Platform Puzzler Clockwork: First Trailer

After years on the creative backburner, the humble 2D platformer has returned with a vengeance in recent years. Games like Braid and Limbohave gone on to become classics, while Ubisoft Montreal's been creating all kinds of beautiful-looking examples of the genre with its UbiArt Framework engine, including Valiant Hearts and Child Of Light.

Indie platformer Clockwork looks, at first glance, like an amalgam of those games. It has a painterly style akin to Child Of Light, a hint of Braid's time-manipulation mechanics, and a lumbering robot monster akin to Limbo's creepy giant spider.

Clockwork's story sounds like a great bit of sci-fi fantasy: as a city succumbed to plague, its inhabitants created disease-proof metal bodies for themselves. Years later, and all animal and human life has gone, leaving the machines to run the city. The game's lead character is Atto, a mechanical boy whose nimble fingers keep the ageing metropolis from breaking down. Partnering with Milli, a spectral girl who emerges from his pocket watch one day, Atto goes on a quest involving lots of puzzles, pitfalls and a giant creature called The Hour.

The introductory trailer below shows off a glimpse of Clockwork's gameplay, and it's already looking impressive. It's too early to say how it'll measure against some of the classics of the platform-puzzler genre, but we're looking forward to finding out.

Clockwork's due out in 2015 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Android and iOS.

IGN