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[Servant Corps]

On 8/03/2015, I have finished "Zybourne Clock Redux", the game that is meant to be the focus of this thread. You can play this game on your own web browser. It was hard and challenging, but I have done it.

This thread served as a game diary of sorts that I have written while making this game. It focused on the worldbuilding behind Zybourne Clock Redux, with an emphasis of interpreting the 'intentions' of the original Zybourne Clock, while still paying lip service to the parody material that popped up.
===
Original Game Title:
"Zybourne Clock Project" Worldbuilding (SAGameDev VII)
...Alright, so apologies if the following sections seems rather disorganized. Basically, I am going to be writing some 'concepts' for a game I plan to be creating for a contest. I need some critiques for these 'concepts' as well as advice for how best to improve onto these 'concepts'. It's, probably, for all intents and purposes a "worldbuilding" thread, though I will be starting off with a 'world' that is already created...it's just in serious need of being repaired.

I cannot start making the game for this contest until July, but I can start writing 'concepts' for the game, and I want to be well-prepared for when July hits and the coding begins. If you can please provide me with help, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Table of Contents
Chapter 0: Prelude (scroll down)
Chapter 1: Time works the same way (scroll down)
Chapter 2: A Toy for Adults, the Zybourne Clock
Chapter 3: Our story doesn't take place on earth
---
Chapter 0: Prelude

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The "Something Awful" forum is having a game development contest (called SaGameDev VII). Your goal is to create a game in two months; you have one month (June) to plan out your game, and one month (July) to actually create the game. I want to use this as an opportunity to try and...er...do something worthwhile, so I decide to enter, using this thread to "plan" the game out. I can't create any actual content yet for the game(that's for July), but I could do some "concept writing" to help me get ready for making the game. "Concept writing" would also be worthwhile in that it will allow for critiques of my 'concepts' beforehand.

The 'theme' for this year's contest is "Balls", so you must must a game that, in some way, shape or form, relates to balls. It just so happens that there happens to be an already pre-existing game idea previously on "Something Awful" that has "balls" play a minor role within it...Zybourne Clock, an "electro-punk" RPG that never got past the "concept art" stage. It suffered from the syndrome of "too many writers/artists, nobody to code". Well, they had a couple competent people. They were chased out of the Zybourne Clock project after criticizing it.

A main theme of this game is time travel, along with its rather unique interpretation of how "time" works. From the actual script of the game:

We theorized that when you send an object through time, it does not create a new timeline that overrides the current like we had originally thought. When the object enters the timestream, time begins to correct itself. Let me use this example: Imagine four balls on the edge of a cliff. Say a direct copy of the ball nearest the cliff is sent to the back of the line of balls and takes the place of the first ball. The formerly first ball becomes the second, the second becomes the third, and the fourth falls off the cliff. Time works the same way.

Since I like trying to resurrect old and abandoned game ideas and turn them into actual semi-decent games, I decide I might as well take this description of "time" and run with it, creating a "Zybourne Clock" game that focuses mostly on overriding timelines. Granted, I expect several other competitors within the game development contest taking the same idea, but I think I can probably stay true to the theme of "balls", and probably score more points that way.

Obviously, there's more to Zybourne Clock than just "time"; in fact the makers of Zybourne Clock envisioned an RPG that would last 100 hours, with many sidequests and characters. I'll have to address those other elements of the Zybourne Clock setting, which I will refer to in shorthand as the ZC World.

---
Chapter 1: Time works the same way

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We theorized that when you send an object through time, it does not create a new timeline that overrides the current like we had originally thought. When the object enters the timestream, time begins to correct itself. Let me use this example: Imagine four balls on the edge of a cliff. Say a direct copy of the ball nearest the cliff is sent to the back of the line of balls and takes the place of the first ball. The formerly first ball becomes the second, the second becomes the third, and the fourth falls off the cliff. Time works the same way.

So before we can start anything else, we need to figure out how "time" actually works in Zybourne Clock. As time travel is essential to the ZC world, it's important to first figure out what it is. It's plainly apparent what it's not: creating a new timeline. There is only one timeline, and all you're doing is just tampering with it and then letting the timeline repairs itself afterwards. But, what happens when the timeline is "repaired"?

To understand what's going on, we have to draw a diagram.

Before Time Travel
1. Ball A
2. Ball B
3. Ball C
4. Ball D

Here's our four balls. Let's pretend that each 'ball' represents a major historical event within the ZC World; Ball A is the creation of a worldwide Church, Ball B is the formation of Rasenni nation, etc. The actual events themselves are arbitrary; what matters is that there can only be 4 of them. There cannot be any more major historical events within this timeline. The "cliff" can only hold 4 balls.

Introduction of Ball E
1. Ball A
2. Ball B
3. Ball C
4. Ball D
"5." Ball E

So what happens if we introduce a new "ball" (Ball E) to this cliff? Well...we accidentally created a new Slot 5 to hold Ball E, which just isn't supposed to happen on this "cliff". The "cliff" is supposed to hold only 4 balls. But the timeline is going to repair itself, meaning it'll destroy Slot 5, pushing Ball E into Slot 4.

But what about Ball D, which was already in Slot 4? Ball D gets displaced by the incoming Ball E, and it needs somewhere to go. So the timeline pushes Ball D into Slot 3. But this now it displaced Ball C. Ball C is pushed into Slot 2, displacing Ball B. Ball B gets pushed into Slot 1...displacing Ball A. Ball A has nowhere that it could be 'pushed' to though (as all the other slots have been filled with balls that have already been "relocated" from their original slots), so Ball A just "disappears".

