Clockmaker: Match 3 Puzzles Reviews

by TTTTTrrrrrrrriiiiiiiix

You will no longer get any of my money! I regularly spend money on games I enjoy. But you will not see another dime of mine.
When a game is so devised that there is no possibility of reaching the goals it is no longer a game nor fun. It is an exercise in futility. I don’t know if you are just an incompetent game designer or greedy!
For example a round requiring collecting clock hands...the configuration of the board consisted of 5 separate parts with no interconnection at all. The outer sections are separated from the main game board & each contain 3 tiles in an L-shape. You are unable to match within these sections nor can you reach them from the main game board. There is NO mechanism for these pieces to be put into play & of course the “clock hands” needed are in these sections. I tried lining up the lightening game pieces, bombs, & those pieces that take out entire rows/columns. At one point I had so many special pieces created that it took out almost the entire main board, but all action stopped at the border. No matter how close to the edges the special pieces were they would not reach these areas outside of the main game board so absolutely no way to complete the task. I just quit.
If this frustration continues I’ll just delete the game.

by Leelaleep

I love the music and enjoyed the game for quite a while. Not particularly competitive, just enjoyed playing. Until it became apparent that there were some levels that were impossible to pass unless the game makers decided to give you a break. It is beyond annoying to be forced to play in only one small section of the board, where no move will do you any good. Then after wasting several moves the board will reshuffle because there are no moves. I have had the board reshuffle three times in one game. More than once. The game lost its fun factor when it became obvious there was no way to move past a board because you were not going to win no matter how many times you played. The layout of the board is determined by the developers and it is very obvious winning is not part of the game. Playing the same board over and over and over is boring. And I refuse to even play the boards with bombs in them. The bombs, all of them, start ticking down before you can even access them. This game gets old fast. New update added bingo. The bingo game loads first and you can't get out of it. If you want to play you have to play bingo. Removing Clockmaker. If I wanted to play bingo, I would download a bingo app.

by Sueinnh

I enjoyed this game for years, until they became more and more greedy. It is impossible to advance without making purchases. On top of that, the increasing pop up ads are constant. Their “support” is terrible. I see more and more complaints where they make excuses for freezes and glitches and usually blame the players or our internet connections. The last straw came when I learned they are from Belarus! Enough! I resigned from my “Society” and deleted Clockmaker . I will not support any Belarusian or Russian apps. In looking at the negative reviews, of which there are many, I see the biggest complaint is the relentless ads. The developers’ excuse is that they need the ad money in order to improve the game. Where is the improvement?! The glitches, freezes, getting booted out are worse than ever! If they receive all this money from ads, then why are they charging players more and more to get anywhere? I am glad I deleted Clockmaker! Stand with Ukraine!

According to my research, Belka Games is headquartered in Belarus. If this is incorrect, please update me. I do not want to spread misinformation. You did not address my major complaint which is the unrelenting ads.

by Koala Gray

I went ahead and bit and downloaded this. It is very colorful but that is about it. There is not much else except having to play the same levels over and over in hopes you can pass it. I find the contests just more of the same. There is a small chance to win a small prize each day but there really needs to be more such as free gems for logging in each day. You need to complete puzzles to get building material except you may not get the material you need to continue. I’m not about to start grinding a match three type of game. The colorful atmosphere holds the attention for a short while but the ads about it being different are just not true. It’s still just a boring match three game wrapped in a pretty package. There is an attempt at a story but I find it hard to care about the characters dilemmas when I run out of moves over and over again and cannot save my place unless I use (read buy) gems. No gems you start the scene over, don’t get what you need you start the scene over. I’m sure this is fine for some I find the repetition just a yawner. Better would be to alternate types of puzzles not just a different match three. Pass on this bore fest and download The Room series, now that is how a puzzle game is done.

by Rutahill

Clockmaker is fantastic if your seriously into Zen meditation. It has a lovely musical background, which I find soothing and I enjoy the lay out. That’s the only thing good about this game.
It’s very clear that the owners goal is to “try” to get rich. Everything in the game is designed to Force you to buy extra... to beat a level, or it can take months for someone to do so. And they are very stingy about their rewards and gifts for daily logins. Also, repeatedly, I beat a level, and it shows that I got five rubies, but they are never added to my collection of gems.
Truthfully, I am embarrassed by how much I like this game for practically no rewards for progress. I have purchased gems in the past, and they literally vanished. When I wrote them about it, I never got a response. I will never give them money again. Whoever writes their algorithms designed them so that you frequently get down to one or two gems left to clear, but you cannot, most of the time, get what you need. It’s greedy game owners - who don’t care if you aren’t wealthy enough to keep wasting your money. As a retired senior on a fixed income, who is currently fighting cancer my budget is tight.
I really like this game, but it’s coding and algorithms are clearly designed to make you spend money to progress with any expediency.
I’m ashamed to tell anyone how much I play this game and how greedy they are compared to other game apps.

