Name: Chronos Forge Games
Founded: 2020
Location: London, UK (with a distributed international team)
Leadership:

• Elara Vance, Creative Director & Co-Founder:Former narrative lead on acclaimed titles like “The Gilded Archive” and “Vox Machina: Legacy.” Known for deep world-building and character-driven stories.
• Marcus Thorne, Technical Director & Co-Founder:Veteran engine programmer with a background in physics simulation. Previously worked on the “Aethelgard” trilogy, specializing in creating systemic, interactive worlds.
• Anya Petrova, Lead Art Director:Holds a PhD in Industrial Design History. Her work blends authentic Victorian and Belle Époque aesthetics with biomechanical and clockwork fantasy.

Studio Philosophy:

• Motto:“Crafting Worlds with Intent.”
• Core Tenet:Focus on “Environmental Storytelling as Gameplay.” They believe the world itself should be a puzzle, a character, and a narrative engine.
• Development Style:Meticulous and iterative, with a strong emphasis on player agency and mechanical uniqueness over sheer scale.

History & Pedigree:

• Formed by veterans from the RPG, immersive sim, and adventure game sectors following a successful Kickstarter for a prototype called “Cogsmith’s Dilemma.”
• Their first commercial project was the well-received puzzle-adventure “The Luminescence Gear”(2023), which established their signature style of tactile, physics-based interaction within a strong narrative.
• The team has since expanded to approximately 85 full-time developers, including experts in procedural animation (for gear and steam effects) and temporal logic programming.

Notable Influences (as cited by the team):

• Gameplay:Dishonored (world reactivity), Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (setting fusion), Outer Wilds (knowledge-based progression).
• Aesthetic & Tone:The films of Hayao Miyazaki (Howl’s Moving Castle), the art of Victo Ngai and Jakub Różalski, and the literature of China Miéville (Perdido Street Station).

Quote on “Clockwork Ambrosia”:
Elara Vance, Creative Director: “For us, ‘Clockwork Ambrosia’ is about the intimacy of time. It’s not just a resource bar; it’s the melancholy of a rewound memory, the panic of a skipped second in a fight, the luxury of a stolen moment of peace. We’re building systems where time feels physical and precious.”

What They’re Known For (Pre-Release Hype):

1. Impeccable Art Direction:Every asset is designed to feel hand-crafted, weighted, and part of a believable, lived-in machine.
2. Complex, Moral Narratives:Stories without clear “good vs. evil,” focusing on ideological conflict (Order vs. Chaos, Progress vs. Preservation).
3. “Play Your Way” Systems:A commitment to supporting multiple solutions to problems—combat, stealth, diplomacy, or temporal trickery.