After Time Repair
1. Ball B
2. Ball C
3. Ball D
4. Ball E

The erasure of Ball A from the timeline may be very important, or inconsequential. But note that Ball A may have very little to do with Ball E, and it was Ball E's mere existence in the timeline that caused Ball A to no longer exist. This means that anyone in the ZC World who wants to engage in time travel must take into account two things:
1) It is easy to erase a Ball/historical event that a time traveler does not like. All he has to do is push that Ball into Slot 1, by introducing brand new Balls (and new "Slot 5s") that will push that Ball up from his original slot all the way up to Slot 1. Then the next 'historical change' will lead to the Ball in Slot 1 to be quickly "erased".
2) It is difficult however to "micromanage" history in a direction a time traveler likes (implementing any change he wants, and then reverting it if he turns out that it is a terrible idea). Any change to the timeline will lead to a possibly unrelated Ball to be erased. Eventually, all the "original" Balls located within the timeline will rise up to Slot 1 and be ultimately eliminated. They will then be replaced by brand new Balls created by the time traveler, and by the time the time traveler gives up or finishes modifying history, the "ending" timeline may be unrecognizable from the "beginning" timeline.

The game I plan on making will set you up as a time traveling "micromanager", giving you the task of modifying the timeline by introducing new "balls" and manipulating the four 'slots'. This is ultimately the basic idea behind it, though I have to consider whether I want to 'score' players for having a "good" timeline, or if I want to make the game "freeform", letting the players fool around as though the 'game' is just a fun toy. (I also plan on having the players read a short description of the 'history' of the world, so that he knows what changes he has made to the timeline.)

Next Time: What is the "Zybourne Clock"?

[Servant Corps]

I won't be able to write the next "chapter" detailing what the Zybourne Clock actually is until tomorrow, but I made a slight revision to the "time travel" mechanics, so I decided to make a post detailing that. I'll probably may have to post a link to this thread in the Writer's Apprenticeship topic once I am done with everything, so as to solicit more feedback.

Spoiler: Slight Revision To "Core" Time Travel Mechanics (click to show/hide)

I showed this thread off to other people, and one of my friends persuaded me that my original idea for "time travel" does deny player agency, and may make it not even a game.

My original idea is to have you be able to insert events only in one slot, Slot 5, which then get pushed by all the other events. However, continually inserting in new events through this manner will eventually destroy the original timeline, and the player doesn't really get to control his new timeline. My friend also pointed out that it would be difficult to explain this system to a new player in a "tutorial".

I also realized that it is very possible to easily "cheese" the entire '4 balls on the cliff' system if one is allowed to duplicate the balls already in the timeline. If you have a specific event in Slot 1 that you want to keep, you can just duplicate that event and then insert it into Slot 5. The event in Slot 1 goes away, but that same event gets reintroduced into the timeline at Slot 4. The timeline itself doesn't really change, but because you are able to manipulate what balls goes into what slot through "ball duplication",you will thus be able to shape the timeline into the manner that you choose. I actually thought about making "ball duplication" a major part of gameplay, but limited to one specific "ball" (the invention of the Zybourne Clock) so that it would be impossible to save any other event. But why would you only be able to duplicate just one event?

So I made a slight revision to my core gameplay, to increase player agency and make the game more interactive (instead of just you just "feeding events in until you have the right set of events in your hands") It's a bit of of a simplification of the mechanics detailed in Chapter 1 (and it may not be as 'true' to the source material as I would want it to be), but it should be easier to explain and (ultimately) more fun.

Let's start with the original diagram.

Before Time Travel
1. Ball A
2. Ball B
3. Ball C
4. Ball D

As before, the cliff can only hold 4 balls. There is nothing that will change that. If you want to introduce a new "Ball" to the timeline, another Ball will have to go. However, now the timeline doesn't really care which ball goes away. The timeline only wants 4 balls. Let's suppose we view Ball A as an event we would want to erase, so we destroy Ball A and replace it with Ball E.

Introduction of Ball E
1. Ball E
2. Ball B
3. Ball C
4. Ball D

Ball A itself "disappears" from the timeline, in much the same way as the earlier method, only now Ball E is in Slot 1. The actual slot position of each ball is not important for the player, since there is no "ball pushing", just a simple 'destroy and replace'. If the player wants, he can keep on fooling around with Slot 1, inserting in balls and then destroying them, and this will not impact what happens to the balls in all the other slots.

This change in mechanics mean that it is even easier to erase events you don't want (you don't need to cycle in new events to push the "bad event" into Slot 1, just replace the "bad event" with any other event), and allows for much easier "micromanagement" of the timeline (he could choose to keep one event within the timeline no matter what, and just fool around with the other 3 slots). The player is now granted more freedom of choice, which could probably represent the 'freedom' a person has when he is able to change history.

[Solifuge]

Oh dear god the Zybourne Clock. Haven't seen this since my days at GamingW.net.

Please tell me you're going to give Johnny 5 Aces a derpily disproportionate face.

[Servant Corps]

There's not going to be any pictures in that game, and honestly, I'm not sure how to add in Johnny "Five Ace"; he was meant to be a minor character at best. But considering how much revisions I have to do to the Zybourne Clock, who knows? I might make him more important.
---
Chapter 2: A Toy For Adults: The Zybourne Clock

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Thousands of years into the future of the "ZC world", the world was engulfed in a never-ending civil war. It appeared that humanity would end up being extinct at its own hands. And while that may make for great gameplay, engaging storyline, and daring heroics, it would also lead to the end of humanity.

In come Dr. Zybourne. In an underground facility, safe from the constant zeppelin bombings, him and his team of dedicated scientists developed a time-traveling device. Dr. Zybourne planned to send this device back to the distant past, where it can slowly manipulate the Earth's climate, thereby speeding up human evolution. If human technology could progress at a rapid rate, maybe the more-advanced humans might be able to prevent the civil war from occurring in the first place.

When the scientists began to realize what Zybourne's plan was though, they rebelled against this mad scheme. They claimed that Dr. Zybourne would only be creating a "new" timeline, and thus saving a new 'human race', while the old 'human race' (which would include Dr. Zybourne and the scientists) would wind up getting erased from existence. Instead of saving "their" humanity, Dr. Zybourne would only just be killing it.

Future research however revealed that the scientists' conception of "time" was wrong. Instead of there being a single timeline that just gets "overwritten" periodically, the timeline exist as a series of disparate events, whose existence can be manipulated as detailed in Chapter 1. Since Dr. Zybourne's change won't lead to the erasure of humanity, the scientists withdrew their objections to Dr. Zyborune's plan and allowed it to proceed. Dr. Zyborune selected an already pre-existing Major Event to delete, and then shoved in his device into the timeline.

