How did the idea for Clockwork Revolution form, and how did the team form around it?

Brian: The idea started well before we had finished Wasteland 3, and the number one request I was getting was to remake Arcanum, which, for the record, wasn’t one of mine! It was a Troika game. But that didn’t seem to stop people from asking. I already loved the genre, but that started to point me in this direction.

It’s a rich genre with so much room to play around in, and steampunk hasn’t been represented in RPGs very often. Steampunk’s already a fertile playground, and with time travel and our visual reactivity in the mix, we get to take it places it’s never been.

Chad: Yeah, when I first talked to Brian about joining inXile, he pitched me this exact idea. People had been bugging him to remake Arcanum, Jason and I had both worked on it, and he was really interested in making a steampunk game. He figured, ‘What better way to do that than to hire some of the guys who made it?’ I was his first hire on what would become Clockwork Revolution, and Jason followed soon after.

Jason: The pitch was always this grounded, gritty steampunk world. That darker, rougher tone was a big part of the early vision.

Brian: And we should mention that these guys also worked on the original Fallout games and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, not to mention all the other great RPGs they’ve been involved in creating. I’m continually amazed at the craftsmanship of the team we’ve assembled.

Chad: inXile knows its RPGs, and Jason and I had the steampunk angle covered, but to make a game like this, we needed specializations the studio really hadn’t had before. That meant bringing in talent from places like Rockstar to improve our cinematics and conversations. We wanted our combat and gameplay experiences to shine, so we hired combat and encounter designers from studios like Bungie and Blizzard. We’ve really created an exceptional team on all fronts.

Can we just quickly define “steampunk” for people that may not know?

Chad: The most basic premise of steampunk as a genre is that the internal combustion engine was never invented, and steam-powered technology advanced beyond where it would have otherwise. So, in the world of Clockwork Revolution, we have some major technological advancements, even beyond where we are now in our reality, but in a late 1800s Victorian-style setting.

Jason: And the alternate reality of Clockwork Revolution extends beyond just the city of Avalon where the game is set. Our entire world—nations, empires, and historical events—is different. Some of the differences are due to key discoveries and inventions, and others are for more mysterious reasons that the player will come to discover.

Brian: It’s an amazing genre with so much room to play around in because steampunk hasn’t been represented in RPGs very often. It’s such a rich backdrop, and then you add in time travel and our visual reactivity, and we can really push its boundaries.

This new trailer feels a lot different than the first one. People might wonder—did the setting or art direction change?

Chad: No, Avalon is a city with a lot of different areas. What we showed in the first trailer was an upper-class region of Avalon called Midward. This time we’re showcasing the Tangle, which is where Morgan and the Rotten Row Hooligans live. It’s the poorer part of the city where your story starts.

Pretty early in the trailer we see character creation, which has a unique approach. Why was it important for us to show that off this time?

Brian: After the first trailer, we saw a lot of people wondering what kind of game this was, and so we wanted to leave no questions this time around. This is a deep RPG, with character creation, and we wanted to show off some other options you can pick from. And seeing our beautiful character creation machine, of course.

Chad: I think Chris [Chris Keenan, inXile President] said the character creation machine is actually the single most expensive asset that the studio has ever made… [laughs]

Brian: And it’s worth every dime! This isn’t just a UI screen, it’s a fully in-world machine for reporting a crime, and the suspect is you. We love reactivity, and we know players do too, so we try to kick that off right away. As you assign points to your stats, the machine’s description of the perpetrator shifts based on your choices. Even the dialogue reflects it. Put everything into Morgan’s Social skill, the officer might say something like, ‘Why do you think they’re so charismatic? Are you sure this wasn’t a jilted lover?’  We know people spend a long time in character creators, so we wanted to make it feel alive, not just visually, but in how the world talks back.

We see a few different types of automatons, including the officer that’s taking the police report. Can you talk about their importance in Avalon?

Jason: We’ve got everything from basic utility models like Sweepin’ Stevens, whose job it is to clean up all the ash in the Tangle, to Miracle Marvels, which are the most advanced—and sentient—automatons in Avalon. Their struggle and the conflict around that is a continuous subplot.

Brian: They’re really a great narrative tool because they can help you understand and reflect on the human moments. They challenge the idea of humanity, and you as the player in this roleplaying game can deal with that how you like.

Chad: There’s also Prentice, the small flying automaton that we see briefly in the trailer. Prentice is actually your companion throughout the game and is a key part of how you’re pulled into the conflict with Lady Ironwood.

Let’s talk about the characters in this trailer for a minute. We hear a little bit about Lady Ironwood but we don’t see her this time, except in our new key art.

