CLOCKWORLD

Lyuba Alekseeva

GAME PLOT: Clockworld
Age Rating: 6+

The year is 1888. In the fictional steampunk city of Clockworld, citizens extend their lives using exoskeletons, gradually turning themselves into machines. Two fully human citizens have been kidnapped. Detective Alanna Oberline turns to her childhood friend, the player, a skilled investigator. Like the kidnapped victims, the player remains fully human, without mechanical enhancements.

Oberline shows the player a clock found at the crime scenes. The clock ticks backward. The detectives visit a clockmaker’s shop to investigate these strange objects. The clockmaker, Jack Persiworld, is elderly, with most of his body replaced by an exoskeleton that never fully integrated. Due to his limited mobility, his apprentice Joseph handles most of the repairs. Jack assists with the investigation and explains that only a master craftsman could create such a Reverse Clock.

Soon after, a woman named Jane Bennett disappears, but no clock is found at the scene. The player experiences a vision of Jane with a gentleman at the Theater of Lights. The detectives go there and find a witness who saw her with a young professor named Berlione. He owns a laboratory where he creates various potions and collects curiosities, including clocks. During questioning, Berlione appears nervous, making him a suspect.

The player sneaks into his lab to search for evidence and finds Jane’s gloves. Meanwhile, Berlione slips onto a railway track covered in machine oil left by an unknown person. He is pulled away just before a tram strikes him but suffers a severe head injury. When he briefly regains consciousness, he reveals that Jane is hiding in an apartment beneath his laboratory. The detectives find her and inform her about Berlione’s hospitalization. Overcome with emotion, Jane faints. It turns out she and Berlione are engaged, and she had been hiding for her safety from the true kidnapper.

That night, the detectives spot Joseph dropping a Reverse Clock. They follow him into the catacombs, where they discover three human figures encased inside clock-shaped mechanisms, along with Persiworld, who no longer appears as a frail old man. He reveals that he has long dreamed of turning back time to undo his decision to replace his hands with mechanical ones. That is why he left the backward-running clocks at the crime scenes, crafted by Joseph under his direction.

The criminal unveils his creations: massive clockwork constructs built with his mechanical hands. Inside the human-shaped clock mechanisms are the kidnapped victims, alive but unconscious. Persiworld is arrested, and Joseph is cleared of charges, having acted under the influence of potions stolen from Berlione’s laboratory. The kidnapped victims are freed. Berlione recovers and marries Jane Bennett.

COLLECTION SYSTEM IN THE GAME:

Quests lead players to collect five or six parts that combine into a single crafted object. Alternatively, players may gather six related items that form a complete case file or memory set.

Special tools connect these objects depending on the collection type. For mechanical builds, players use tools such as wrenches, hammers, and screwdrivers. For investigative sets, they use items like a briefcase, brass wire, leather straps, and similar materials.

Players receive these tools after completing quests. If a required tool is missing, additional quests can be completed to obtain it.

CHARACTERS:

Alanna Oberline

The player’s childhood friend and a young detective in Clockworld. Her left arm is mechanical, though no one knows why she needed an exoskeleton. Following in her father’s footsteps, who was a renowned detective, Alanna strives to prove to herself and the city that she is more than just her father’s shadow and to become a detective her father would be proud of. Visual prototype: young Rachel Weisz.

Jack Persiworld

A kind elderly man, owner of an old clock shop in Clockworld. He used to craft clocks himself, but after giving himself mechanical hands, which didn’t integrate well, he had to give up working with small parts. He hired an apprentice, Joseph, to whom he passed on his knowledge, while Jack now handles only the business side of things.

Professor Berlione

A brilliant professor of alchemy in his forties. He owns a laboratory where he creates potions. Meticulous, slightly withdrawn, but a sophisticated gentleman. One of the wealthiest people in Clockworld.

Jane Bennett

A young writer, beautiful and well educated, but highly sensitive. This helps her creativity, though it sometimes makes life harder for her. Jane internalizes everything happening around her, often taking things to heart. However, she is ready to move mountains for her friends. Her name is a reference to the heroine from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Joseph

An 18 year old apprentice to Jack Persiworld. Talented and quick to learn, which Jack highly values. Joseph is shy and seems perpetually sad. This isn’t surprising, as his parents died and he left his hometown to move to Clockworld. In this big city, he has no friends or anyone close to him.

Manley Wright

An energetic man in his sixties, the chief designer of incredible devices and machines in Clockworld. Many of his inventions were tested on himself, giving him an eccentric appearance. For example, he has retractable binoculars instead of eyes. He has a daughter who also creates amazing, often risky inventions.