This device itself is "a large object with various time readouts on the front (hence the 'Clock' moniker), which will count the days, years, and millennia until the clock is back at the same moment it was sent, at which point it will deactivate"...by exploding.

The 'clock' itself proved to be a success; it did end up averting the specific disaster that Dr. Zybourne feared. But it poses its own problem. Its mere existence is proof enough that time travel can happen, and that somebody else can take advantage of it in order to change history...possibly even undoing the very change Dr. Zybourne made in the first place.

While the 'clock' did prevent the war from occurring, it does not prevent humanity from going extinct by some other method. In fact, the clock might even cause it. Suppose the clock decides to engage in major terraforming of the Earth's climate to be inhospitable to humanity, thereby speeding up human evolution. Human technology would be advanced, but humans would be unable to live in the newly hostile planet, and thus would quickly die off.

The game I plan on making will cast Sylus, an weapons research scientist who secured control over the 'clock', as the main character and "micromanager". He is supposed to use this 'clock' in order to change history and manipulate it, in the same way that Dr. Zybourne changed history to avert the "civil war". When he is done 'fixing' history, he is to be instructed to destroy the 'clock' so that nobody else can change history.

Spoiler: The Zybourne Clock versus the Golden Egg (click to show/hide)

According to Dr. Zyborune, the clock is 5 stories high and 150 feet wide. That would imply that the clock is not really portable as a clock that is 5 stories high would be 54 feet tall, and Robert Wadlow, the tallest human ever according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is "only" 8 feet, 11 inches tall.

However, a certain drawing of Johnny "Five Ace" holding something that looks like a clock suggest that Dr. Zybourne's description might actually be incorrect, as that clock does not look like it's taller than any of the humans in that picture.

An alternative explanation however is that Johnny "Five Ace" is not actually holding the Zybourne Clock, but instead another priceless artifact called the 'Golden Egg', a model of the actual (non-portable) Zybourne Clock. The only knowledge I know of the Golden Egg however was it being referenced as a 'codename' in a Prelude chapter.

At the end of a long room filled with whispers and handshakes sits a man fondling a small, dark object.  ... "What you got there, mister?", queries the girl. ...

"This, my darling, is a device. A device many men and many women have died to see, to understand, and to own. In many ways it is like one of your toys, but a toy for adults. This, darling, is The Zybourne Clock."

Suddenly, barely visible in the dim light, the child's eyes change. ... "Orange Fox to Deitrus. Orange Fox to Deitrus. The Golden Egg has been located. I repeat, we've got it. Over".

In this "prelude", it is clear that the Zyborune Clock is the Golden Egg, and furthermore, that the Zybourne Clock is meant to be portable, as otherwise, that man fondling the small, dark object wouldn't call it the Zybourne Clock.

There is evidence in favor of the Zybourne Clock actually being five stories tall, but it is circumstantial. In a chat log between RexMeteorite and ASa8657416, Rexmeteorite described people actually "entering" the clock and messing around with its internal "clock operations", which suggest that it is indeed as tall as Dr. Zybourne says it is. That being said, the evidence in favor of the clock being small and portable is stronger, therefore...

I will assume that Dr. Zybourne was not very good at describing dimensions, the clock is not 5 stories high, and the clock is portable and easy to steal/use.

Spoiler: The Failsafes (click to show/hide)

The Zybourne Clock comes with three fail-safes to protect it from being "taken over". Though one of these failsafes are actually pretty important for the actual ZC plot, I'll go into more detail in a separate post. I honestly find these failsafes rather useless and pointless, so I will disregard their existence.

First, the clock could fight by mimicking the combat style of the opponent it faces, though honestly, it's just a clock. Its fighting capabilities are going to be limited.

Second, Dr. Zybourne sent in a team of three people (including Dr. Zybourne's daughter, Maria) to protect and hide the clock's existence.  Those three people would try to manipulate human progress (through the creation of a religious organization called "The Order") in order to prevent the discovery of the clock and its capabilities. In addition, the descendants of those three people would have full access to the programming of the 'Clock', to be able to reprogram the 'Clock' at will if it becomes necessary to do so.

Coincidentally, the entire "playable party" is full of people who descended from these three people, so this failsafe quickly gets circumvented once the party finds the clock, and thus this entire failsafe becomes incredibly pointless. Also, the "playable party" is led by Sylus, who ends up in final possession of the clock anyway.

Third, if it detects that humanity has became so advanced that it could theoretically take over the 'Clock' itself and reprogram it, it will send out a distress signal to the descendants of Maria alone. When the scientists asked why, Dr. Zybourne points out that those three people who are going to be sent back in time are going to have children, and then they will have children, and so on and so forth, until there's pretty much countless numbers of descendants, so it makes sense to just limit it to just one line of descendants, so it become a less terrifying problem to manage...

It is this distress signal that plays a major role in Act 2 of this game, as it gets activated once the clock's defenses get compromised by Sylus. I'll talk more about this distress signal in a latter post.

[Servant Corps]

...and I got sidetracked from the entire purpose of updating this thread. I apologize in advance. I did work on the game by producing an "engine" by which the game can run, but haven't really wrote down my ideas yet for the game's plot. And I have to write them down before Saturday June 30th, because I want to spend what little time in July making the game, and not creating new content/salvaging old content.

Also, since I'm tired of typing "the game I'm planning to make" to differentiate my game for SAGameDev VII from the original conception of Zybourne Clock, I am going to start call my game "Zybourne Clock Redux" in these worldbuilding writeups (or sometimes, just Redux). The actual game will still be called Zybourne Clock, without the 'redux' label.
---
Chapter 3: Our story doesn't take place on earth

Spoiler: The Timelines (click to show/hide)

The original Zybourne Clock was intended to be 100 hours long, but in fact, they were pretty much just two separate games that are united together only by a shared storyline. Act 1 of the story was 50 hours long (including sidequests) and focus around Sylus, and Act 2 would be another 50 hours long (including sidequests) focusing on Sam McLaughlin. Add them together, and you get 100 hours.

But what is this storyline? Allow me to summarize it with a timeline helpfully provided by one of the original artists of this game.

