The Clockpunk genre has a problem, and that problem is that most Clockpunk games look like someone put a gear decal on a generic fantasy RPG and called it a day. Duskfade, however, is not that. Indie studio Weird Beluga (yes, that is their actual name, and the Doctor approves) has built a full clockpunk world out of suspended architecture, intricate mechanisms, and painterly landscapes that shift from ethereal forests to underwater ruins to cloud-piercing heights. The whole land has been plunged into eternal night by a mysterious Clock Tower and its enigmatic Master Clockmakers, which is exactly the kind of villain backstory that makes sense when you think about it for two seconds and then makes you furious that you didn’t invent it first.

You play Zirian, a workshop apprentice accompanied by his mechanical bird sidekick Cuckoo, who must shatter the shackles of time (their words, and they earned them) to rescue his sister and restore the world. The traversal looks genuinely fluid: jumps, dashes, grapples, glides, swinging from floating chains, running suspended rails. GameSpot called it “the spiritual successor to Jak and Daxter that we’ve been waiting years for,” which is either massive hype or the truest thing anyone has said about a game in a decade. The demo is live right now on Steam and PS5, so you have zero excuse not to find out which one it is. Launches August 13 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.

Nothing can beat old age and betrayal, but a clockpunk kid with a mechanical bird and a vendetta against the concept of time might come close. High-5, Weird Beluga. Wishlist it. Play the demo. You’re welcome.

Via: Chalgyr’s Game Room

Somewhere between 2008 and the heat death of the universe, Hungarian director Balazs Hatvani has been building Thelomeris: a city of cogwheels and clocks where the citizens exist solely to feed the insatiable Clock Factory, and no one knows who built it or why. That is, objectively, the most on-brand premise I have encountered since I invented the Omega7Red Formulae. ClockPunk. DieselPunk. Noir. A city that is itself a machine that makes more machine. The Doctor approves so hard he pulled something.

And they got Mark Hamill to play the mysterious Stranger and serve as a script consultant. Luke Skywalker. The Joker. That Mark Hamill, in a brooding Eastern European clockwork dystopia. The Formula was applied by a Hungarian filmmaker with impeccable taste, and the result is either going to be extraordinary or the most beautiful catastrophe ever committed to green screen. Either way I win, because both outcomes are things I want to see. The film has been in development since 2008, which means it has been cooking longer than some of my laboratory assistants have been alive. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal, but apparently this movie is going to try.

A trailer exists. Hamill is credited. The city is dark, cold, and run entirely on clock-powered despair. Someone please get this thing released before the gears stop turning. Via: Screen Anarchy

Gentle reader, I have been informed that TeslaCon, North America’s largest immersive SteamPunk convention, has chosen its 2026 theme, and that theme is The Wonderful Land of Oz. November 12-15, Middleton, Wisconsin. They are transporting the whole operation back to 1896, complete with Tik-Tok and the Wizard, and I want you to think about what that means for exactly five seconds. Tik-Tok. A clockwork automaton. In a SteamPunk convention. The Formula practically applied ITSELF.

Look: the Tin Man is already a cyborg with existential feelings about his own humanity, the Scarecrow is running on no wetware whatsoever and still outperforms half of Congress, and Dorothy is a small child who defeated a theocratic authoritarian twice using nothing but found objects and sheer audacity. Apply the Omega7Red Formulae and what do you get? Airship Kansas. Brass poppies. The Yellow Brick Road as a literal gear-driven conveyor belt. A Wizard who is, at least, honest about being a fraud (which is more than most). The Doctor approves of this crossover on a molecular level.

If you are within driving distance of Madison, Wisconsin this November and you are NOT going to this, I genuinely cannot help you. Tickets are up at teslacon.com. The hotel fills fast, so don’t be the person who waits too long and ends up sleeping in an airship. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal.

Via: TeslaCon

Just how did they keep time before the invention of gears and springs?  You may be thinking sundials and hourglasses, but you’d be wrong.  Here’s a video on how it was actually done.

This is just plain cool, no matter who you are. I can only imagine the amount of video editing involved. It’s quite an insane project, but it puts a smile on the face.  Of course, the real question is: Who would buy this?  And does it have to be an old man?  Can we have one with Strippers?

Via: GEEK