STILL — New York stops at 23:58 · Play free in your browser

01The game

It's 23:58 in New York, and the city keeps stopping.

Every so often the whole city stops for a few seconds, then carries on as if nothing happened. Kai is the only one who notices, and now he can stop time himself, for four seconds. The stills are getting longer. By his maths, on Friday at 09:30, when the opening bell rings, time stops for good.

4.000 s

How long a still used to last. This week: 4.21, 4.38, 4.60.

Press it and New York holds its breath: traffic, rain, gulls, eight million people.

FRI 09:30

The opening bell. After that, the still never ends.

Koreatown at night, neon signs over a wet street — Koreatown, W 32nd St

Kai's desk: a wall of screens logging the gaps in time — The gap log

The New York Stock Exchange floor, frozen in a still — The NYSE, in a still

An explorable New York

The DUMBO waterfront, the Brooklyn Bridge on foot, Wall Street, Chinatown, Koreatown, Times Square, the Empire State Building and Central Park, alive at night.

A voiced story

Eight chapters and more than 2,400 voiced lines, with people who talk back and 300+ clues to find, some only visible in a still.

The subway

Seventeen stations from Brooklyn to Columbus Circle, MetroCard turnstiles and trains that run on the city's clock.

Taxis and cars

Hail a cab from your phone and watch the city go by, or take the wheel yourself.

The NYSE floor

Walk the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and Federal Hall across the street.

Nightlife

Clubs, karaoke in Koreatown, the view from the 86th floor, and a city that keeps moving until you stop it.

02The story

For eleven weeks, every clock in New York has been skipping. Nobody noticed, because for a few seconds nobody was there.

Kai lives in an old brick loft tower on the Brooklyn waterfront, with a rubidium clock on his desk that keeps better time than the city does. His logs show the gaps: every phone, camera and signal jumping forward at the same instant. He calls them stills. They used to last exactly four seconds. They're getting longer.

Tonight, at 23:58, a still hits, and this time Kai stays awake inside it. Traffic stopped mid-turn. A gull hanging outside the glass. And down on Water Street, one other person is moving.