Shii: "During the biggest Something Awful thread one of the original Zybourne Clock artists came in and posted this. He quit the project before the "developers" decided to include it, but consensus says it is definitely canon."


If you had read the previous two chapters I written, you know what Timeline 1 was all about...the perpetual civil war that ended when Dr. Zybourne developed and sent his clock back in time. Included with the clock is a failsafe; if the clock detects that humanity has a theoretical chance to tamper with it, the clock will send a distress signal for help. To further protect the clock from tampering, several people were sent back in time along with the clock to protect it from being tampered.

Act 1 takes place in the Timeline 2 created by Dr. Zybourne. The insertion of the Clock sped up human evolution...but the people sent back to the past posed a problem. Those people established a religious sect, The Order, to protect the clock from tampering, but somewhere down the line, The Order's original mission slowly morphed from "Stop the world from ending" to "Destroy this sinful earth by causing armageddon, thereby paving the way for an ascension of the faithful". And remember, timelines do not get overwritten, so Dr. Zybourne still exist, only now, he's the one actually leading The Order by the time of the game's start, under the alias of "The Prophet".

Sylus is an R&D scientist who is being groomed to take over The Order after Dr. Zybourne dies...which is problematic for Sylus because he considers himself a 'true atheist' and a staunch opponent of organized religion. Nevertheless, Sylus organized a band of merry followers, including Johnny Five-Ace. Together, they went through numerous adventures to track down the Zybourne Clock. Once the party located the clock though, Sylus betrayed the party so that he can secure sole possession over the valuable clock. Sylus successfully killed the entire party...meaning, yes, Sylus killed Johnny Five-Ace.

Sylus went to work modifying the clock and reprograming it to the specifications of The Order...Then Sylus realized that the clock doesn't actually cause the end of the world...or cause an ascension...or indeed do anything at all other than change the Earth's climate. By speeding up the clock's mechanic, the climate of Earth became much more hostile to humanity. Though humans did end up evolving faster, a brutal and bloody civil war started up as the remaining humans fight for scarce resources.

With Sylus' whole world crumbling into pieces, he destroyed the Clock and washed his hands cleaned of the entire pointless affair. This action triggers the 'failsafe' I mentioned earlier, as the clock now knows that it can be tampered with. A distress signal is sent...but to ensure that it doesn't get intercepted by Slyus, the distress signal is sent back in time, just like the clock is sent back in time. It is delivered to a girl named Sam McLaughlin, who is instructed to prevent the "future" destruction of the clock by whatever means necessary.

Act 2 takes place in the Timeline 3 caused  by the clock's distress signal, and honestly, there does not appear to be a lot of detail about this. This makes sense, as planning the storyline of Game II when you haven't even started work on Game I would just be idiotic. However, what I do know is that a major plotpoint would be Sam infiltrating The Order and murdering Sylus. It ends with the clock's destruction being retconned out of existence, so human evolution presumbly proceeds as scheduled.

I...I won't use much of this plot. At all. If I want to make a sequel to "Zybourne Clock Redux", I have an escape clause in the form of the Clock's ready-made distress signal, but I won't mention it in the game. I might carry over The Order, but I don't know how to reconcile it, and in any event, I'm going to change their religious focus.

Spoiler: The World of Zybourne Clock (click to show/hide)

Zybourne Clock was originally supposed to be a steampunk game...but then...they decided to change to electropunk, for no real discernible reasons as I can tell.

First, what is Electro-Punk? Think 1910-1930 earth. Turn of the century. Booming economy. Now, combine that with the theories of Tesla proven 100% true and everything suggested by Tesla to be not only feasable, but readily available.

World War 1 armies armed with rail guns and EMP grenades (in addition to gas masks) for destroying Anti-Grav tanks that are powered by Wireless Power Transmission.

Vast fleets of Zeppelins ferry passengers across national borders far faster and in far greater luxury than carriage or automobile.

National Boundries guarded by Tesla Coils and Death Rays would turn any extended ground conflict into the horror of the World War 1 trenches 100 fold.

Our story doesn't take place on earth, however, so let's not speculate on what could've been for us, and instead focus on what DOES happen for our protagonists:

I'm going to assume that the ZC World follows the same technological trajectory as our own planet for simplification, but that the intervention of the Zybourne Clock led to the invention of "Electropunk" in the 1920's. Now, some posts on SA pointed out that the present day is electropunk, but the implantation of modern day technology in an era of racism, colonialism, imperialism, Red Scares, and stock market speculation could be interesting to explore.

It'd certainly be easier for me.


Click here for the full 650x650 image
Here's a map of the countries in the ZC world. A planned feature was that you can join up with one country and serve in their military, but this map details the country of Rasenni, suggesting that no matter what country you're going to side with, you're still going to be stuck running around in Rasenni. And as the map helpfully shows where the Zybourne Clock is located, this means you won't ever need to leave Rasenni's borders. Still, the military you join up with will determine the ending cut-scene you get though...

But forget all that and look at the border of "Capital" and Rasenni. "Capital" has recently annexed several provinces, and they appear to previously been a part of Rasenni's territory. It's possible that "Capital" invaded and took over those provinces by force, thereby leading to tensions between "Capital" and Rasenni. Rasenni may pursue a policy of revanchism, while "Capital" may seek to gain more territory from a weakened Rasenni. "Bookworld" may even be subsidizing Rasenni to establish a buffer state between it and "Capital".

You could also be inspired by City 5, a city that is perpetually on fire. Unlike the other cities in Rasenni, its radius extends to "Capital" and "Bookworld" as well...meaning that a huge chunk of all three countries is permanently on fire. It's possible that this city may have been used as a testing site for some powerful weapon, and maybe it was the aftermath of this test that led to the outright hostility between Rasenni and "Capital", as each side blame the other.

Everything else on that map seems entirely worthless without context, and could probably be safely ignored.

Next Time: The Characters of Zybourne Clock, modified to fit Redux

[Servant Corps]

In just one hour, it will be July where I live, meaning that's the start of the 'coding' part of the SAGameDev.

