Hey there everyone! I’m Lucy, our marketing manager here at OI Games. As of recently and looking forward, I’ll be the one keeping you updated about our projects at OI Games, including Clockwork Ambrosia! So let me catch you up to speed on Clockwork Ambrosia, share some big news for the future, and tell you a story about one of our early bosses, EIK0!
First and foremost, we’re moving Clockwork Ambrosia’s release date. Although narrowing the game’s scope is important for creating a balanced player experience, the development team doesn’t want to compromise the overall experience. So they’re going to take a little bit more time, and our new target is November 2025.
But I am here to follow up that potentially sad news with potentially fun news! Development has recently completed our alpha phase, and we are now planning to start a public play test in the coming months! There will be plenty of enemies to tackle, bosses to battle, and weapon mods to mix and match to do the job! Plus I’ve got to say, get ready. I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on internal testing versions, and it’s truly something special. I’ve put my reps in against EIK0 and I can’t wait to see how you all take her on!
If you aren’t already a subscriber to my new fantastic newsletter, head on over to https://oigames.substack.com and sign up so that you don’t miss out on future play test announcements!
Now on to the rest of our show letter!
Boss Fight Origins: EIK0, The Baluster Engine
Originally EIK0 started off similar to the shield-wielding “Flat-iron” enemies that can be found around the Aqua Baluster, but our developers wanted something that was more than just a big enemy.
The Aqua Baluster is a massive piece of technology on the island, dredging up water from the sunken ruins below. To power all of this, the Baluster needed an engine, and that was where the team stumbled upon the idea of “what if the engine was the boss?” Separately from that, the idea of oozes infesting the tower was also on the mind, leading enemy developer, Ian Clark, to bring the two ideas together and create the first rendition we would recognize as EIK0.
Ian moved forward with the idea of the ooze-infused engine, working with our artist, Maciej Kuczyński, to develop a look for our ooze-filled, corrupted machine. Adding ooze arms to a cinderblock was straightforward, but they needed to also work with the attack animations. Here’s the example he sent Maciej.
EIK0 really started to take shape and develop into the form you see today. Now the question was “how does an engine fight?”
From there Ian wanted to create a fun dynamic, something beyond a static sprite shooting lasers at you. The ooze inside is not intentionally fighting Iris, so how would it fight? With that mindset, all of EIK0’s attacks were themed around the idea of “thrashing around” in one form or another.
“Iris was just looking to figure out why the engine wasn’t working," Ian admitted. "Then she gets trapped in a room with an engine possessed by a raging bull.”
With that framework, the focus was on attacks that made sense but offer a frantic challenge that keeps you moving. By the nature of what they are, they aren’t targeted at Iris, so the attacks were designed to be “chaotic coincidences.” They were tempered down for more consistency, but that was the starting point.
Now you may be wondering, what does EIK0 stand for? Well, it was actually originally named “ICK0”.
“It was a portmanteau of Ian’s name, and his home state of Oklahoma," Michael, Clockwork Ambrosia's producer, relates. This worked when I was the one implementing the boss. But when I stepped away from development, it became Ian’s baby, and I think it made him uncomfortable to have it named after him so directly.”
After that, the name shifted to EIK0, a pet name from the engineer who created the engine based on the existing model number in-universe.
That’s all this time, but you can look forward to more Clockwork Ambrosia peeks as we approach the playtest beta and launch. Keep an eye out for further updates from the newsletter so you’re notified as soon as playtesting begins: https://oigames.substack.com
‘Til next time!
- Lucy