Turbo Pudding

Tomorrow AgoLevel secrets

Small secrets of a town stopped at 11:47

· The Turbo Pudding team · 5 min read

On the frozen market square at night, Mira, a girl with auburn braids, brass goggles, a teal coat and a satchel, smiles with her eyes shut and holds out her hand to the newsboy, who is frozen mid-shout with the Courier held up over his head and a Courier bag at his side, while Tik, a brass pocket-watch robot, stands beside her; behind them, all in gray, are the statue base of Hesper Lind with its plaque, a mother lifting her little boy up to see the star, and a couple a breath away from a kiss under the gingerbread hearts of a market stall

Chapter 1 of Tomorrow Ago lasts a single minute. At 11:47 on Winding Night every clock in Glimmerau stops, and Mira and Tik walk through a town frozen in the middle of a party. The story never asks you to do most of the things below, and that is what makes them fun to find. Small spoilers for chapter 1 ahead, but no endings.

Before 11:47, look twice

The game opens just before the clocks stop, and much of the workshop says one thing before and another after. Before, the cuckoo clock “has been sulking since Grandpa oiled its door.” After, its weights hang halfway down.

Look at the little brass robot on the bench before midnight, too. Mira calls him Grandpa’s secret project: Grandpa calls him “the little one” and throws a cloth over him when she comes near. Grandpa’s note on the bench is clear: “And do NOT wind the little one. Not yet.” If you find the tiny brass key early and try it anyway, Mira stops herself: “I keep my promises. Mostly.”

Mum’s portrait hangs over the gallery, in an oval frame Grandpa carved himself. Go back to it more than once. Mira has three different things to say, and the first is our favorite: Grandpa got Mum’s eyebrows wrong on purpose, so now she looks surprised to see them every morning.

In Grandpa’s warm, lamp-lit workshop, Mira, a girl with auburn braids, brass goggles on her head, a teal coat, an orange scarf and a leather satchel, reaches toward Tik, a small brass robot shaped like a pocket watch who sits switched off on the workbench with his eye closed, next to a brass bird, a letter with a red seal, two small gears, a magnifier on a stand, a green-shaded lamp and a pocket watch in a little case; behind them hangs a tool board, and on the right a fire glows in a round iron stove under a copper kettle
Searched “point and click game, robot asleep on a workbench.”

What Mira moves stays moved

In Clockmaker’s Lane, Doktor Fogel is caught at the very top of a sneeze, and his bowler hat has leapt clean off his head. Reach up, and the hat comes away in Mira’s hand. Let go, and it stays exactly where she puts it, right back on his head. That is the rule of the whole chapter: what Mira moves stays where she leaves it, and what she can’t move stays exactly where it is. “When time comes back, Doktor Fogel will sneeze, and his hat will stay put, and he’ll never know why.”

A few steps on, the Kessel twins are at war. Felix has thrown, Greta has ducked, and the snowball hangs between them “like a full stop.” Take it, and you get to settle the fight: put it on Felix’s cap or give it to Greta. Mira’s view of the second choice: “Greta always wins. Felix just hasn’t noticed yet.”

On a snowy street at night, with the whole town turned gray and still, Mira in her teal coat and orange scarf stands with a sly little smile next to Tik, the brass pocket-watch robot with spring legs, and watches the Kessel twins: Felix in a flat cap and scarf frozen mid-throw with his arm out, and a few steps ahead Greta ducking with her arms over her head, while a round snowball hangs in the air between them; behind them are the dark window of a toy shop with a rocking horse and tin soldiers, a street lamp and banks of snow
People also ask: can you pause a snowball fight?

Ten hellers for the newsboy

Mira starts the game with one copper coin: ten hellers, “one newspaper, or a third of a cinnamon bun.” On the market square, the newsboy is frozen mid-shout, holding the Courier up over his head. Mira could just take a paper. Or she can drop the coin into his satchel, where he’ll find it later. Tik asks if he’ll ever know. “Never. That’s sort of the point.”

Try offering the same coin to other people. Barnaby, the brass porter at the Guild Hall, turns it down: “Gratuities are not permitted, miss. But it was a lovely thought.” Show him Grandpa’s pocket watch instead, and he’ll tell you it runs seven seconds fast. Deliberately. Provost Crane is insulted “on two counts.” Ottilie doesn’t want it either: “I don’t charge for bad news. Only for wool.”

While you’re on the square, touch everything. The Winding tree carries one bauble from every family in town, and the Holts’ is the brass one with a tiny clock inside. Hold your hands to the chestnut brazier and you feel no heat at all: “It isn’t a fire. It’s a picture of a fire.” And the couple under the mistletoe have been a breath away from a kiss since eleven forty-seven.

In the dim hall of the Guild of Clockmakers, by tall dark double doors, Barnaby, a tall brass porter robot with a purple top hat, round goggle eyes, a curled mustache, a red sash, a small clock on his chest, a winding key in his side, a ring of keys at his belt, white gloves and white spats, holds out one gloved hand, while Mira, smiling with her eyes shut, stretches her arm out to him and Tik waits behind her on the black-and-white checkered floor
Typed “cozy mystery game with a robot doorman.” He won’t take tips.

An optional climb

On Brenna Bridge, the glimmer lamps on the stair up to the Upper Terrace go out one by one, and a new goal appears, the only one in chapter 1 marked optional: find out who’s taking the lamps. The stair starts at the left end of the bridge. At the top stands the Ashby house, with one warm window.

Inside, a girl named Lena sits up in bed, held in the stopped minute with a paper lantern in her hands. Her quilt has slipped to the floor. You can tuck her in. Choose to do her feet as well, and Mira remembers her mum: “Cold feet, cold dreams.” Or leave the lantern where it is, so that somebody in this house gets to keep their light.

What else Mira finds in that house is the biggest secret of the chapter, so we’ll stop here. You can skip the climb and still finish chapter 1. If you go, Mira has something new to tell Provost Crane.

In a dark gray-blue bedroom, Lena, a thin girl frozen in gray, sits up with her eyes closed in a white iron bed, holding a glowing yellow paper lantern, while Mira in her teal coat and goggles pulls the diamond-quilted blanket up over her with both hands and Tik, the brass pocket-watch robot, watches from the right with a pink heart in his round eye; beside the bed stands a small table with medicine bottles and a glowing lamp, a child’s drawing of a house is pinned to the wall, slippers sit under the bed and a striped rug lies on the floorboards
Search history: “gentle adventure game where you tuck someone in.”

Ask Tik

When you’re stuck, “What now, Tik?” gets a hint in his own short words. The other questions are worth asking just for the answers. Why does the snow hang in the air? “Time. Holding breath.” And try the regulator key with Tik’s little key: “A big key and a little key. Like Grandpa and me.”

Visit the stopped town

Tomorrow Ago is free to play in your browser at tomorrowago.com. More about the game is on its Tomorrow Ago page.

More about Tomorrow Ago