Clockwork Capers — Puzzle & Logic Minigames for RPG Maker MZ

Eleven clockwork automatons have wound themselves up and escaped the Inventor’s workshop. Each one is hiding behind a puzzle, and the only way to bring it home is to solve it.

Clockwork Capers drops 11 self-contained puzzle and logic minigames into your RPG Maker MZ project as a single plugin. Everything is drawn in code: no images, no audio files, no other plugins. Add one Plugin Command to an event and your players are solving a case.

Part of the MZ Minigame Collection. This plugin is one of a growing library of themed minigames for RPG Maker MZ, from board games and puzzles to sports, casino and crafting. Mix and match to fill your world with things to do.

👉 See them all: https://itch.io/c/8090415/mz-minigame-collection

The eleven cases

The Workshop

• Potion Mixing: work out the secret colour order from gold and silver bubble clues.
• Cipher Engine: solve equations, from sums up to “3x + 4 = 19”, to print a hideout code.

Hilltop Manor

• Portrait Puzzle: swap tiles to rebuild a painting in the fewest moves.
• Paint Studio: connect-the-dots, paint-by-numbers and a free-paint canvas.
• Clock Tower: a Tower of Hanoi with gears, plus a hint button that works from any position.

Old Town

• Card Parlour: a classic memory match.
• Gem Duel: serve the exact gem each customer orders; play against the computer or a friend.
• Arrow Streets: turn junction arrows so a car drives itself home.
• Under the Streets: a maze where you only see what your lantern lights.
• Codebreaker: letter-guessing word locks, shift ciphers and word scrambles.
• Magpie’s Maze: collect trinkets while a thieving bird steals them back, then name what it took.

Features

• Case briefing before every game: the suspect’s photo, where it’s hiding, and how to play. Players can reopen it any time with Shift or the ? button.
• The suspect watches you play: it taunts you when you slip up and rattles nervously when you’re on a streak.
• Case Files: winning each game unlocks a short lesson on the thinking skill it uses, such as why Tower of Hanoi takes 2ⁿ − 1 moves or how shift ciphers work.
• Case Board hub (optional main-menu command): captures, star ratings, best times, a “Random case” button and a difficulty toggle.
• Three difficulty levels, three illustrated districts, and a cage-drop capture on the result screen.
• Rewards and hooks for your game: the score (0–100 %) goes to a variable you choose, with a pass switch and an all-captured switch, so you can gate quests and doors on results.
• Controls and accessibility: keyboard, mouse and touch; typing supported in the maths and word games; colour-blind helpers on by default.
• Easy to re-theme: district names, the hub title and menu name are plugin parameters, and the automatons, taunts and Case Files are editable data tables.

Installation

1. Copy ClockworkCapers.js into js/plugins/.
2. Enable it in the Plugin Manager and set the score variable, pass switch and default difficulty.
3. Use Plugin Command → Clockwork Capers → Start Minigame, or open the Case Board from the menu.

Requirements: RPG Maker MZ. No dependencies.