Steampunk city-building, japes, uncharted continent taming, Clockwork Empires, the new project from Gaslamp Games, has a lot to oil our cogs.
But I couldn’t possibly tell you all about it above the break, sally forth to the ‘Read and Comment’ button!
According to Gaslamp you ” Take on the role of aJunior Bureaucrat (Colonial Grade), sent forth to seek fame, promotions, and natural resources to feed the ever-hungry maw of industry and commerce. Build mighty colonies, fill them with magnificent factories and tortured machinery, and harness the power of steam and energies brought forth by determined, unregulated men and women of Science!”
What will that mean in gaming terms? Well it looks set to take the Anno games in a more procedural direction. You’re still building cities on the outer reaches of an empire but those citizens under your control are more autonomous and less than loyal. These colonial types were often running from something after all.
Here be all those attractive features in a easily digestible format:
- Dynamic, city-building, citizen-simulating action.Every imperial subject has a purpose and agenda of their own, and their interactions are rich, exciting, and often lethal!
- 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!
- Tame the uncharted continents by land, sea, and air!Set forth in mighty Zeppelins to do battle with Sky Pirates, or take to the seas in search of fortune and probably sea serpents!
- Create magnificent acts ofplumbing, link together mightygears, and build ominousMegaprojects!
- Tangle with themachinations of malevolent entities!Scry the legacy of the Invisible Geometers, fumigate the baleful moon-fungus of the Selenian Polyps, and cleanse the scuttling creepiness and poor personal and moral hygiene of your everyday, average cultist.
- Losing is still fun!When your colony fails miserably, earn medals, promotions, and titles as befits a true politician and scion of the Empire!
- Multi-player mode, with up to 4 players, lets you co-operate with your closest friends to build a glorious city… or fight a horrifying economic battle to total annihilation!
- Round-Robin modelets you share your Clockwork Empires with friends! Take turns running a colony directly into the ground then argue for fun-filled hours about whose fault it was! (Like Monopoly but with more exploding Zeppelins!)
- Rendered in glorious GaslampVision!Thrill as the colours are brought to life by Gaslamp’s team of caffeine-addled artists labouring under the technical specifications of our elite programmers* to bring you a game that is rendered inEach of the Three Dimensions!New multi-core technology by Actual University Students lets you use every last ounce of power in your computer to run a thrilling and vivid simulation!
(* We’ll see about that, Nicholas.Soon.– David) - Featuring the newDynamic Soundtrack Orchestra– the Soundtrack that Adjusts to Your Gameplay! (Mr. M. Steele, conductor)
- No always-online DRM requirement, unlike certain other games we don’t want to mention. You know who you are and your mothers are very disappointed.
- Comes complete with the Gaslamp Games Quality of Excellence that you know and love, and if you don’t like something you canmod it yourselfin the best tradition of Empire Craftsmanship!
So a lot to take in, but on the flip side, this is what Gaslamp do best. Their precious game, Dungeons of Dredmor, was a rich game full of features, comedy, adaptability, and, until you’d sunk in the hours, confusion.
I’m itching to hear more from the developers.