Chad: In the announcement trailer, we focused more on Lady Ironwood and the high-level conflict but, in this one, we wanted to focus more on Morgan as a character, as well as some of the darker and more visceral aspects of life in the Tangle. That allowed us to introduce some new characters, as well as bring back Uncle Alfie, the disgruntled shopkeep with giant chops we saw in that first trailer.

Jason: Well, Alfie was one of the first characters we really nailed down, that’s the main reason he’s been in both of our trailers. He embodies the grounded, gritty tone we wanted.

Chad: They all help show the different layers of Avalon. Alfie’s one of the Syndicate bosses, Duke Pomphrey’s a loudmouth automaton doll, and Lord Griswick represents the elite upper class. They’re not necessarily all part of the core story, but they play important roles along the way.

Brian: I won’t spoil anything, but Duke Pomphrey in particular can play a larger role in the game, depending on the players’ choices, which I will definitely be doing in my own playthroughs. He’s going to be a star.

Sticking with Alfie, we also see a brutal scene when Morgan enters his shop and chooses to antagonize him.

Brian: It was important for us to speak directly to core roleplaying fans and show what this game really is. We slow things down for a moment, let the conversation breathe, and show the systems at work. That scene with Alfie isn’t just dramatic, it sets the tone. This is a game that can be brutal. Not just in combat, but in the choices you make and how the world responds. It’s not just about cinematics, it’s about the kind of deep, reactive RPG we love to build, and that our players expect.

Chad: It also highlights our multi-person conversations. Some conversations will have multiple people involved, and who you choose to speak to can send you down different dialogue branches. This can wildly change where a conversation ends up going. In the case of the trailer, Morgan chose to speak to Errol instead of Alfie, despite obvious warnings, and that resulted in poor Errol’s death. So, if you choose to go down that path, Errol is then a character that won’t be in the rest of the game.

Brian: Conversations have meaningful consequences, and I think it’s worth mentioning we have truly evil conversation options. You see a few of those play out in the trailer. If you’re offering evil options, they need to actually pay off and have meaningful consequences in order for the good choices to feel good. Otherwise, you’re not truly playing the way you want to play. 

Speaking of combat, let’s talk about weapons and gadgets. The weapon bench is a standout moment for me.

Chad: From the onset of the project, we wanted to pay off the fantasy of being a steampunk inventor and tinkerer, and our weapon system is a major part of that. When you find a new weapon, it’s a major moment, and that’s because you will have that gun for the rest of the game.

When you upgrade your weapons at the weapon bench, you’ll have literally hundreds of different ways to customize them, depending on the kind of player you are. The whole experience really makes the weapon the star of the show. We also have a bunch of cool gadgets, which are essentially steampunky grenades and deployables, which, along with your time powers, round out your arsenal.

Thanks for the convenient segue! So, speaking of time powers, we won’t spoil everything, but let’s hear about some of what we showed off.

Chad: Your core time powers are useful both in and out of combat. For example, Slow can be used on enemies to temporarily slow them (and their bullets), helping you reduce a threat, but you can also use the same power on environmental objects to solve puzzles and avoid hazards. Reverse is the same way. You can rewind cover objects in case enemies destroy what you’re ducking behind, but it also allows you to unload on someone and then rip the bullets back out.

All of these things—gadgets, time powers, weapons, your stats, and even Prentice—are all part of larger, interwoven RPG systems and skill trees. So, they aren’t just an ‘unlock it and you’re done’ component, they’re all a part of the journey of leveling up and increasing your ability to deal with the Ironwood threat.

I think that’s a good spot to wrap this up with a big question: if you had to give just one reason for players to get excited about Clockwork Revolution, what is it?

Jason: It’s a game where your choices don’t just change the dialogue options, they reshape the entire world. You’ll go back, make decisions, and come back to see the effects all around you. That kind of reactivity is rare, and we’re pushing it as far as we possibly can.

Chad: For me, it’s the sheer depth. Every system—from conversations to world state to combat—feeds into player agency. The choices you make ripple across time, and the world remembers what you did. If you’re looking for an RPG that truly reacts to you, this is it.

Brian: It’s got everything we love putting into our RPGs—rich choices, consequences, dark humor—but this time, we’re doing it in a much bigger way. We’re not pulling punches. It’s bold, it’s reactive, and it’s all handcrafted by an incredibly talented team. You’re going to feel that in every moment.

Micah Whipple: Thank you, gentlemen!

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Clockwork Revolution is available to wishlist now and will be available in due time on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox PC, Steam, cloud—and you can play it on day one with Game Pass. And with Xbox Play Anywhere, a single purchase lets you play on Xbox consoles and Xbox PC with full cross-saves – at no additional cost.