I entered this game without reading anything and was able to pick it up really quickly. The moment when you realize that the world is synced up with the clock is really fun! Definitely one of the most creative implementations of the theme I've seen!
My main gripe is that after you learn how to count, you spend the majority of your time just walking and it got a bit boring. To be fair, the bottom half of the map was cool because it experimented with ways to throw your count off (the triplet blacksmiths got me) and introduced some challenges that require you to focus on counting more.
I think you could play around with the idea even more by having the clock tick slower or faster, or even in different syncopated rhythms. So that way with each clock the counting itself is done differently plus you get to see the effect of the new counting system on the world.