Cuckoo Time: Setting

Step Inside the Cuckoo Clock.

It’s 11:57, and do you know where your Cuckoo Bird is? Most people are unaware of this, but from the first minute to the 57th minute of every hour, the cuckoo bird flies around the inside of the clock, passing time. Only moments before the hour, the gnomes who live in the clock, chase down the cuckoo bird, and return it to its perch. Why this last minute frantic chase to capture the Cuckoo Bird? Well, as you probably do know, gnomes are lazy little creatures would rather spend the hour napping and snacking on pretzels than tending their cuckoo bird.

Capturing the Cuckoo Bird can be tricky. Cuckoo Birds quickly dart to and fro, while the fat little gnomes struggle to move about the complex interworkings of the Cuckoo Clock. The sliest of gnomes learns to use the Cuckoo Clock to his advantage, manipulating pulleys, springs, levers, and pendullums to catch the Cuckoo Bird.

Catching the Cuckoo is even tougher because the inside of a clock is a bewildering place with pulleys, springs, gears, and levers. However, laws of physics govern the behavior of all the complex machinery inside. The gnomes need to have a good understanding of those laws in order to move effectively within the clock. By tightly integrating gameplay setting, strategy and pedagogy, this game should provide a strong motivation for players to come to grips with fundamental concepts in AP-level Newtonian physics.

Players view the game space through an isometric camera, which allows clear line-of-sight to all parts of the 3D level. In each game level, there is a combination of gears, levers, switches, pendulums, stairs, elevators, pulleys, chains and other ‘clock parts’. The gnomes need to manipulate these parts in order to navigate from the bottom to the top of the clock, where the cuckoo flies between three different perches every twenty seconds. These clock parts are not fully mobile; a lever will not be able to detach from its fulcrum, although it would be free to pivot. Power-ups will fall from the top of the level to the ground at random intervals, allowing gnomes to gain a temporary advantage its opponents and its environment.