. I enjoyed the writing and the little touches of humanity you gave the character. The text parser seems reasonably good at what it does, but a few more verbs (the kind you can only really find during playtesting) might be useful if you are looking to develop the post-compo version and your framework allows for them.

I know more about watches now. cool!

@jezzamon thanks for playing! These things are easy when you've written them yourself. I'm not convinced I would have found it all...

@katherine-stark yes, that quote did cross my mind while writing the "quick" ending :) Playtesting is definitely an issue with this sort of game. I know whenever I watch someone else play my games on a stream I find a *lot* of verbs I really should have thought of. Inform7 can definitely handle a lot more involved stuff than I'm likely to use, the only limit here is me. Thanks for the feedback!

@wizard-sino thanks for playing! I did have to research a bit when I had this idea, I didn't know that much myself before starting :)

Interesting, but wasn't very intuitive, so I couldn't really get into it

@zeonblue text adventures are a fairly separate genre from most of the gaming world these days, so I definitely don't expect everyone to be into them :) I'm also not *that* experienced at making them, so my attempts might not be the most approachable. Thanks for trying anyway!

@frank-gevaerts haha, it's definitely me dude, I was actually surprised in the way it responded to some of my antics, and although I think you did a great job, these types of games are maybe just not for me. Please don't let the comments of one random dude influence your opinions one way or the other, keep making games YOU love! Thanks for creating and participating! (oh and BTW, this was my 1st LD, also my 1st time actually making a game, and after seeing what goes into it, dude, I have MAJOR respect for anyone attempting these shenanigans!)

Nice job! I got the bad ending and the short ending, but couldn't figure out the "good" ending. I had to peek at the solution, and there was just one thing I was missing sadly!

!> didn't think to "force" the lever (even though it was suggested!) I even tried to jam the cogs and escapement with the knife, but to no avail.

I liked the setting and use of the theme. Very solid text adventure!

@natpat thanks for playing! I enjoyed making this one

!> maybe jamming using the knife should have worked, or at least there should have been a response giving a good reason why it doesn't...

By the way, I think you missed the > in your spoiler. It needs to be "!>"

Nice entry! I was stuck so I used the solution because I am not use to text adventures and I didn't know what actions were allowed every moment. I am not sure if that is forbiden on this kind of game (xD) but I mised some "help" command :-P

@island-jam-2-group-3 thanks for playing :) If looking at the solution for hints wasn't allowed, I wouldn't have linked to the solution :) I had "help" in some of my previous entries, but not this time, unfortunately. A hint system is good to have, but I didn't have the time...

Always neat to see a text adventure!

I like your writing style, and the cli interface works well. Admittedly it took me a while(adn looking at a lot of diagrams) to figure out what was going on and what I could do to stop the watch, but the ending felt satisfying.

Good job overall.

@arbe thanks for the nice comments! Glad you liked it :)

Very interesting idea and a refreshing concept among all the other submissions.

@pixelpaw thank you for playing! I like my little niche, and I like to think the added diversity is good for LD :)

Wow, I definitely could not figure this one out on my own. Thanks for posting the solution too! It was a very interesting game, with lots of watch info and the backstory of the character was a nice touch! Was not expecting the way the story went at all!

@ladymistleaf thanks for playing! I keep promising this, but I'll try to add hints again in the next one. Of course I'll probably run out of time...

*smash watch*
Violence isn't the answer to this one..

Violence is always the answer, darn it!
Cool submission, love a good text adventure, couldn't quite figure it out though. Tried jamming and breaking all the different components but nothing would work, maybe just wasn't creative enough with my verbs.

Thanks for trying, @croze! I believe you were on the right track :) I know not enough synomyms is one of my most important shortcomings in these things. I hope to improve that one day, but it's hard in a weekend, sorry!

Cool idea! I got stuck a lot so it's better to use a solution

Great mood and execution! Loops in loops, for a watchmaker! It really fits the theme. Good writing, too! I got invested in it.

Thanks for including the solution here. It was great to read the ending. I wish I'd figured it out myself, but I couldn't find that last item for my inventory on my own. It probably would have been simpler if I'd tried the updated revision first.

@kaeveris thanks for playing!

@tyruspeace thanks for the nice comments!

I suspect with this sort of game it's inevitable that many people get stuck, and if I don't have the time to add good contextual hints, adding a full solution is the next best thing I think.

Thanks for providing hints live as I was playing the game on the stream, otherwise I don't think I would have made it. I really liked that I didn't have to draw up a map or make sense of my surroundings like in other text adventures, this one was all about the puzzles :) And extra points for doing all that research during the jam!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15n2Eq8yeVA
(video will unlock in 18 hrs from now, sorry about that)

Thanks for submitting! 😊

Thanks for playing, @philstrahl! Seeing where you struggled was very helpful!

Nice game with an exciting story :) I needed to use the guide, so a in game help of some sort could have been nice, but all in all a very good job!

@tim-eriksen thank you for playing! Yes, in game help would have been nice, I've done it before and it works, it's just a matter of time, really...

A Very cool game. I think it was pretty hard this time

But in general a really cool and good game.

Thanks for playing, @deathstorm!