by Aflemin8

I’ve been playing this game for a while now. I really appreciated that there were no forced ads, but you could choose to watch them for bonus things. Then they added forced ads after every game (like all the others). Alas, I continued playing. I am not interested in the story lines, I typically skip through those, but I enjoy most of the auxiliary games and challenges that keep me from getting bored when the main games become impossible to beat (even with tons of help). It’s enough to cure the occasional boredom. Until recently. The game crashes all the time now, especially when you need to win that game to get a good bonus, then you lose that bonus and a life when you go back it. It’s gotten to the point where I can almost anticipate which games it’s going crash on, like the program is designed to prevent people from winning certain things. I’ve tried to wait out a couple updates hoping the problem would be fixed, but it’s getting quite infuriating. I do like this game, but the crashing has got to stop!

by Puglets3

Mad props to the game designers, they certainly know how to craft difficult game play. I made it to the Bakery before finally giving up on this game. I played the game for two days and I got only to the 6th building in the game and I’m an avid game player. I enjoy challenging boards and thinking through a puzzle, but for beginning levels at the start of the game, the boards are way too difficult. It makes me wonder what the hard boards are like once a player really gets into the game. I get why people complain you have to use boosters or spend money to pass a board if the beginning boards take most of the day to get through. On top of that, I finally beat a very difficult board and then I wasn’t even given the item I needed. Super frustrating. Also, the bombs I can create with the gems are pretty useless unless the bomb is next to what I want to explode, I’d like a bigger explosion using all three of the created line not just the bomb tile itself. On the plus side, the graphics are well done and the game did not glitch or crash. This game has potential once the developers figure out that players need to play awhile and be invested in the story before making the levels so challenging or they are going to have a lot of frustrated players that end up abandoning the game like me.

by Momcat2355

The game I had played for years has gotten too hard, so I had seen this one as an ad in that game and others. It looked like it had many mini games. So I downloaded and stated to play. Passed through seven or eight buildings, but it was all just a match game. Where’s the variety of the ads? Not in this game, an there are lots of off shoot adventures to play, but I’ve gotten to a point that there are so many things happening in the match game that I just can’t win! Try, having to clear the board of background squares and having timed bombs dropping in, which you have to make a color match to disarm at the same time. And I’m talking MULTIPLE color bombs, which are next to impossible to make the color matcha, as the color blocks are just not falling in the colors you need to explode them. Ugh, it could be much more fun, if it didn’t go from fun to impossible so fast. I’ve played this game about a week, and I’m done trying to do the impossible without spending mega money to get the gems that allow you to add 10 extra turns to your game. Good bye, this app! It looked promising, but turned way too hard too soon. And I really didn’t care what the townspeople were talking about, either.

by Margaux1214

Got into this game as it had an Apple Watch app as well as iPhone. Cute idea and fun but over time more and more frustrating. Recent changes have made it worse - namely reformatting the daily gifts to where a free 5 or 10 rubies is no longer an option and you no longer have a chance at getting items you need to complete a level. Instead, you get one bomb or maybe 30 minutes of infinite lives (something that goes to waste when I play on a 15 minute break at work - the infinite lives should have a pause function especially if Clockmaker is closed/force quit). This change in particular means it literally takes sometimes weeks to beat certain levels with no chance of getting an item to move on. The new pop ups that used to have a “Don’t show again” option urging you to continue (by spending rubies for more moves) no longer let you stop them from popping up and with every app update the wording changes to get more annoying. They used to only show up on weekends but now it’s constant. I get that apps try to make money but this game takes it to an extreme and that’s made it harder and harder to play with every update.

