Clockwork Forge Games is a video-game development team led by Entertainment Arts & Engineering students at the University of Utah. With the release of their first game, “Hyperborean Charter,” the team is excited to show everyone the world they’ve built.
“Hyperborean Charter” takes place in the far north in a climate like the Klondike and polar reaches of the globe. Facing frigid conditions, the player must try to survive the icy climate by trading and talking with local villages. From random events to a randomly generated world, no two playthroughs will be the same. Interactions with in-game characters and reading journals will provide insight into the lore. The game released on Steam in December 2018.
The team is currently focused on producing small role-playing games, or RPG’s.
Clockwork Forge Games started in December 2017 as a get-together to allow each team member and U student to focus on aspects of game development that interest them.
The Clockwork Forge Games team.
Jackson Hutson, technical designer, is exploring game artificial intelligence and dialogue systems without being slowed down by creating or finding art to implement in the game. Celine Cavanaugh, 2-D sprite artist, is experimenting with new art styles and animation. “I’ve always enjoyed art, and it is great to employ the skills I learned and create fun characters for the game,” she said. Nicholas Karegianes, designer, joined wanting to implement world-design and lore-building – “Since I’ve been playing video games, world-building has intrigued me,” he said. Finally, Ivan Lee, background artist, joined the team wanting to find new media to explore his artistic abilities.
The team has made extensive use of resources provided by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute at the U since its inception. Beginning in January, the team has met regularly at Lassonde Studios. In August 2018, Clockwork Forge Games became one of the teams involved in Lassonde’s Company Launch program and has greatly benefitted from the meetings and resources provided. The ability to talk to Lassonde leaders has given the team many insights on moving forward in marketing and business respectively.
In spring 2019, the team plans to start work on their second released game, which will build on many of the mechanics and systems implemented in “Hyperborean Charter.”
“We hope to continuously improve on our past games and experiences, so in a couple years we can put all our efforts into a larger, grander project,” Draheim said.
Download their game Hyperborean Charter on Steam at https://store.steampowered.com/app/987990/Hyperborean_Charter/.
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Great post! These guys have done a great job. I appreciate their efforts and I like the concept behind the game. Thanks for sharing this post.