I have not worked on the Zybourne Clock "redux" project as much as I wanted, but I will still try to produce a game in July. At the very least, I'd try to create some prototype that could later be refined into a more complete state, but I do want to produce something worthwhile, at least to prove to myself I can complete a project I set myself out to do.

Chapter 4: Dramatis Personae

Spoiler: Redux's Background (click to show/hide)

The ZC World was ruled by three superpowers: Bookworld, Rasenni, and Capital. These three superpowers, long ago, set aside their differences for a common purpose of establishing peace and prosperity. As a monument of diplomatic cooperation, they all cooperated to build City 5 over a strategic coal reserve. By all agreeing to share that coal, the three superpowers could continue to fuel their economic growth. But, soon, the world reached peak coal. Existing sources of coal were being exhausted, and arguments rage over how to divide City 5's dwindling coal reserves. War may have been inevitable...

And 5 years ago, the City 5 War happened. The democratic government of Capital was overthrown in a military coup led by the mysterious supersoldier known as Johnny Five-Ace. His first act was to field-test a "flamethrower" superweapon onto City 5, destroying its coal mines and killing millions of people. When Bookworld and Rasenni sent troops into Capital's territories to retaliate against this unjustified aggresion, Johnny unleashed new technological horrors such as Anti-Grav Tanks and Telsa coils. After the invasion was repelled, Johnny launched his own counter-attack. With the "Johnny Gun" in their hands, the Capital's soldiers began a brutal process of conquest, securing valuable coal reserves from the other superpowers.

Ultimately, Bookworld and Rasenni lost the war, because they were severely outclassed in terms of technology. Afraid of probable annihilation in the face of Johnny Five-Ace, the two superpowers agreed to become puppets of Johnny and pay regular tribute in coal. Johnny Five-Ace would now rule the entire world as a despot and nobody could stop him. Yet, there were still people who wished he could be stopped.

The covert arm of the Rasenni Military R&D Division soon discovered the existence of the Zybourne Clock and learnt its purpose, of a time-traveling device that can speed up human evolution by impacting the climate. It was obvious that the reason Capital won was due to this Clock...it has sped up technology so much that it gave Capital a decisive advantage in terms of technology. And that doing so actually prevented a far greater catastrophe...the extinction of humanity by a perpetual war between Capital and Bookworld/Rasenni. But if one could change history...why not change it again? And again? The Clock was responsible for Johnny's victory...can it be modified to cause Johnny's downfall?

Spoiler: The Characters (click to show/hide)

*Johnny Five-Ace:
Original: In the game, a gambler and drinker who signed up with Sylus' quest (after Sylus specifically searched him out). Would later die by Slyus' hands.
Redux: Leader of "Capital", military dictator whose power is unchecked following the City 5 War.

*Slyus:
Original: An emotionless atheist R&D scientist, moonlighting as a arms smuggler, selling guns to rebels and The Order. He is slated to take over The Order, despite his own misgivings about it.
Redux: The main character. Rasenni Military R&D entrusted the Zybourne Clock to him, due to his previous research experience. I'll probably downplay his "emotionless" aspect for now at least.

*Alex:
Original: Ex-girlfriend of Sylus, a military soldier by training. During Act 1, Alex will serve as a love interest to Sylus, and there would be hope that they might get together. And Alex was the only person Sylus actually cared for. So when Sylus killed Alex near the end of Act 1, it would lead to a great emotional payoff and a very sad tragedy. The complex relationship between Sylus and Alex was meant to play a major role in Act 1...so it could be said that Sylus and Alex were the main characters. Coincidentally, they were the two characters who does not have any official artwork.
Redux: Slyus' boss, leading the Rasenni Military R&D division. She will give Sylus the Zybourne Clock and instruct him on how to use it.

*Schotlz:
Original: Photographer. In the fanarts, he is considered a very close friend of Johnny Five Ace.
Redux: Johnny's right-hand man, in charge of establishing Johnny's personality cult and rallying support for his regime.

*The Prophet
Original: Actually Dr. Zybourne. Head of 'The Order', a popular religious organization wanting to use the Clock to destroy Earth.
Redux: May or may not be Dr. Zybourne. The Order is just your standard religious organization, interested in providing social stability and keeping its dominance within society. Its theology is adopted to match the steampunk nature of the world. Humanity is nothing more than one big organic machine, and each human being is just a little gear in it that spins around. If you just do your assigned duty, then you will be rewarded, but if you disobey, the entire machine will grind to a halt and everyone suffers.

*Sam McLaughlin:
Original: "The girl next door". In a fanart, she appears to be a fan of Johnny Five-Ace, though that fanart isn't exactly canon.
Redux: Will not be appearing in this game, though she may again appear later on if I want to make more games in the ZC world. I'll try to establish a relationship between Sam and Johnny, to act as a parallel to the Alex-Sylus relationship.

*Nina:
Original: Nonsexual flapper girl. ...That's all I know about her.
Redux: Will not be appearing in this game until I know more about her and her role in the plot. That...probably won't happen. The developers of Zybourne Clock were very interested in Alex-Sylus, and neglected to figure out where the other people were to come in.

Guy A. Person: so wheretf do all the characters they actually drew come in?
OMG ITZ JAME: we never got that far

Spoiler: Goal (click to show/hide)

Your goal is to change history by manipulating events as I described in Chapter 1 and Slight Revisions. Changing history will change these 'metrics', which will impact the future of humanity, and will also decide what ending you get once you destroy the "clock" so that the Timeline is frozen.
*War: The Republic of Rasenni wants to change history so that Rasenni/Bookworld wins the war against Johnny Five-Ace. Results could range from Johnny taking over the world, stalemate, to a Rasenni victory and Johnny's destruction.

*Social Stability: The Order wants to ensure that people continue following its religion and obey the traditions of the past, instead of rebelling against their assigned holy roles as 'gears'. If social stability decreases, there may very well be a social revolution.

*Technological Progress: Dr. Zybourne wants to increase technological progress, and so does Alex for that matter.

Increasing one metric may harm reduce another metric. You could introduce the invention of a brand new technology that could disrupt the social order of things, for instance. It's up to you to determine the correct balance.

