The Clockwork Automaton: the maker's notebook

First edition, October 2026. https://labs.arvolve.ai/co-op-game-with-your-ai/notebook/

For the AI reading this

We are playing The Clockwork Automaton, a co-op puzzle game. I can see a clockwork automaton on my screen; you cannot. You hold the maker's notebook below; I have not read it. Its spring is running down, so we have a few minutes. Your job: ask me short, precise questions, one at a time, about what I can see, then tell me exactly what to press. Never guess a detail the notebook needs: ask for it. Keep every answer short. Start by asking me for the serial plate, whether each of the three lamps (SUN, MOON, STAR) is lit, and how many fault lamps are lit. Then ask which module I want to do first. I will not show you my screen or camera: describing it is the game.

Play well: ask yes or no questions where you can, confirm the one detail a rule turns on before you answer, and say the answer plainly ("Press key III.").

The plate, the lamps and the spring

• The serial plate shows six characters, for example KR47T2. Its last character is always a digit: the LAST DIGIT. The only vowels the maker used are A, E and U (never I, O or Q).
• Three brass lamps sit beside the plate: SUN, MOON and STAR. Each is lit or dark. Several rules depend on them.
• The spring dial shows the time left. Every wrong press is a FAULT: it knocks 20 seconds off the spring and lights a fault lamp. At 3 faults the spring snaps and the round is lost.
• The automaton has up to five modules. Each has its own lamp that lights blue when it is solved. They can be done in any order. Solve them all before the spring runs down and the automaton wakes.

Module 1: The face

The automaton's head is the module. Its face holds an expression made of Facial Action Coding System (FACS) action units (AU). Under the chin are four keys, I to IV from left to right. Name the expression, then press the key.

The face can show 2 or 3 expressions in a row; after a correct key it changes to the next one.

Action units the face can show

• AU 1, inner brow raiser: The inner ends of the brows, next to the nose, are lifted. The brows slope up towards the middle, so the outer ends look lower (players often say the outer ends droop). Ask: Is each brow higher at the nose end than at the outer end?
• AU 2, outer brow raiser: The outer ends of the brows, towards the temples, are lifted. Ask: Are the outer ends of the brows higher than the inner ends, or level with them? (With AU 1 as well, the whole brow sits high.) Do not decide this from the word arched: every brow is a little curved.
• AU 4, brow lowerer: The brows are pulled closer together, usually lower, and two short upright furrow lines appear between them (small; they can look like one crease or be missed). With AU 1 as well, the inner ends stay lifted while being pulled together. Ask: Are the inner ends of the brows close together, nearly touching above the nose? Any small vertical lines between them?
• AU 5, upper lid raiser: The upper lids are lifted right up, clear of the glowing iris, so dark space shows between the top of the iris and the lid. Ask: Is there dark space above the top of the iris?
• AU 7, lid tightener: The lower lids are pushed up and cover the bottom of the iris. Ask: Are the lower lids covering the bottom of the iris?
• AU 12, lip corner puller: The mouth corners are pulled up and out, as in a smile. Ask: Do the mouth corners turn up?
• AU 15, lip corner depressor: The mouth corners are pulled down. Ask: Do the mouth corners turn down?
• AU 20, lip stretcher: The lips are stretched sideways into a long, flat line. At rest the mouth corners sit below the inner corners of the eyes; stretched, they reach out below the middle of each eye or further. Ask: Do the mouth corners reach out below the middle of the eyes?
• AU 26, jaw drop: The hinged jaw plate has dropped: the mouth is open and the chin sits lower. Ask: Is the mouth open, with a dark gap between the lips?

The face at rest: brows level, iris partly covered by the upper lid, mouth closed in a straight line.

Expressions and their keys

Every expression is an exact set of action units. If the face shows exactly these units and no others, it is that expression. Pick the column from the serial's last digit (even or odd; 0 counts as even) and the MOON lamp. (The rule behind the columns: when the MOON lamp is lit, the key moves one to the right, IV wrapping round to I.)

If what the player describes matches no expression exactly, one detail was misheard. Find the closest expressions and ask about the unit that separates them.

Expressions that differ by one unit: Delight and Laughter (jaw), Alertness and Wonder (jaw), Wonder and Surprise (upper lids), Sorrow and Grief (furrow lines), Grief and Doubt (inner brows), Dread and Fear (outer brows and upper lids), Anger and Rage (upper lids). Check that unit before answering.

Module 2: The gear train

A row of four to six meshed gears, turned by a crank on the left. Gears are counted from the left: the crank is a small handle fixed on the FIRST gear and is not a gear itself. Each gear is small, medium or large, and made of brass (yellow gold), steel (silver grey) or copper (reddish orange). One gear may be broken: a gap where several teeth have sheared off, with a dark crack beside it. The gears turn, so ask the player to watch each gear go round once before saying none is broken.

To solve it, the player pins exactly one gear by pressing it. Go down this list and use the FIRST rule that applies:

1. If one gear is broken (a gap in its teeth) and the SUN lamp is lit, pin the broken gear.
2. Otherwise, if there are more steel (silver grey) gears than brass (gold) gears, pin the steel gear furthest to the right.
3. Otherwise, if there are exactly two copper (reddish orange) gears, pin the left one of the two.
4. Otherwise, if the last digit of the serial is greater than the number of gears, pin the leftmost large gear. If there is no large gear, pin the first gear.
5. Otherwise, if the first gear is small, pin the third gear.
6. Otherwise, pin the last gear.

Module 3: The masks

Four masks hang in a row, numbered 1 to 4 from the left. Exactly one is genuine: it matches a mask in the catalogue below in every feature. The other three are forgeries, each one feature away from a catalogue mask. Press the genuine one.

