Backlash: A Gear Puzzle Game
Build CASPAR, gear by gear
Free · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
Every board has exactly one logical solution — no brute force, no luck. Build a Victorian automaton gear by gear until the whole machine turns as one.
Ironhaven, 1887. The Sovereign — the great steam engine at the heart of the city — is dying. A catastrophic backlash has spread through its gear train:
microscopic gaps between teeth, compounding with every revolution. The city grows cold.
Human hands are too crude to reach the fault. So you build CASPAR — a Computational Automaton for Steam-Powered Analysis and Repair — assembled gear by gear and sent into the Sovereign to correct what no one else can reach.
BUILD ONE CONTINUOUS MACHINE
Backlash isn't a stack of disconnected puzzles — it's one machine you assemble across four chapters. Every gear you place stays placed, becoming the foundation the next section meshes onto. Finish a chapter and the organ you built docks into CASPAR's growing body, spinning and driving the next.
FOUR SYSTEMS, ONE AUTOMATON
- The Drive Heart — CASPAR's power core, a radial gear-train heart
- The Timing Mind — a precision calculating mechanism of gears, belts, and chains
- The Iron Frame — a skeleton of shafts and gears, CASPAR's body and limbs
- First Light — the ocular core; the eyes open as every system turns as one
READ THE MACHINE, NOT THE HINTS
Sockets don't tell you what fits. Gears mesh by size and geometry — small meets medium edge-on, medium meets large on the diagonal — and you work out which piece belongs where by reading how the machine wants to turn. Get it wrong and the mechanism jams; get it right and it locks in, running for good.
MORE THAN GEARS
As CASPAR grows more intricate, so do the tools: rigid shafts couple gears that can't mesh directly, chains and belts carry motion — and drive — across open gaps, and couplers correct a gear spinning the wrong way. Every mechanic you learn keeps returning, woven deeper into later machines.
NEW GAME+ AND ENDLESS
Finish the story and rebuild CASPAR from scratch on a harder New Game+ pass, with the training wheels off. Clear that and Endless mode opens: procedurally generated machines that grow larger and more elaborate the deeper you climb, layering in shafts, belts, and couplers as you go. Your best depth and lifetime solves are tracked, with dozens of in-app achievements to chase.
A QUIET, MECHANICAL PUZZLE GAME
No timers, no combat, no fail states you can't undo — just gears, logic, and the satisfaction of watching a machine you built actually run. Free to play, with the occasional ad between chapters and Endless machines. Can you fix the backlash before Ironhaven runs out of steam?
Ratings & Reviews
Backlash has been rebuilt from the ground up.
The whole game runs on a new engine now: faster to load, steadier on the board, and sharper on every screen size — including full-size iPad layouts.
Everything you knew is still here — the story of CASPAR and The Sovereign, New Game+, Endless, and the full run of achievements — rebuilt piece by piece rather than carried across.
The developer, Illmanajed Games LLC, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Used to Track You
The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:
- Identifiers
- Usage Data
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
- Identifiers
- Usage Data
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Illmanajed Games LLC
- Size
- 131 MB
- Category
- Puzzle
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 15.0 or later and a device with the A12 Bionic chip or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 15.0 or later and a device with the A12 Bionic chip or later.
• iPhone XS
• iPhone XS Max
• iPhone XR
• iPhone 11
• iPhone 11 Pro
• iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone SE (2nd generation)
• iPhone 12 mini
• iPhone 12
• iPhone 12 Pro
• iPhone 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 13 Pro
• iPhone 13 Pro Max
• iPhone 13 mini
• iPhone 13
• iPhone SE (3rd generation)
• iPhone 14
• iPhone 14 Plus
• iPhone 14 Pro
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
• iPhone 15
• iPhone 15 Plus
• iPhone 15 Pro
• iPhone 15 Pro Max
• iPhone 16
• iPhone 16 Plus
• iPhone 16 Pro
• iPhone 16 Pro Max
• iPhone 16e
• iPhone 17 Pro
• iPhone 17 Pro Max
• iPhone 17
• iPhone Air
• iPhone 17e - iPad
Requires iPadOS 15.0 or later and a device with the A12 Bionic chip or later.
• iPad Pro (11‑inch)
• iPad Pro (11‑inch) Wi‑Fi + Cellular
• iPad Pro (12.9‑inch) (3rd generation)
• iPad Pro (12.9‑inch) (3rd generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular
• iPad mini (5th generation)
• iPad mini (5th generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular
• iPad Air (3rd generation)
• iPad Air (3rd generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular
• iPad Pro (11‑inch) (2nd generation)
• iPad Pro (11‑inch) (2nd generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular
• iPad Pro (12.9‑inch) (4th generation)
• iPad Pro (12.9‑inch) (4th generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular
• iPad Air (4th generation)
• iPad Air (4th generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular
• iPad (8th generation)
• iPad (8th generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular
• iPad Pro (11-inch) (3rd generation)
• iPad Pro (11-inch) (3rd generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular
• iPad Pro (12.9-inch) (5th generation)
• iPad Pro (12.9-inch) (5th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular
• iPad mini (6th generation)
• iPad mini (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular
• iPad (9th generation)
• iPad (9th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular
• iPad Air (5th generation)
• iPad Air (5th generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular
• iPad (10th generation)
• iPad (10th generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular
• iPad Pro (11‑inch) (4th generation)
• iPad Pro (11‑inch) (4th generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular
• iPad Pro (12.9‑inch) (6th generation)
• iPad Pro (12.9‑inch) (6th generation) Wi‑Fi + Cellular
• iPad Air 11-inch (M2)
• iPad Air 11-inch (M2) Wi-Fi + Cellular
• iPad Air 13-inch (M2)
• iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Wi-Fi + Cellular
• iPad Pro 11-inch (M4)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular
• iPad Pro 13-inch (M4)
• iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular
• iPad mini (A17 Pro)
• iPad mini (A17 Pro) Wi-Fi + Cellular
• iPad (A16)
• iPad (A16) Wi-Fi + Cellular
• iPad Air 11-inch (M3)
• iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular
• iPad Air 13-inch (M3)
• iPad Air 13-inch (M3) Wi-Fi + Cellular
• iPad Pro 11-inch (M5)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular
• iPad Pro 13-inch (M5)
• iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular
• iPad Air 11-inch (M4)
• iPad Air 11-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular
• iPad Air 13-inch (M4)
• iPad Air 13-inch (M4) Wi-Fi + Cellular - Mac
Requires macOS 12.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later and a device with the A12 Bionic chip or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Contains
Advertising
- Copyright
- © 2026 illManajed Games LLC