Video Game / Clockwork Calamity In Mushroom World

I'm dreaming of a mushroom world
Where the sun shines and the moon glows bright.

Clockwork Calamity in Mushroom World is a game by Sylvie and Hubol, known for games like cat planet, Craz'd!, and Jiggly Zone.

In a world where time has stopped ticking for some reason, a mushroom princess simply known as Princess, she is tasked to help other denizens of Mushroom World and more importantly, return all twelve Hands of the Cylvey Clock Tower in order to restore the flow of time. She must do so by collecting mushrooms from Mushroom Zones and trading items with other inhabitants of the Mushroom World to complete her quest.

The game can be found on Steam or on itch.io.

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Clockwork Calamity in Mushroom World provides examples of:

• An Arm and a Leg: Graal asks for your legs in return for a shard of Eivlys that she owns. Subverted since you can simply give her legging equipment/boots instead, though she still gleefully agrees to the trade if you do so anyway.
• Animorphism: The Bunney Artifact also turns you into a bunney if you have it in your inventory. The only non-vanity difference it causes is letting you communicate with other bunneys.
• Ancient Tomb: The Secret Tomb within the Cavern of Ancients, which requires completing a puzzle in another area to enter, holds one of the Twelve Hands you need to complete your quest. You obtain it in a Cutscene featuring animated skeletons and giant fluffy cats that inhabit the tomb.
• Anti-Hoarding: Your bag limits the items you can hold as you travel through the world, and what you can actively trade to other characters since you can't pick up outside items during trading. Downplayed since items you throw out of your bag will be placed in the overworld and last forever, so you can recollect them when you have the space for them later.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Jetpack item, which allows for propulsive flight as long as you hold the Up key. It seems super useful, especially outside Mushroom Zones, but inside Mushroom Zones, using the Jetpack will cause your Oxygen Meter to drain much faster.
• Background Music Override: You can equip a boombox in-game that does this, replacing the usual lyric-filled soundtrack with alternate music tracks with their own lyrics, usually kittey-themed.
• Beneath the Earth: The Cavern of Ancients, where a collection of NPCs can be found inside, along with weathered down kitty statues.
• Bunnies for Cuteness: The bunneys (not a misspelling, it is how they're referred to in-game) of the Cherry Blossom Hills serve as this, being native to that zone only. If you turn into a bunney through the Bunney Artifact, you can communicate with them too, or "fluff" them, According to the lore, they're responsible for giving the witch Eivlys her world-creation powers.
• Chain of Deals: One of the main premises of the game, with getting important non-mushroom items primarily being obtained by trading them items that certain characters want, and said items may be held only by other characters that want something else. All the important quest items can only be obtained by said trades. In-universe, it's how the denizens of Mushroom World get things from each other, but played with given the fact that they do use mushrooms as a form of Weird Currency (Known as "Shroom Mony", or SM).
  • Even the riddle in the clock tower involving its prisoner is simply finding out what items she needs to be traded for to get her Hand.
• Chest Monster: Chestor, the living cat-chest in the Canyon Cliffs, although like everything else it can't threaten you, only be somewhat mean to you. You can kick it back as much as you like.
• Clock Tower: The Cylvey Clock Tower, where you must return the legendary 12 Hands you find to in specific slots in order to complete the game.
• Couldn't Find a Pen: There are some messages written in what appears to be blood on the walls of the Cylvey Clock Tower, one being "HELL" and another spelling "PRISSONER". (Yes, that misspelling is actually in the game.)
• Counterfeit Cash: In-universe, it is stated that the high presence of counterfeit versions of rare shrooms has made said shrooms no longer viable as direct currency.
• Collection Sidequest: Through the museum in the Cavern of Ancients, which somehow holds completely identical copies of every item, even the supposedly unique ones. It will fill up as you collect items you haven't gotten before. And there are loads and loads of items. Have fun getting 100% Completion!
• Cumulonemesis: There's a living thundercloud named Cloudy in the Cherry Blossom Hills, which isn't exactly an enemy, but it's a Jerkass at worst and you have to trade with it an item that looks like the thundercloud to get one of the Twelve Hands you need to win the game. A memory from Cloudy states that it feels lonely in their current location and wants people to visit their place, just so it can strike those visitors with lightning.