by Mugs45

This is a beautiful, interesting and clever game, however game is a misnomer. This is really a pay to play activity as there is no real "game feature". The play is designed to be impossible to win without purchasing tools to win. There is not even a legitimate difficulty or skill level challenge to Clockmaker to make it an entertaining game. For example, the ratio of number of moves to the number of items to be collected is so tight that there is almost no probability of ever winning the set without buying tools to play. In addition, even if you could reasonably expect to collect two or more items with every single move given, there are often not even the requisite number of items to be collected shown on the play board. So, the deck is stacked to NOT win, no matter how skilled and attentive a player you are. In addition, if some of the tools needed to win could be earned in easier games it might keep players in the game, but there is so little opportunity to win the game or the tools that buying your way through the game is the only alternative. This is not a game to enjoy or play for fun, and that is too bad, as it has great potential.

by TrishA2004

The game is fun, the graphics are outstanding, the sounds are great. However, the game ceases to be fun when it’s obvious some levels are impossible to beat without the need (at a cost) of additional moves or helps, even with those, it can take quite a few attempts to beat. I don’t mind a game where some levels require several attempts to overcome, but some of these levels are ridiculous. I appreciate the number of hours that are won and I have played for hours. I realize the developers are quite savvy, give you free hours you are more likely to play longer, play longer you are tempted to buy rubies and helps at a premium cost. Filling some type of vessel so it can be redeemed once it’s full is a common thread throughout plenty of games. Some games reward you with your collection, some charge a nominal monetary fee, but I find it disappointing that Clockwork charges $8.99 to obtain what you’ve earned playing the game. I’m sorry, but you are losing another player, I really enjoyed your game. The developers must really be laughing all the way to the bank. Bye!

by Kimmie J V

Hello, I downloaded this game about 3 weeks ago. I have spent approximately $50 on this game buying rubies. I love playing this game but I have been trying to pass the same 3 levels for 3 days. Now guaranteed I could pay $8.99 for a safe full of rubies and pass these levels. Unfortunately I can’t pay anymore money to this or any other game. I am on a fixed income. Spending that money on a game is just down right stupid. It is really unfair to any player to have to spend money to win!! Will I keep playing? I really haven’t decided yet. You should have a way to earn rubies and get them for playing a level. Not by people paying for them! People like me who are disabled, seniors etc that are home a lot like to play games. At some point it gives us a sense of fulfillment to finish hard levels or even an entire game. If we can pass the levels. Please restructure your game and add in free rubies!!!! I want to continue playing. I don’t want to play the same levels day after day because I refuse to pay more money for rubies. A response would be nice but because this isn’t a 5 star review I doubt anybody will take the time to write back to me. Have a great day!!
KJV

by Ancipitalme

I’ve been playing this game on and off for a couple years. In general the game is fun and the art and characters are fun and high quality. There is a *bit* of a cringe factor with the various racially/ethnically/culturally stereotyped sub-characters that appear for special events, but maybe I’m just being too woke.

However, I’ve been enjoying the game less and less due to ad proliferation. It used to be that ad content was only required when you opted to watch a video for a boost or some other bonus. However, starting maybe six months ago or so ads are now shoved down your throat randomly when you finish levels - regardless of whether you win or not. Just trying to close out of a level can now prompt an inescapable ad. It’s so frustrating. I don’t want to have to watch some solitaire ad promising me “real money” when all I want to do is get back to the main map.

And to be clear, I have gladly spent actual money on this game to purchase boosts or during special promotions to get boosts and gems (the game’s in-game currency). I have no problem with giving them a little bit of my money to enjoy their game now and then. But the marked proliferation of unclosable ads that randomly interrupt my gameplay makes me not want to play the game, which means they don’t get my money often anymore either.

by Paprikakitty

I really enjoy this game and have A LOT of time invested. However, In the past month it’s been consistently crashing almost every time I start a new level. I contacted support and they recommended I go into my phone privacy/security settings and send them my log data for this game. I’m not comfortable doing that since I don’t know enough to know what the logs are storing. And if it’s in my privacy/security settings I feel like it’s meant to stay private and secure.

The most frustrating thing is that when the game crashes, it wastes the powers ups I was using in that particular level. And it decreases any reward I might have earned for completing the level in one try because when I go back in after the crash it counts as a second (or third) try. I’ve updated and deleted and reinstalled Clockmaker and am still experiencing this bug. I’m writing this review in the hopes that the designer sees it and investigates the bug (without me having to disclose my log info).

The game is fun. It is entertaining. And I do really enjoy it or I would’ve just deleted it because of the frustration instead of leaving a review and hoping for a fix.

by Sweetandsassy1985

I really enjoy this game. I love the holiday theme doors and side mission puzzles. The love the new daily prize clock that we collect and gives us opportunities to get rubies. I also love collecting jigsaw puzzle pieces to create pictures and turning them in and getting at least 24 hours of free energy.

