aka: “Project Odin”
August 27th, 2012 – Gaslamp Games, Inc., independent game developers and makers of the critically acclaimed Dungeons of Dredmor, are pleased to announce their new title, Clockwork Empires, for the Windows, OS X, and Linux platforms.
The Clockwork Empire is expanding! Brave people, seeking glory and wealth, are setting forth for uncharted lands in search of fame and fortune. This is a new age of Science – fearless naturalists, clever tinkerers, and brilliant inventors hold sway over the imagination of the common folk, wielding voltaic energies and constructing chromed brass clockwork engines. It is an age of The Arts – poets lie expiring on every street corner, crying for Reform and more laudanum, while the Empire Times spews forth from the great presses of the Capitol, filled with stories of inspiring hubris and adventure from The Colonies. It is an age of Trade – the many arms of the Imperial Chartered Antipodean Trading Company lurch across the oceans like the limbs of a commodity-crazed octopus, dredging untapped markets for wealth and glory. It is an age of Politics – scheming agents of the Empire skulk through the slums and grottoes of the colonies, dodging anarchist schemes and cultists’ rituals, and fulfilling secretive missions on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen. Meanwhile, in the Capitol, favours are curried in the Houses of Parliament and the Panopticon between the artistocratic Lords and the rising classes of Industrial Barons.
Fly the Union Cog over all three identified corners of the world!
But not all is well in the Empire. Strangers gather under lampposts and in bars, telling stories of Those That Live Beyond The Stars, operating in invisible geometries from another dimension. The Queen, some whisper, has been locked away at the behest of her own Prime Minister… but to what end? The Church of the Holy Cog prays for the salvation of the Empire, yet everybody fears the indescribable colors that trace lines through the darkest woods and beyond the reassuring glow of the gas-lamps. The fortunes of the Clockwork Empire are watched, silently, by unseen eye-clusters and malevolent entities trying to breach the walls of reality into this world.
Take on the role of a Junior 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!
Glory is yours to seize; the world is yours to do with as you please. For fame and fortune, for Science, and for the Queen and the glory of the Clockwork Empires!
But wait, there’s more!
Herein, the good folk of Gaslamp Games present a small selection of their “penny dreadful” game development features, demonstrating wonders never-before seen in plebian entertainment:
- 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 of plumbing, link together mighty gears, and build ominous Megaprojects!
- Tangle with the machinations 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 mode lets 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 in Each 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 new Dynamic 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 can mod it yourself in the best tradition of Empire Craftsmanship!
For more information, Gaslamp Games invites you to subscribe to their Awful Circular, available at www.gaslampgames.com on the Inter-Net Tubes. For more exciting information about the latest Gaslamp Games endeavor, visit PC Gamer!
Cog Save the Queen! Huzzah and all that.
Multiplayer steampunk city builder with a touch of Lovecraft?
Goddamn the Diggles must have been working extra hard lately.
Honestly though, that sounds amazing!
this sounds like it’ll be a modernization of DF…
Can’t wait! omg omg omg >_<
Oh. My. God.
Two words:
FUCK
YES
I. Am. So. Excite!!
WHERE CAN I GET THIS. I MUST KNOW. MY MONEY NEEDS TO BE SPENT ON FINE DIGGLE-MADE GOODS!
WANT! WANT! WANT!
OMG, it is sold. Where do i have to throw my zorkmids?
This looks promising, I can’t wait to lay my hands on it!
Good luck! This looks awesome! And consider this one very interested in beta tester.
JJ
Sounds really neat! When do I get to test it? 🙂
My cogs started to itch a bit. Do want!
Sounds great.
And there shall be ….
SCIENCE!!!
As long as we can mass-produce The Bomb, I has a happy. Neither more, nor less. You’ll get your 10 bux ASAP, Gaslamp.
God, I hope it has unibrows
My zorkmids are bouncing off the Inter-Net Tubes Viewscreen! Why won’t they penetrate the boundaries of the Three Dimensions?!??!
I WAINADSOIDNASOIJDASDW THIS. I WANT THIS.
Dear Gaslamp,
Please take me as your communal bride.
<3
…I approve so hard. I remember seeing someone in the speculation thread joking about how it might be a Dwarf Fortress-type thing. And now… now…
I demand a release date so I can commence throwing money at you.
This has kind of a China Mieville vibe to it, sounds like money well invested if you would finally allow us to give you some 🙁
” …and harness the power of steam and energies brought forth by determined, unregulated men and women of Science!”
As it should be!
No peasant or “ptuee” polititian is going to be in the way of progress!
Yay awesome! Good luck guys, I hope for myself and you guys that it will a great game and a great succes!!
This is the greatest game announcement post ever 🙂 Why can’t the rest of humankind be like the splendiferous fellows of Gaslamp Games?!
Does this take place in the same world as DoD (albeit some time in the future)?
You had me at Actual University Students!
Also, that poster is a thing of beauty! Any chance of a higher-res version, or should I just print it out on A4?
Take all of my money.
I wanted to say this game sounds amazing. Is there any chance you might do a version on kickstarter.com for a console port?
I would gladly put down a lot of money for this game on the Xbox 360.
That being said if you can’t bring it out on the Xbox 360 I will buy it for the PC & that will be great too.
CAN I GIVE YOU MY MONEY RIGHT NOW PLEASE
Love the title. Also, the rest of it.
hehehe yus dorfs fortresses
only one question needs to be asked: well there be diggles and people with large eye brows?
Looking at this spectacular announcement made me adjust my monocle – could this really be happening? Blimey!
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=115478.0
The entirely of Bay12 seems to be behind you. Godspeed good sirs and/or madams. Expect generous helpings of… everything.
We’re with you, good sirs and madams, best of luck, and take our money.
Day One. <3
I think I need to change my pants now
Simply smashing!
Well now, this is certainly a thing—-good thing I never engaged in any betting as to what this would turn out to be else I’d have lost something fierce.
It shall be interesting indeed to see how this saga unfolds!
Wait, you guys are including a built-in legacy game component? Nice thinking!
Wow this is great news. I’ve been waiting for someone to make something like this for a very long time. Wonder when I can throw my money to you guys.
Take my money now.
So…. can my newly (and somewhat forcibly) acquired army of Diggles help me… right?
Are the requeriments low? I ask because I currently own a netbook, not really made for playing 🙁
All of my internets and a tip of the hat to you gentlemen!
I don’t think I’ve ever felt this excited in, years or something. You guys are way too amazing <3
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
This sounds amazing. So amazing in fact that perhaps I’m in the Dreamlands. (but I hope not. scary stuff there.)
Bruce Gooch:
I am so excited I just peed a little bit.
Nicholas Vining: you have no idea how often I’ve heard that today
(It’s true!)
How you gonna go and “announce” some awesome-sounding game and leave ABSOLUTELY ZERO information about when/where/how it can be bought? Seriously, guys. At least make it clear that this game isn’t yet available. I’m just assuming it isn’t yet available — I’m not sure cause no one has actually said as much.
But a notification mailing would be nice. Something we can subscribe to that would just let us know when the game is out so we can buy it, without fear of getting _any other emails_ from you guys. I know that might break the marketing departments’ heart, but watch how many more people sign up.
We need a release date. WE NEED A RELEASE DATE.
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As a DF fan, I can’t wait to see your version of DF. By the way, I’m almost certain you lurk our forums, there’s no way you could figure out so many references!
YAY! No DRM! Thank you for letting us pirate your game!