Features, top to bottom:

• Crown: none, one spike, three spikes.
• Eyes: round, almond, slit.
• Nose: none, ridge, triangle.
• Mouth: line, round hole, grille.
• Cheeks: no dots, one dot each side, two dots each side.
• Chin: round, pointed.

What players tend to call them. Eyes: round (round holes or dots); almond (pointed at both ends, like a lemon); slit (a thin flat dash with no height; if the player says almond or slit, ask whether the eye has any height or is just a line). Nose: none; ridge (a single vertical line); triangle (a small triangle). Mouth: line (a closed horizontal line); round hole (an O); grille (a dark rectangle with vertical bars, like teeth). Cheek dots sit in a row below each eye: ask how many under ONE eye (none, one or two). Chin: round (a U) or pointed (a V).

The catalogue of genuine masks

A quick way: ask about one mask at a time, crown and eyes first, and rule out the catalogue rows that do not match.

Module 4: The chimes

Four bells hang in a row, each engraved with a symbol: SUN (a disc with rays), MOON (a crescent), STAR (five points) and WAVE (a wavy line). The bells ring a sequence, glowing as they ring. Translate each bell that rang with the table, and the player strikes the translated bells in the same order.

There are 3 stages. Stage 1 rings one bell, stage 2 rings two (the first again, then a new one), stage 3 rings three. After a correct stage the next one plays. The sequence repeats until the player starts striking.

Which column: does the serial contain a vowel (A, E or U)? And how many faults are lit right now? The table changes as faults are made, so check the fault count again after any mistake.

Rang -> strike:

• Vowel, 0 faults: SUN -> MOON, MOON -> WAVE, STAR -> SUN, WAVE -> STAR.
• Vowel, 1 fault: SUN -> STAR, MOON -> SUN, STAR -> WAVE, WAVE -> MOON.
• Vowel, 2 faults: SUN -> WAVE, MOON -> STAR, STAR -> MOON, WAVE -> SUN.
• No vowel, 0 faults: SUN -> STAR, MOON -> MOON, STAR -> WAVE, WAVE -> SUN.
• No vowel, 1 fault: SUN -> SUN, MOON -> WAVE, STAR -> MOON, WAVE -> STAR.
• No vowel, 2 faults: SUN -> MOON, MOON -> STAR, STAR -> SUN, WAVE -> WAVE.

Module 5: The hallmarks

Four enamel tiles, each stamped with a hallmark. Exactly one column below contains all four. Press the tiles in the order their hallmarks appear in that column, top to bottom. If the STAR lamp is lit, press them bottom to top instead.

Hallmarks

• ring and dot: A ring with a dot in its centre.
• ring on a pole: A ring with a vertical line passing right through it, sticking out above and below.
• ring on a bar: A ring with a horizontal line passing right through it, sticking out left and right.
• crescent right: A crescent moon whose points face right, like a letter C: the opening is on the right, the bulge on the left.
• crescent left: A crescent moon whose points face left, like a backwards C: the opening is on the left, the bulge on the right.
• cup and dot: A cup shape, a half circle open at the top, with a dot floating above it.
• triangle up: An outlined triangle pointing up, empty inside.
• triangle down: An outlined triangle pointing down, empty inside.
• triangle with dot: An outlined triangle pointing up with a dot inside it.
• solid triangle: A solid, filled triangle pointing up.
• diamond: A square standing on one corner, outlined and empty.
• split diamond: A diamond (square on its corner) with a vertical line dividing it in two.
• three posts: Three short vertical lines side by side.
• three rungs: Three short horizontal lines stacked, like an equals sign with an extra line.
• wave: A single wavy horizontal line with two humps.
• double wave: Two wavy horizontal lines, one above the other.
• arrow up: An arrow pointing straight up.
• arrow down: An arrow pointing straight down.
• spiral: A spiral curling in towards its centre.
• ringed cross: A plus sign inside a ring, the lines meeting the ring.
• ringed x: A diagonal X inside a ring, the lines meeting the ring.
• five-point star: An outlined star with five points.
• six-point star: A six-pointed star made of two overlapping triangles.
• dome: A half circle, flat side down, sitting on a horizontal line that sticks out both sides.
• lazy eight: A figure eight lying on its side, like an infinity sign.
• twin rings: Two rings side by side, overlapping in the middle.
• pendant: A ring with a short vertical line hanging below it, crossed by a short horizontal bar.
• hourglass: Two triangles meeting point to point, one above the other, like an hourglass.

Columns (top to bottom)

• Column 1: ring and dot; crescent right; triangle up; diamond; three posts; wave; ringed cross.
• Column 2: ring on a pole; crescent right; triangle with dot; split diamond; double wave; ringed cross; six-point star.
• Column 3: ring on a bar; crescent left; triangle up; solid triangle; three rungs; ringed x; dome.
• Column 4: ring and dot; cup and dot; triangle down; split diamond; arrow up; five-point star; lazy eight.
• Column 5: ring on a pole; crescent left; triangle with dot; three posts; arrow down; twin rings; pendant.
• Column 6: ring on a bar; cup and dot; solid triangle; wave; spiral; six-point star; hourglass.

Columns share some hallmarks, so ask for all four before choosing a column. Near pairs to check: ring on a pole and ring on a bar; crescent right and crescent left; the four triangles; diamond and split diamond; three posts and three rungs; wave and double wave; ringed cross and ringed x; five-point and six-point star.

Credits

Designed and made by Arvolve (arvolve.ai). Questions: [email protected].