• Cute Kitten: As expected for a game that one of the creators, Sylvie, worked on, them being her Author Appeal. They appear in the game as "Kitteyshrooms" that appear in specific Mushroom Zones, roaming the room they're in, and can be collected for additional jumps.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Losing all your air and fainting simply transports you back to the entrance from whence you came, with no other penalties whatsoever.
• Developer's Foresight: The Bunney Artifact transforms you into a bunney when you hold it. Some applicable NPCs can also be traded with to receive this artifact, and they too will transform into a personalized bunny if they hold the item in their inventory.
  • If you throw away a valuable item somewhere that you currently can't reach, you can get help from Alicia the thief near the game's museum that will permit you steal a copy of any of the items you've collected, though you have to wait between heists.
  • You can replay the game with worlds that shuffle the rare shrooms you can find in specific Mushroom Zones. Justified in-universe, since Memories that usually indicate what rare shroom can be found in the zone note this as some sort of magic shuffling the shrooms around, to their dismay.
• Double Jump: Equipping Kitteyshrooms give you extra jumps, though they're smaller, inferior jumps to your base jump, and cannot be boosted by other external powerups.
• Equipment Upgrade: Some items exist to boost the abilities given from other items in your inventory if they're put together, like with the Mapping Implement that can be made to not only show you the areas adjacent to you, but whether they have rare items or not.
• Excuse Plot: The issue of time stopping, which is the reason you're collecting the 12 Hands, since it plays very little role in the narrative, and all the characters that have any reaction to it show mild irritation or simple acknowledgement of the fact that time stopped in the first place, not that they're frozen by time at all.
• Flight: Can be done through either holding a Jetpack (which speeds up air drain as noted by the Awesome, but Impractical example above) or wings gained from the chicken NPC (which doesn't drain air). The wings are significantly harder to get, however.
• Floating Continent: Downplayed, there are really small floating pieces of land in the Canyon Cliffs, which an NPC on one of them finds fascinating.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: The Twelve Hands of the Cylvey Clock Tower, necessary to finish the game, all requiring trades with specific NPCs to obtain.
• Green Hill Zone: The Cherry Blossom Hills, with additional cherry blossom theming.
• Guide Dang It!: Downplayed since none of the examples in this game are necessary at all to win the game, though knowing how to do so can be pretty helpful for a quicker completion. There are some puzzles that players new to puzzles in general could struggle with, but hints are provided for them in-game.
  • The wings from the chicken NPC require two non-duplicate pink paperclips, and one is from a very long set of trades, and the other is given by Pipi in Cylvey City, should you trade away all of her red paperclips. While she laments about wanting to get rid of all her paperclips, there is no indication that you would be rewarded for trading out all of her paperclips.
  • There is another character named Geniux in the Cherry Blossom Hills in the south-west corner that asks for your "password". Should you initiate enough talking with Geniux, you'll be given hints in the form of password-related questions, which not all players may not get. However, one of the hints states that answering those questions would take the form of having items in your inventory, and you need a combination of those items in your inventory to finally trade with that character. Lampshaded by said hint that players may not be able to figure it out, while noting that finding the password is completely optional for beating the game.
  • The hidden Mushroom Zones in Cylvey City, the one on the bottom requires trading all three shards of Eivlys, each held by a character with vague requests for said shards. The one at the top requires having to fly or jump into the ceiling at a certain spot in the northwest area of the zone, and aside from a light that appears from that spot when you complete the sidequest from Rainbis in that same area, there's only one other hint of such an area's existence. The Cloud Key's examination description, stating that there must be some door that the key should unlock.
• Hint System: There is an NPC in each zone of the Hint for payment variety. Their hints are pretty cheap overall, only requiring 1-5 units of currency per hint.