While I do enjoy this game, I also issues. The main issue is not being able request items from your friends that you have to have for the completing the buildings. I am stuck on a building I have been working on for over 2 months. I can not get what I need like keys or other items and I can’t request it. In fact, I only go and play on the holiday theme levels or doors missions because it is so unbelievably frustrating not getting anywhere on a game. When the new 7 days clock was introduced, there was a option for us to ask and send requests for building items from our Facebook friends. I really enjoyed this feature and so did my friends who played.

by Analu44

I love this game and have been playing it for a very long time and especially love to play those side games you offer for a limited number of days and it usually has 20 levels but it’s one thing to make the levels have a certain degree of difficulty but your developer goes overboard and makes it impossible to reach level 20. I was able to do it only once and I’ve lost count of how many of those games I’ve played. Right now the one I’m playing is called Cosmic Mirage and I got to level 5, and it’s literally impossible to get through it. You guys placed those balloons that expired after a few counts and when there are still about 20 moves you just can’t get to them to stop them from blowing up. I enjoy the challenge of your puzzles but sometimes it gets so difficult and frustrating that it becomes unpleasant to play. I have several friends that play this game and feel the same way. I’m probably going to get rid of your app and look for another puzzle as clever as yours but not developed to cause frustration instead of enjoyment!

by Justletmepostthereviewffs

…. Everyone knows I love a good game of bejeweled, which this essentially is, with a side of story/mystery/side quests. Super fun! My “buts” are: 1. Why are rubies not awarded when you compete levels or restore a building or something more frequent than occasionally putting them in a “you win on the first try!” reward box? Yes, you can purchase packs, but it would be a good way to keep people playing (and for kids, who don’t have a way to pay for them. If you need them to extend lives, etc, this seems like a no-brainer. 2. For the love of God, WHY do I need to smash every single square clock face thing three or more times to collect it?!?! I can see a few special ones per level but EVERY single one is downright angering. Especially when you need rubies to extend your moves! Edit: And, I just thought of something else! A way to use rubies to collect things like hammers and lightning, etc. would be excellent.

by 😰😰worried

Ok so Clockmaker is really fun you immediately get boosters that help you beat the first few levels I kept seeing ads for this game and thought 💭 well I do like mysteries then when I played it was exciting and fun most games have many many ads but this game has none! I was very happy 😊 about that and bonus most of their offers cost 1 dollar 😱can you believe that and the offers have tons of boosters and gems which is so awesome 👏🏻 I really like this game and recommend it to people who love mysteries and thrilling adventures and guess what else there are daily challenges and if you run out of boosters some of them only cost 5 gems 😱omg can you believe that and wait there’s more you can create your own avatar and neat name and it was very hard to pick Which avatar I wanted but I finally chose and I was very happy with my decision on getting Clockmaker sorry 😐 if this was a long review but I really had to tell the world about this awesome app thank Clockmaker owners for such an amazing game and when you’re bored this activity is a great game to play. Hope you enjoyed this review bye and give the credit to the creators 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻😍🥰😝😆I wish I could write more but there is too much fun I want to get back to playing this game bye

by Mugglesmakemelaugh

Ok so I used to have like 6 games that I cycled through on a daily basis. I am now down to just this one because it is my favorite. I have been playing for roughly 8 months and I’m so excited to have almost cleared the first map. Not sure why there is so much negativity for Clockmaker. There is always a mini event going on or 4 or 5 at the same time (I love when they do that because I end up with like 72 hours of lives and my weekend gets shot to heck 😂) with chances to win hours of free lives, boosters and materials to make it to the next building. There is a daily spin with a free gift and of course there is always the option for in app purchases. The train event is always one of my favorites. I love the steampunk design and the music so much. I would love to get a change up of music for special events or the option to change it every once in a while for something different but then I’m like “ya know what, don’t change a thing because it’s great”. Just an idea. Keep doing what you do, the content is fabulous and thank you for a game that keeps me interested!

by GLandron

I have been consistently playing this game for several months. In fact, this game has taken up most of the idle time I have causing me to ignore ANY other game. Some boards are challenging but I love that you have a choice to play other levels. The leaderboard and various side quests keep you playing. There are always rewards you can earn and I never run out of lives, which makes it difficult getting anything done around the house lol. The only suggestions that I have is that the puzzle boards become available sooner (I have 6 hard levels I am waiting to play so I don’t throw away the pieces) and I think it would be great to have some sort of way to see all of the things you’ve collected from different houses. The items are very interesting so it would be nice to see what you’ve accumulated. But honestly this game is the BEST of its kind because you can never get bored and getting rewards is like winning the lottery.