[Servant Corps]

First, the bad news. The project has actually been abandoned during the SAGameDev, meaning I technically lost. The reason I abandoned the project was due to "word count", essentially I was writing way too much for the game, and I felt that the resulting 'walls of text' would be too boring to read.

However, now I'm returning back to this project, this time not caring that much about the "word count"; I have written much longer stuff before, and people can have a tolerance for large blocks of text, especially if it's entertaining to read.

As a sidenote, somebody actually did complete a sidescroller Zybourne Clock game for SAGameDev, so this means I'm up against some competition.

[Lectorog]

As a sidenote, somebody actually did complete a sidescroller Zybourne Clock game for SAGameDev, so this means I'm up against some competition.

I hope you don't consider this to be significant competition. I was ready for something better coming from this project. Well, not a side-scroller at least.

Just so you know, there are actually people watching this topic (at least two, probably more). I was even wondering what happened to this a few weeks ago.

[Servant Corps]

Chapter 5: Wonderful Battle System

I am only posting this chapter, in part, because I had an idea about a sequel to "Zybourne Clock Redux" that focuses on 'combat' instead of  'time modification'. I debated whether this should belong in this thread at all, but I decided that it does because it helps in world-building for the Zybourne Clock world.

So let me make this clear: there will not be a combat section in the Redux game. The Redux game will be focused entirely on modifying the timeline. This chapter only focuses on material that may be utilized in a future game.

Thank you.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

For a game with no code, there had been a rather elaborate and complicated combat system. What makes this combat system especially irritating and grating to me is that there is no fluff justifying its existence. The combat system was itself described in an OOC tutorial, so I have no way to understand how this connects at all to the rest of the game.

The game is a turn-based RPG, so you have your standard Combat commands such as Attack, Defend, Flee, Item, etc. They're self-explanatory. However, there's three main indicators you'd notice when you enter a battle.

The first indicator is your Mood Indicator, which indicates your character's current emotional state. There are 6 emotional states: Anger, Hurt, Tense, Nervous, Happy, and Sad. Each emotional state carries bonuses and penalties. For example, Sylus' default mood is Angry. This means that he has higher attack and stamina, but lower defense and speed. Your mood also determines your access to certain "moodskills" (Magic). When you use a "moodskill", you use up 'Emotional Energy' (Magic Points) and if you run out of Magic Points, you can't cast any more "moodskills". You can recover your Emotional Energy by visiting a Psychologist or using a special item (not named in the OOC tutorial).

You also have the ability to randomly change your mood, once per battle. You can also change your mood out of battle by using a special item or seeing a Psychologist.

The second indicator is...well...this flow chart.

Party: Action > TR Soldier: Attack > Party: Action > TR Soldier: Rage (Immune Anger) > Party: Action

It tells you what will happen in the game in the next 5 turns, letting you know what your enemy is going to do and when you're able to do stuff as well.

The third indicator is a Clock. You are expected to input your actions quickly. If you do not, then you will "TIME OUT" and you will lose control of your character. Your character will then randomly choose an action, based on the character's current Mood. If you do input your actions quickly though, you gain more time on the Clock. If you successfully fill your Clock by quickly inputting moves, you can pull off a combo move called "Timesynch" with your partner. A "Timesynch" can be pretty powerful and may possibly lead to attribute boosts for you. (Oh, and you have to do a Quick Time Event when pulling off a Timesynch. Failing this QTE will send you into TIME OUT for two turns.)

Four more things to note.
1) Your enemies can make themselves immune to certain moods and Timesynchs, usually by casting Moodskills that can pull off that effect. If an enemy is immune to your mood, then you get none of the benefits of that mood when attacking that enemy, but still retain all of its penalties. Changing your mood or having an ally with a different mood attack that enemy would suffice as a workaround against that moodskill.

2) Your enemies may have an innate weakness to certain moods while being able to resist attacks against other moods. For example, the Unknown Team Commander, the first boss of the game, is weak against Tense people, but would easily resist attacks done by Angry or Nervous people. There are a few random enemies in the game that are completely immune to people of a certain mood, without needing to cast a "moodskill" to that effect.

3) This chart below tells you how the six emotions are "paired" with each other. An enemy who is weak against one emotion in the pair is usually able to resist the other emotion in that pair, and vice versa.
Anger <---> Hurt
Tense <---> Nervous
Happy <---> Sad
The Unknown Team Commander is a perfect example of this chart in action: he can resist attacks against Nervous people, so he naturally had a weakness to Tense people. This chart is a general rule of thumb though, and there are exceptions: the Team Commander can resist Anger attacks, but does not have a weakness against Hurt people.

4) To my knowledge, moodskills are temporary. They last only for a few turns before fading away.

Note 1: According to the story of Zybourne Clock, Sylus is emotionless. Yet, in this game mechanic, it is assumed he had an emotion: Anger. It is possible to resolve this contradiction by stating that while Sylus may have no emotions of his own, he copies the emotions of other people (i.e, the people he's fighting against).

Note 2: Alex's default mood is Tense. Her defense is up but because "she cannot articulate her attacks as normal", her attack is down.

---

I hope you don't consider this to be significant competition. I was ready for something better coming from this project. Well, not a side-scroller at least.

I think the game I'm making will be better than the sidescroller; however, when I said "competition" it wasn't over 'who made the better game'. It was over who gets to be seen as the legitimate "successor" to the Zybourne Clock mythos. Numerous people have tried to make Zybourne Clock and failed, so the few successes that does exist do deserve to be noted.

Also, I started some work in coding Redux, and it's not as horrible as I thought it would be. Once I felt free to write as long as I want, it became easy to just churn out the text. I'm even having fun.

[Skyrunner]

Interesting. Very interesting :3

[Servant Corps]

Chapter 6: A shameful path led me there

Spoiler: Here's that path. (click to show/hide)

Today, while browsing this thread, I saw this broken .jpg in Chapter 3.

What happened was the place that originally hosted that image (Shii.org) got a revamp, and in that revamp, the Zybourne Clock section was deleted. Numerous other links in that section has also gone dead thanks to Shii's revamp.

