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2 years ago
Feature: Loathecraft
Could it be that Clockwork Empires [official site], a town management sim concerning a life of toil and struggle against nightmarish entities on a strange new frontier, is so dedicated to its theme that is has deliberately conspired to drive me mad? The thought occurred to me often, as I gibbered and bellowed at my screen in frustration. Was I, too, becoming like one of…
Clockwork Empires [official site], the Lovecraftian colony management game from the creators of Dungeons of Dredmor, has been swelling like a fungal bloom in the cellar of Early Access. Today, it's ready to emerge. It's the kind of game I'm surprised to realise I haven't already spent fifty hours playing but I haven't touched it at all yet. This weekend looks like the right time…
Dungeons of Dredmor devs Gaslamp Games are almost ready to launch their next game, Clockwork Empires [official site]. I see you turn to your pal and tap your temple in a crude "the old dear's off her nut" gesture, because you remember it came out years ago, but nah that's all been 'earliest access' then early access. Come October 26th, it'll be properly out, ready…
3 years ago
After two years in early access, Lovecraftian colonybuilding/survival sim Clockwork Empires [official site] has released its first beta version. Changes like "New Event Arc system to chain interesting events together to produce Interesting Times" sound quite delightful until you realise this is a nice way to say "Now there's an arc to how frontier struggles murder your colonies and eldritch horrors megamurder them!" Beta status…
4 years ago
Feature: Little promises
I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I've come to the conclusion that Early Access (and the same concept under various different names) has only improved my gaming life.
It's a good day for lovers of silly patch notes. First, Dwarf Fortress - ever the best source for strange bugs and changes - tweeted to say that you no longer needed to soap your eyes. Then an update for Clockwork Empires - a Lovecraftian town management sim with more than a little Dwarf Fortress in its DNA - came with tales of angry fishpeople.…
5 years ago
Feature: The Cabbage Patch Over Innsmouth
Clockwork Empires is a citybuilding/Lovecraftian survival sim from Gaslamp Games, they of the splendid Dungeons of Dredmor, in which you manage and protect Imperial colonists attempting to build a life on a new frontier. A new frontier which just so happens to contain Other Creatures. While it might be a dramatic departure from the successful roguelike that went before it, it does retain the horror-comedy…
The whole idea of Steam Early Access is that games on it aren't finished, but people rightly expect certain (and sometimes unreasonable) levels of completeness, workingness, and polish. If a game is a bit too wonky when it hits Early Access, it may struggle massively to overcome spreading word that it's a garbage scam. Needing time and more testers to give Clockwork Empires a going-over…
John got to play Clockwork Empires during GDC, and he became instantly and irrevocably reviled by the rest of the RPS Hivemind. We might have evolved beyond such base pursuits as love, non-telepathic word-o-mancy, and ever doing anything other than playing games and furiously scribbling about them long ago, but boy do we do jealousy well. I daresay we do jealousy at a 14 millionth…
Feature: City building gets personal
Imagine if so much of the bullshit Peter Molyneux has talked over the years was actually in a game. A simulation game where each tiny human lived their own lives, had their own thoughts and feelings and memories, and behaved accordingly. It's a claim we've heard so often that it's hard not to dismiss it out of hand. So much so that when Dungeons Of…
If you place some kind of weird one-trailer-per-day restriction on yourself and are currently fretting about finding Mr or Ms Right: The Extremely Brief Videogame Preview, then look no further. Clockwork Empires, the latest ball of bits and bytes from Dungeons of Dredmor developer Gaslamp Games, just got its first trailer, and it's sending RPS' hyper-sensitive Delight-O-Meter into a tizzy. The game is a 19th…
7 years ago
Gaslamp "Dungeons Of Dredmor" Games have just revealed their new game, Clockwork Empires. It's a 3D sandbox building game with a 19th century colonial/Steampunk theme. That sounds exciting enough on its own, but, really, check out this paraphrased feature-list: "New “procedural extrusion” technology lets you design your colony the way you want! Buildings are procedurally generated and extruded directly from the aether to your specifications!…