EXAMPLE QUESTS:

Character: Engineer Manley Wright
Item: Airship blueprint
Briefing text:
Welcome back to your hometown, detective! We need to launch an airship with a camera at the center of Clockworld, where all the kidnappings happened. But where’s the blueprint?

Debriefing text:
Excellent! We’ve got the blueprint, but this is just the beginning.

Character: Engineer Manley Wright
Item: Mechanisms
Briefing text:
The city mechanic has kindly agreed to provide us with parts for our little airship. Head over to his workshop.

Debriefing text:
These mechanisms were invented before I was born, but they work better than modern ones!

Character: Engineer Manley Wright
Item: Propeller
Briefing text:
Let’s go to the Steam Market to find a powerful propeller for our airship.

Debriefing text:
Great! You found the perfect propeller.

Character: Engineer Manley Wright
Item: Machine oil
Briefing text:
An airship without machine oil is like a bird without wings. We need to find the best oil in the city!

Debriefing text:
Bravo, my friend! This machine oil is very economical. Our airship will be able to fly for a long time without needing a recharge.

Character: Engineer Manley Wright
Item: Nipkow disk
Briefing text:
The airship will capture Clockworld at night on film. We need a Nipkow disk to transmit the images. If I’m not mistaken, the cinema mechanics have one...

Debriefing text:
You found the Nipkow disk! I hope it helps us capture the culprit and prevent further kidnappings.

Character: Engineer Manley Wright
Item: Airship hull
Briefing text:
There should be an airship hull somewhere in my warehouse. We need to find it, or we’ll have to build a new airship from scratch.

Debriefing text:
Thank you, detective. Note the fine craftsmanship: the airship hull is made of bronze. Now we just need to assemble the parts and launch it over the city.

Collection completed: Airship.

Character: Detective Oberline
Item: Camera
Briefing text:
We’re too late with the airship! There’s been a new kidnapping. It happened in the Abandoned Train Park. Before we head there, let’s gather a field kit. We’ll need a camera…

Debriefing text:
Great, you’ve got the camera. The photos will help us with the investigation.

Character: Detective Oberline
Item: Detective's monocle
Briefing text:
Do you remember my father? He was a great man and a professional detective. He always took a monocle with him on cases.

Debriefing text:
Oh, you found the monocle! It will help us spot even the tiniest details.

Character: Detective Oberline
Item: Tracker’s powder
Briefing text:
I hope we can find some evidence of the criminal this time. You know better than I do that tracker’s powder reveals traces. Where did it go?

Debriefing text:
Ah, here’s the tracker’s powder! You’re always so observant. Remember how you used to help me find lost things when we were kids?

Character: Detective Oberline
Item: Evidence bag
Briefing text:
I’m sure the kidnapper left his strange backward clock again. If we’re lucky, we’ll find other clues too. Can you find an evidence bag?

Debriefing text:
Great, you found the evidence bag. We’ll definitely take it with us.

Character: Detective Oberline
Item: Notebook
Briefing text:
We hardly have anything on this kidnapper. With your help, we need to thoroughly question the witnesses. Take a notebook and don’t forget the mechanical pen.

Debriefing text:
Thanks for finding the notebook. Be careful with the mechanical pen, though—it sometimes twists words out of mischief.

Character: Detective Oberline
Item: Shadow elixir
Briefing text:
The police station just received a new elixir from Professor Berlione. If we smash it at the crime scene, we can see the silhouettes of those who were there hours ago. Go fetch it.

Debriefing text:
We’ll be among the first to test the shadow elixir in practice. Now we need to pack the field kit.

Collection completed: Detective’s field kit.

CITY MAP:

Clockworld is a circular island city, similar to Atlantis, consisting of concentric circles laid out like a clock face.

Locations:

Inventions Square
Steam Market
Tram Stop
Photography Studio
Costume Shop
Clockmaker’s Shop (match-3 puzzle)
Abandoned Train Park
Bakery
Golden Rose Mansion
Mechanism Museum (match-3 puzzle)
City Library
Airship Port
Engineer’s Office
Auto Repair Shop
Corner Street
Concert Hall
City Hall
Theater of Lights
Observatory (match-3 puzzle)
Furniture Workshop
Glassblower’s Factory (match-3 puzzle)
Puppet Theater
Geologist’s House
Laboratory (match-3 puzzle)

St. Petersburg, 2020