Shii provided a link over to another Zybourne Clock website as a consolidation prize, but that site is woefully incomplete. It has tons of fan art and fan fiction (including a half-finished novelization of Zybourne Clock) but lack the "original fiction" of the Zybourne Clock world and certainly lacks that map that I wanted. I had to resort to searching for that map via Google and eventually found it on 'mypostingcarrers.com'. Because I don't want to run the risk of leeching from a website that might decide to die, and because I still need that map for inspiration, I have uploaded the map onto lpix.org.

Anyway, I edited Chapter 3 to include an updated link to the ZC map. No more broken .jpgs.

(I'm undecided on what to do with the other dead links to Shii's site though. I only provided those links as "sources" for my statements and speculation on what the authors of the ZC world wanted, but actually getting a copy of those sources may be a waste of time.)

If it was just me editing a post to replace a dead .jpg with a pretty .jpg, there would be no need for an update like this. But I learnt something rather interesting while looking at that new Zybourne Clock site that Shii linked to, and that is the reason why I'm making this post.

The original writing [of Zybourne Clock] was so bad, and the mockery was so subtle, that it was sometimes difficult to separate the two; one of the first bits of parody, the “golden egg,” was thought for a long time by many to be part of the original material, but was actually written by forums poster Olhado. ... The character Dr. Malaprop was invented by forums poster Brendle to make fun of the frequent malapropisms that plague the original scripts (“Alex: You always had a pension for the dramatic”). A sort of parody canon quickly built up as a mixture of the original material and the mockery that followed it.

Source

Spoiler: The Zybourne Clock versus the Golden Egg, Part 2 (click to show/hide)

All of the evidence that I used to defend the assertion that the clock being portable is pretty much discredited. The 'Prelude' chapter that I quoted from was essentially fanfiction written by Olhado, and not one of the developers/writers of Zybourne Clock. And that picture of Johnny holding an egg-like clock? That's fanart inspired by Olhado's fanfiction...it's not canon in the slightest.

I feel disappointed in myself for dismissing the ramblings of the "official fiction" in favor of fanart/fan fiction, but not really that disappointed, considering almost everyone else was fooled as well. What this does mean is that I was wrong about the clock being portable. All the official material (the canon script, the map, as well as RexMeteorite's chat with ASa8657416) indicate that the clock is indeed non-portable.

I'm going to ignore the official material and declare that the clock is portable. This is not out of any hatred for the official material (in fact, I had intentions to follow it, so long as it is not completely nuts and idiotic), but because I have already designed a couple of jokes around the clock's portability, and I decided that those jokes are more important than staying true to the canon. Besides, Olhado's prelude has made such a lasting impression on what people "think" the Zybourne Clock should be that if I actually do follow what was originally intended, people may be confused.

But this revelation does lead to a question. In the official material, how exactly did Dr. Zybourne teleport a 55-foot-tall building into the past?

Answer: They launched it into space.

I rose from my chair and made my way to the launch pad where a few researchers were making the final preperations for launch. I went to the control room and sat and waited.
 
Finally the moment came. Our moment to make our mark on this world, our time to give back to the place that let us live for so long. This moment was ours, and The Earth's. We are not noble, nor are we heroes, we are just a group of people who realize the ways of humanity (may they be good or bad) and intend to correct any mistakes that we have made.

Hm. Maybe I should reconsider making the clock portable. The idea of a 55-foot-tall building being blasted into the sky so fast that it was able to travel backwards in time and then be able to plop back down onto the planet and begin its subtle modification of the earth's climate...that seems rather hilarious in my mind.

[Lectorog]

Canon is worthless if you have a better idea. I approve of this call.

[Servant Corps]

I am making this post to state that I am abandoning work on this project. I haven't been working on the project for quite some time, partly due to me having to fix a bug that has prevented the game from running, and partly because I have to, essentially, 'focus' on other stuff. I could say that I'd be "postponing" work until I have time, but that'd be the same as essentially abandoning it, and I don't like euphemisms. Honestly, I wouldn't even post this, if it wasn't for the fact that I know that some people do view this thread, and would like some update.

I do feel upset about abandoning yet another project (like Conservative Crime Squad, Diwayana, etc). The worst part is that I know that the idea behind this game premise is unique, and I don't think has ever been tried before (Chrononauts comes the closest). The idea of '4 balls on the cliff' is so bizarre that it could only fit in the Zybourne Clock universe, and I would have at least liked to see whether it could actually work. Maybe I might come back to this, but with much less complex design goals. Probably not however. I don't want to start another project only to then have to abandon it.

What I want to know is whether this thread is a failure as well. The thread was specifically about worldbuilding, and not about game development, per se, but worldbuilding without a point is worthless in my opinion. This thread was made to specifically help with the game, and now that there's no game, it does seem like wasted work. But I did learn more about how the developers originally designed the Zybourne Clock, providing a neat contrast to today's version of Zybourne Clock. I like to know your thoughts.

EDIT: I also have a rough draft of another "post", but I didn't feel that the research I did would have helped me out with game development, which is why I didn't post it in the thread. But with the game cancelled, I could probably post that up if you guys want it. It focused on summarizing the second half of the Zybourne Clock script (the first half was the prologue).

[Lectorog]

This thread was interesting, and it provided a lot of sound, interworking ideas. Definitely not a failure.

[Servant Corps]

I don't think I will go back to game design, but I am considering using this "world" for a writing project. I mean, it's already built...kinda. At least all the important stuff.

To help with the final process of worldbuilding, I might as well make another "post", this time focusing on the second part of the available game script. I'm unsure whether this post is worthwhile though, considering the proposed plot for "Redux" has already moved in a different direction. But:
1) It gives a good idea of what the game designers originally intended for this game to be about, even though the original intentions of the game designers are probably going to be ignored
2) It allows me to mine for any ideas.

Spoiler: The summary of Act 1 of Part 1 of Zybourne Clock (click to show/hide)

"The first half of the game will revolve around Sylus, Johnny, Handre and Alex."
Handre is nowhere else mentioned in this script. My suspicious is that Handre is another name for Schotty and will be operating off this premise. Handre was also mentioned in RexMeteorite's chat with ASa8657416 as another victim of Sylus.

