We saw plenty of indie games and Sony's new VR Morpheus technology at GDC this year, but one title I'll keep waiting on is Clockwork Empires from Gaslamp Games who just announced that their early access launch on Steam has been pushed back to this summer.
Clockwork Empires blends city-building, civilization management, and some truly unique hooks like portals to a dark dimension. From our preview:
For example, opening a portal and appeasing Quag’garoth is totally possible so long as you’ve collected enough bone meal for the monster to eat. You’ll have had to gather all that in the middle of town to present it like an offering to boot. All in all, Clockwork Empires seems exceedingly ambitious for the team at Gaslamp, but they’re likely nerdy enough to pull it off. I didn’t see multiplayer in action either, but one developer said that you can actually give artifacts to rival citizens to attract Quag’garoth to other towns too.
Maybe it’d be better to bury the damn thing! With great power comes great responsibility after all (that’s Voltaire, not Spider-Man by the way). While I normally look to the GDC Play area for an indie game to champion for the rest of the year, Clockwork Empires did the trick.
Daniel Jacobsen writes on the Gaslamp Games blog:
Almost everyone who has played the current version of Clockwork Empires can see the promise of what we want the game to be when it’s done. The message that we keep hearing is “don’t force this game out the door until it’s ready, because it will be really special when it is”, and we want it to be there when you play it. In the spirit of transparency, starting early access this spring would not allow us to give you that – close, but not quite hitting the mark yet.
Certainly, GameRevolution's Paul Tamburro would agree that a few Early Access games on Steam could have waited before opting for your money. The platform continues to allow developers direct interaction with consumers, but I like that Gaslamp are keeping a lid on things until the game is good and ready.
