‘The Last Clockwinder’ is a Studio Ghibli-inspired Automation Game Coming to Quest 2 & SteamVR in 2022

Fixing up an old tower without tools sounds tough, but much less so when you have an army of robotic clones at your disposal. That’s the idea at least behind The Last Clockwinder, a VR automation game from Pontoco which is slated to hit Quest 2 and SteamVR headsets sometime in Summer 2022.

Studio Ghibli vibes radiate throughout the game’s announcement trailer, showing off a familiar harmony between nature and machine that fans of Hayao Miyazaki’s storytelling style have come to love.

While on your mission to repair the ancient tower, which the team reveals is built into the trunk of a colossal tree, you find a pair of gloves that essentially lets you record your movements and spawn an army of clockwork automatons. It ends up feeling like a mini steampunk version of Factorio crossed with an immersive take on the cleaning montage from Howl’s Moving Castle (2004).

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Automatons help you grow plants, harvest resources, and “find a way to save the clocktower,” Pontoco says.

What is it being saved from? We’re still hoping to find out, as the game’s world-building looks already so mature that there must be some lore behind it all.

As it is, The Last Clockwinder seems rich with possibility, as you no doubt need to learn recipes and craft increasingly complicated things in your effort to get the old tower back in shape—something that definitely looks like a labor of love.

The Last Clockwinder is slated to arrive natively on Quest 2 (re: not the original Quest) and SteamVR headsets sometime in Summer 2022. You can wishlist the game on Steam here.