Update: I just downloaded the newest version and I have new puzzles with over a hundred pieces. I guess it does save any pieces I get even if there is no puzzle available!!!

by Kahoot

The graphics are nice, the puzzles can be difficult, and it can be fun to play. The down sides are the stories tend to be a little juvenile, there is no clear path in the main game, there is no place to understand what some of the rewards can be used for, it requires Facebook to keep your place, and some levels are made to require you to purchase extensions in order to complete the level. It is also frustrating that in some of the games there is insufficient explanation of how to get rid of obstacles. I enjoy the side games more than the main game.

Update October 2019- Several times now the game has frozen after completing the final game in a story or after the daily challenge causing me to not receive the rewards. There is no way to recover or go back or reset the game to get them. The screen just freezes so you cannot even go to the home screen.

Update November 2020- Stop the misleading ads! While playing other games I see ads for this game that have nothing to do with how this game is actually played. As to the playing of the game, I quit reading the stories as they are too juvenile. I also quit purchasing in the game. Too many games require purchases of help tools or to extend the game by a couple moves so I just go to another game when my lives run out.

by Zalerea

This game looked great in preview so I downloaded it. However, when I began to play I struggled to see the puzzles or read the text. I understand that they are going for a specific look and feel for the storyline but they failed some basic design concepts for those with vision problems. I have a standard iPhone 8 fir screen comparison running the latest iOS. I already adjusted my phone for my low vision but the game doesn't seem to adjust. The printed text is tiny much too small for most people to read without straining. Next, the text is dark brown on tan background which doesn't provide enough contrast to read easily. Finally, add in some small screen components and dark artwork. Complete recipe for disaster if you have vision difficulties. Sadly I will be removing the game because straining my vision isn't worth the play through. After only 3 minutes of play, I ended up with eye strain and headache. If you don't have vision issues this game story seems worth a try but if you do you should move onto something a but easier to play.

by Akemabelle

I love this game and I play it almost every day. I think I am addicted to it, and I can admit to that. There’s always new and fun campaigns (side story boards to complete) which is great. However, it can be very very challenging at times. Maybe a bit too challenging at times which is why some people have given up on the game all together and that’s no good for anyone. So I suggest maybe lighten up just a twinge on some of the game board difficulty. Also, I think the ruby/power up packages are a bit too expensive. I think they need to consider lowering some of the prices or at least sweeten up the pot on the specials. I mean come on, $5 for 28 rubies?! Even though there are some power ups in with that, why can’t you just make it 100 rubies? I can go through 100 rubies within an hour so 28 rubies isn’t much of an incentive. Let’s remember it’s been a lousy year and some people can’t afford those jacked up prices just for some game helpers. So please consider making that stuff more affordable. I think you’d sell more if the deals were better. It’s all virtual items anyway so it’s not costing anything! But all that being said, great game! By far my favorite game app ever!!

by Lucky*Harley

I don’t normally write reviews for games, I think this is my first tim to be honest, but this game deserved a review that tells people how great it is.
It is so fun, challenging, and very different from other games similar to this. The graphics are really interesting, there are many different places that you go to in the game to try different types of levels, which are very cool. The company that made Clockmaker are so fair and fantastic, finally a company that understands that you need more chances to beat levels, plus they are always making new levels to play high really keeps it interesting. They give you many ways to earn more lives, also free gifts daily to give you more powers or 30 minutes to an hour to 2 days to keep playing for free. I have never found another game that gives you more time to complete levels. This game is so addictive.....I love it!

I highly recommend that you try this game!!!!!!!

by IPhad Noob

After a few levels you can’t win without boosts which are way to expensive for what you get. Even with the boosts you can’t always win. Waste of money. Also the most recent change took away the Ice Breaker boost which was actually helpful and exchanged it with a useless “hand” that only allows you to exchange two adjacent tiles. Practically useless.

Obviously the developers are ONLY in it for the money. They aren’t listening to customer comments or complaints. If you want to spend lots of money to be frustrated and aggravated this is the game for you. But hey, they have pretty graphics.

And I don’t believe those 5 star reviews are from players. Most are a few words or a couple of sentences that could be about any game. Are people doing these reviews as a favor or for compensation of some kind? Because they are not at all believable.