Clocktopia

[k9]

Clocktopia

"Welcome to the world as it is now."

I like to usually upload things a day late as you might have noticed in October (or November I guess?) 2019, so time to keep the tradition up. It's been a day over two years since my last full Clock Crew game, Poly's Mountain Adventure 2 on February 29th 2020. So I guess I was technically on time with this post? I'm not sure if anyone was really wondering what happened to my games, but if you were I can tell you that the road since then has been interesting.

Between the scrapped sequel to Clock Day 2K19: The Offical Video Game (aptly named what you might think, first one to guess gets one of my famous forum awards.), and another cancelled Clock Crew game I was doing THE NEW MILLIONARES which I'm not even sure I announced, to GREY, which I definitely did announce and then quietly scrap almost immediately after, AND ALSO plans to remake PMA2, or to rerelease it but better, or to make a PMA3, it's been an arduous experience.

Butt alas, here I am, with a new project! That I SWEAR, I'll actually finish this time! I've been working on it for a few months now, and I want to show it to all of you. Enter: Clocktopia.

Clocktopia is a 2D platforming game, like my previous two, but with much denser a focus on atmosphere, narative, and character. The game plays quite similarly to Clock Day 2K19: The Offical Video Game, as it actually began a LONG time ago as a sequel to it, though it does control better, feel alot better I think, and is no where near as buggy or terrible as that game was.

In the games' GRAND narrative, a bitter and power-drunk SBC is convinced to help the people of Clocktopia, after a sudden blizzard hits the city and knocks the internet off all across town, the DAY before Clock Day! He travels across three reigons of the city, learning a little more about his people, and himself along the way. Well, actually mainly some dumb bullshit happens, but maybe he learns something too I can't remember.

Of the three areas, I have most of the first one completed. The days of blocky, nonsensical obstacle courses are gone, the enviornments here are actually... well, enviornments. Check out these screenshots!







Tell me what you think! I'll probably be reaching out to alot of you for voices, music or art in the coming days, so stay tuned. I'll also probably be rolling out some demos to a few people to get some feedback.

I hope you like it!

EXPECTED RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 15TH 2022

[PhantomCatClock]

it looks a lot better than clocktopia.net so keep it up

[321]

321 will attempt to help you in every possible way..

[k9]

Hey everyone! It's the 27th of April, and I just thought I'd write a little developer log because for the next two months development is going to be really slow. What can I say, I have stuff to do lol. I just thought I'd leave anyone interested for now with a little update.

First of all, the games main mechanics are done entirely. I spent a little more time recently polishing stuff up with visual effects and sounds, like a cool after-image effect when Strawberry Clock rolls, or SFX for interacting with various objects. While the soundtrack is being composed and produced by me, a good chunk of the sound design is being done by fellow developer seanlyons. Go play his games! He's got a serious knack for sound design.

I must say the script is coming along more slowly than I'd like, but its being put together bit by bit. I'll say that I am learning a lot about narrative structure in video games from making this, as things I just kind of assumed might work... don't lmao. The game features as all my work usually does, real voice work. So far in the opening chapter, Rob Clock REPRISES his role as Rob Clock, and Succubus Clock is showing her face again to play herself in a little cutscene! Randomised TV Clock is also making a DEBUT appearance in the game (I think lol correct me if I'm wrong) and is voicing himself too. In a maybe seemingly weird move lol, D.VA Clock is playing Redbook Clock in the game, doing a kind of Nancy Cartwright type deal. It should be really cool! Strawberry Clock was initially going to be voiced by programmer and musician Melo of Arcade Sunrise and Running Shine, but unfortunately while he was all for it, it fell through and he couldn't do it in the end. I've yet to find a replacement I'm happy with.

But on a happier note, the game does feature WONDERFUL contributions from our resident UFO Clock, AND Rob Clock! UFO has answered the call and is taking on the HERCULEAN task of creating dialogue portraits for every single character in the game. If you're reading this it's likely he's going to draw you! You can see some of his utterly fucking gnarly portraits below:
         

Rob Clock's brilliant illustrations have become something of a staple in my games, as this is his third time doing art for me, after Absinthe Vs Nintendo, and Poly's Mountain Adventure 2. The drawings he did were always a highlight of my otherwise poorly designed and shoddily programmed nightwares, and I think from what I've seen so far, this is his best contribution yet! He's creating a 50 panel serialized comic called "Ain't No Grave", which the player can read by collecting his comic strips throughout the game world. It'll unfold as the player collects strips, and I think it gives a hell of an incentive to go above and beyond for those collectibles.

A huge thanks to Rob Clock and UFO Clock!

Here's a dump of screenshots!











While development is really powering along, I'm changing the release date to just 2022, probably late in the year. Clock Day was an ambitious target, and I have a lot of stuff going on right now lol. If I did finish a version for Clock Day it'd suck mad dick. I'm not sure if anyone was really keeping an eye on this, but nonetheless I hope you enjoyed the update! I don't plan on releasing many of these lol, and it'll probably be a while until you hear from me about Clocktopia again.

-k9

[RobClock]

Look, Ma! I'm in the update!

[VCRClock]

:feeble arthritic 👍:

It is exciting to see you working on something so ambitious, even if you have to slow down

I hope to see it again when it is further along

"Perseverance conquers all things," or so I once read on a scrap of paper

[k9]

:feeble arthritic 👍:

It is exciting to see you working on something so ambitious, even if you have to slow down

I hope to see it again when it is further along

"Perseverance conquers all things," or so I once read on a scrap of paper

Thanks VCR, that means alot coming from you

Perseverance is probably the most important thing in making computer games, as it can be a really slow and sometimes frustrating process, I'd be lying if I said I didn't at one point not feel like working on Clocktopia. I think it's important to leave a little space between you and your project. It's really easy for your hobby to become work if you push yourself too hard, and you'll just end up hating it in the end. I still have alot of work to do on it, but I think the game has occupied a nice little space in my life, and I genuinely enjoy working on it

Look, Ma! I'm in the update!

lol enjoy your 15 minutes of INTERNET FAME