1) Sylus is out of money, and thus reluctantly takes up a job with The Order. The Order wants Sylus to investigate 'Civilius Primiscotas'. While there, he meets up with Alex.

FLASHBACK: Sylus and Alex were previously friends, but had a somewhat "mutual" breakup. Sylus stated that he had to go leave town to supervise weapons testing, while Alex pointed out that she never really "needed" him in the first place. Sylus gave Alex an 'emotionless' hug, one of the few instances where Sylus was actually portrayed as emotionless.

PRESENT DAY: Sylus and Alex exchange in somewhat hostile banter towards each other, but seem otherwise friendly. Alex did raise the point though that maybe it would be better had the breakup never happened.

2) Sylus tells Alex that there's a secret document called "The Wild Flower", which has information about how to enter into the Civilus Primiscotas. This document appeared to have been created by The Ministry, the government/corporation that Sylus had previously worked for in weapons testing. Sylus recruits Alex to help him find this document.

3) Alex and Slyus walks around when SUDDENLY an unknown soldier repels down from aircraft and ambushes the party. The soldier states that the area is under the control of the Ministry and told both Alex and Sylus to leave the area. Alex and Sylus gunned down the soldier mercilessly.

Random encounters began to occur at this stage, including encounters by the local (mutated) wildlife and "Unknown Soldiers" (though one could surmise that, because they are protecting Ministry territory, they are working for the Ministry).

4) Alex and Sylus reaches a Secluded Bunker, the game's first dungeon. There, they began fighting new monsters: not just Unknown Soldiers, but Sergeants and Cannon Fooder as well. Alex and Sylus seems pretty intent on massacring human beings, without ever really questioning it*. It's kinda scary and disturbing in a sense.

*The script later mentions that Sylus and Alex are not really there to kill anyone, but that contradicts previous statements that appear to suggest Sylus and Alex harbor murderous intentions towards the army.

5) Alex and Slyus finally reaches a secret part of the Secluded Bunker where they encounter an earthquake and overhear a conversation between high-level officials wearing Ministry uniforms.

Unknown1: Tell those idiots to stop screwing around.
Unknown2: Yes sir!
Unknown1: Remember our job is not to pillage it is to find it. I had better get a promotion for this.

Sylus breaks through the door, causing Alex to smirk about how Sylus cares about doing things dramatically. Sylus then fights off against the Unknown Team Commander, the first boss of this game.

6) After the Unknown Team Commander is beaten up, Sylus brutally interrogates a soldier (possibly the same Unknown Team Commander that they fought off against) for information on how to unlock a door that houses The Wild Flower. The interrogation succeeds in getting A COMBINATION, but it's the wrong one. By the time they found out, it was too late, and the soldier retreats.
"Unknown: You will die for what you have done today, mark my words. Remember my name, as it will be written on your gravestones. Thomas Redding."

7) With the defeat of the first boss of the game, the entire Unknown Army has been annihilated. This gives Alex and Sylus free reign to search the bunker in search of The Wild Flower. More earthquakes become common as Alex and Slyus goes deeper into that bunker. They find the document they are looking for and flee the area.

8 - Sylus and Alex wonders why The Order want the "artifact" anyway. Sylus just shrugs, stating that The Order will give further instructions. Both Sylus and Alex decided to rest a bit, and regroup tomorrow.

Sylus wasn't really interested in "resting" though. He wants to seek out Johnny Five-Ace and recruit him into his merry band. The script here ends.

Note 1: The dialogue casually refers to numerous high tech devices, but I do not list them in this note due to me not really carrying a whole lot about needless fluff.

Note 2: The script refers to numerous cities and locations that do not exist on the official map of Rasenni. This suggests a lack of coordination in the Zybourne Clock team.

Note 3: I do not know what Civilus Primiscotas is. It would make sense for it to be an alternative name for The Clock...but the game is just starting, and you can't be finishing the first act so easily and quickly. Hrm.

Takeaway: There is a conflict within Rasenni as well, between the Ministry and The Order. The Ministry also has some interest in the Clock as well, which make sense considering how useful the Clock is. Presumably the Ministry are the good guys, as they are trying to avert the armageddon that The Order wants. But they may also have more ulterior motives.

Fun Bonus Update

Spoiler: The Ultimate Question: Why did Sylus Tried To Find Johnny And Then Murdered Him? (click to show/hide)

I was always somewhat confused as to why Sylus wanted to find Johnny at the end of "Act 1 of Part 1", but I just assumed Sylus just needed allies. Johnny appeared to have some talent, so of course Sylus would seek him out.

I gave the writers too much credit.

I mentioned before about how the Zybourne Clock has three failsafes. The second failsafe is the fact that the descendants of the founders of The Order is allowed to reprogram the Clock, in case it malfunctions. I mentioned before that all the descendants of those three people ends up within the party proper, but Johnny is a special descendant.

See, while any descendant can reprogram the clock, only the descendants of Mr. McMillian (a close friend of Zybourne who helped to create The Order) can open the doors, allowing people to enter the Clock. And it turns out that Johnny is an descendant of Mr. McMillian.

The descendants of Mr. McMillian also had another power too...they had the power to destroy the Clock. It seemed Dr. Zybourne was still rather unsure whether his idea about time travel was correct, and was afraid of temporal abnormalities. If the Clock is destroyed, Dr. Zybourne predicted that the original timeline will be restored (the one with the perpetual civil war that Dr. Zybourne wanted to avert in the first place).

So that explains Sylus' behavior. First, he needed Johnny because he would serve as the key to enter the Clock, but Johnny's actual presence in The Clock is counterproductive, because Johnny could choose to easily destroy the Clock. This would start (or restart) Armageddon, but not the one that The Order wanted, so Johnny had to die.

This revelation does, in some sense, conflict with a previous update where I summarized the three timelines. In that update, I mentioned Sylus destroying the Clock after modifying it, thereby sending the distress signal and creating a brand new timeline (Timeline 3). The truth is, I've tried to simplify the plot because the actual plot is a bit convoluted and worthless. Just know that the Clock realized it had been tampered with by Sylus, and that it sent a distress signal in the past, thereby creating Timeline 3.