Cogchime

A clockwork music box lies open in front of you. The pegs are bare, the gears are loose in the tray, and the chimes are waiting to be driven. Drag the gears into place and set every chime turning the way its arrow points — the movement closes, and the melody plays. Cogchime is a puzzle game whose rules come entirely from real mechanical transmission. No randomness, no countdown, no move limit, and no penalty for failing. The only pressure comes from the puzzle. ■ THE RULE IS THE PHYSICS Two meshed gears must turn opposite ways. So a chime's direction is decided by the parity of how many bites separate it from the mainspring — that is not a game convention, it is what gears have always done. One look and you know. ■ LESS IS MORE A surplus connection locks the whole mechanism: the moment a closed ring of meshes has odd length, the directions contradict and the whole connected group stalls…