- Location
- Australia
My colonists grow increasingly unhappy with the lack of sleeping space available. I try to appease them, but their ranks swell faster than I can meet their quotas. Buildings are hastily erected, hallow halls filled with crude cots. The conditions are cramped, but at least they have a roof over their heads now- a stark contrast to when we started. At least they are no longer starving, their stomachs filled- if crudely- with vast, sweeping fields of maize, toiled over endlessly by teams of colonists who will never be assigned work elsewhere. My efforts were focused here for many weeks, long enough for problems to take root elsewhere, problems I struggle still to deal with.
The fishmen attacks continue, ever growing in severity and number. My militia, ten strong, was once enough to hold them off, but they struggle more with each passing day. I must construct a metalworks soon, but this requires bricks, the primary component of the buildings preferred by my overseers. I must choose- do I satisfy my overseers, or progress towards my goal of getting more advanced weaponry? But- alas, the choice is taken out of my hands; my supply of clay runs dry, and my colonists, hampered by their terrible night visions and increasing fear of fishmen attacks, refuse to explore my borders.
And the strange, paranoid ravings of Reuben and Pepper continue, infecting the minds of my colonists with their insane zeal. Two competing cults- and, aha; Genevieve has uncovered a strange idol while mining for stone. Soon, a third will join them. I ply them with alcohol as best I can, but it is not enough. Soon, the madness will spread, and I will lose dozens to the endless march to the sea. If only I had the clay to build a chapel- but no, even if I did, I have more important tasks to look towards.
This is Clockwork Empires.
Clockwork Empires is a game made by Gaslamp Games, known for their more popular title, Dungeons of Dredmor. It's been in development for over two years now, and is- according to the devs- reaching the stage where it may soon move into beta. This length of time is unsurprising- it's a very ambitious game being developed by a crew of seven ("six and a half", according to the devs) people.
The game has an odd setting, a mix between Victorian times, a steampunk novel, and a Lovecraftian horror story. Over the past two in-game days, I've been fighting off waves of Fishmen after reluctantly initiating hostilities against them last week, while assigning several clerks to filling out menial paperwork in the hopes I may gain enough favour with the Empire for them to send me a squad of soldiers. In the meantime, a group of allied soldiers in power armour swept down from the north and eliminated a group of bandits that had been threatening me for several days, although the bastards refused to help me with my Fishmen problem.
The gameplay can be a bit weird. The game's conceit is that every character within it has their own unique personality. As such, you don't directly control them; rather, you assign them to workgroups and create jobs, and the characters will work (or not) as their personality dictates. It's then up to you to try to get everyone to complete the jobs you need done while competing against... everything else in the world.
It's a weird game, and it's still in alpha (Early Access on Steam), but I've had a lot of fun with it so far. 14 hours in, I've yet to experience a game-breaking bug, just a few smaller ones (less than I'd expect from your typical Bethesda release). A lot of their alpha development is just the release of new features and ironing out AI behaviour.
If you're at all interested in learning more about the game, or perhaps even buying it, you can find more information here.
In the meantime- well, there's a lot to discuss about the game, so here we go.
The fishmen attacks continue, ever growing in severity and number. My militia, ten strong, was once enough to hold them off, but they struggle more with each passing day. I must construct a metalworks soon, but this requires bricks, the primary component of the buildings preferred by my overseers. I must choose- do I satisfy my overseers, or progress towards my goal of getting more advanced weaponry? But- alas, the choice is taken out of my hands; my supply of clay runs dry, and my colonists, hampered by their terrible night visions and increasing fear of fishmen attacks, refuse to explore my borders.
And the strange, paranoid ravings of Reuben and Pepper continue, infecting the minds of my colonists with their insane zeal. Two competing cults- and, aha; Genevieve has uncovered a strange idol while mining for stone. Soon, a third will join them. I ply them with alcohol as best I can, but it is not enough. Soon, the madness will spread, and I will lose dozens to the endless march to the sea. If only I had the clay to build a chapel- but no, even if I did, I have more important tasks to look towards.
This is Clockwork Empires.
Clockwork Empires is a game made by Gaslamp Games, known for their more popular title, Dungeons of Dredmor. It's been in development for over two years now, and is- according to the devs- reaching the stage where it may soon move into beta. This length of time is unsurprising- it's a very ambitious game being developed by a crew of seven ("six and a half", according to the devs) people.
The game has an odd setting, a mix between Victorian times, a steampunk novel, and a Lovecraftian horror story. Over the past two in-game days, I've been fighting off waves of Fishmen after reluctantly initiating hostilities against them last week, while assigning several clerks to filling out menial paperwork in the hopes I may gain enough favour with the Empire for them to send me a squad of soldiers. In the meantime, a group of allied soldiers in power armour swept down from the north and eliminated a group of bandits that had been threatening me for several days, although the bastards refused to help me with my Fishmen problem.
The gameplay can be a bit weird. The game's conceit is that every character within it has their own unique personality. As such, you don't directly control them; rather, you assign them to workgroups and create jobs, and the characters will work (or not) as their personality dictates. It's then up to you to try to get everyone to complete the jobs you need done while competing against... everything else in the world.
It's a weird game, and it's still in alpha (Early Access on Steam), but I've had a lot of fun with it so far. 14 hours in, I've yet to experience a game-breaking bug, just a few smaller ones (less than I'd expect from your typical Bethesda release). A lot of their alpha development is just the release of new features and ironing out AI behaviour.
If you're at all interested in learning more about the game, or perhaps even buying it, you can find more information here.
In the meantime- well, there's a lot to discuss about the game, so here we go.
