Clockwork Empires throws you into the role of a Colonial Bureaucrat dispatched by the Steam-powered empire to establish and manage a dangerous frontier outpost. Your job is to lay out buildings, stock them with machinery and furniture, and oversee every detail of colony life—from food production and mining to research and spiritual welfare. Along the way, you must balance the ravenous demands of industry against the unpredictable needs of your colonists, each of whom has a distinct personality, memory, and set of desires. Fail to keep them happy, and you may find your settlement overrun with occult rituals, cannibal feasts, or worse.