• Hammerspace: Played with, despite the fact that Inventory Management Puzzle applies to this game, since your bag has limited space, the stuff you can carry around should they fit within the inventory space include things like a horse, multiple vehicles, and even a whole house, granted the latter takes up plenty of space. You can even enter the house if you throw it into the overworld!
• Healing Checkpoint: If you have a Memory Disk equipped, Memories in the Mushroom Zones can become this if you "Record" them, though you can only do so with one Memory per Mushroom Zone. But you can get more Memory Disks through additional trades. (Though you can only enter Mushroom Zones with one disk at a time.)
• Improbably Female Cast: Aside from the animals, all the characters and NPCs are female, are referred to with female pronouns, or look feminine (with the limited pixel art), with not a single character noted to be explicitly male except Chestor, who is a living chest. There's also a couple in the Canyon Cliffs that is known to be two wives.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The wings from the chicken NPC, which require you to collect two special pink paperclips, neither of which can be duplicates from the museum. One is from a very long and tedious Chain of Deals that requires a really big bag to hold the necessary items, and the other is an easier but still tedious task of Trading away every red paperclip held by the NPC Pipi. The latter task has no indication that you would be rewarded for doing so. Should you obtain the wings, you will be able to freely fly anywhere, including within the Mushroom Zones, with no penalty at all.
• Intrepid Merchant: The Princess/you, since you have to explore the Mushroom Zones to find valuable items to give to other characters in order to advance through the game, with no main alternative.
• Inventory Management Puzzle: Your inventory is a Grid Inventory example, where your inventory space can fit all the item shapes that can be put into your initially non-square bag. Considering that some items boost your abilities when in your inventory, it also limits the combinations of items and upgrades you have to an extent. It can be expanded up to three times through Beleve, a "bagsmith", in the lower-left area of the Cylvey City, and is also subverted by the fact that you can simply throw out items into the open world, where they'll stay until you decide to collect them later.
• Joke Item: Worthless Shrooms, which almost no one wants to take you, making them useless as currency. Almost. There is an NPC that likes Worthless Shrooms, who refers to them as Wonderful Shrooms, considering them precious to her. Additionally, red paperclips are considered this, with a character in the Cylvey City upset at having a lot of these, and will trade them for similarly worthless items. There's another person known as Searchey that actually wants a paperclip.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Creamy, an NPC that wants to have a kittey of her own, but can't find one or afford one from the merchant selling them for high prices. She deems you her best friend the moment you trade her one.
• Live Item: Kittyshrooms and Speedshrooms, which are animalistic mushrooms. When not in the inventory, Kittyshrooms and Speedshrooms will move on their own, the latter pretty quickly, so getting a Speedshroom you released earlier can be minisculely harder than the usual stationary item.
• Luck-Based Mission: There's a minor side-quest where it's stated that something special can happen if you throw three dice in a row and roll three 6's, which has a 1/216 chance. For those who despise this trope, it can be defied by trying this while equipping the Bunney Pin, which makes this task much easier to complete.
• Mad Scientist: The Laboratory owner, Laboratorie, claims herself to be this, on top of being a Card-Carrying Villain, although none of her creations actually appear to do anything notably bad or evil. She was plotting to make time stop, but this has already been done on its own before the game started, and not many characters are extremely worried or troubled by it either.
• Magic Mushroom: The rare shrooms exclusive to Mushroom Zones that require a key to unlock, since they give you a special upgrade when in your inventory. In-universe, characters use them for their own various purposes, either making new stuff or starting certain phenomena with them.
• Memory Jar: The crystal Memories in the Mushroom Zones, which contain a memory from one of the many characters in the game. If you have specific items equipped, they can become additional portals to the main world.
• Minecart Madness: The small minigame that you can access after showing off a minecart license to Mineria of the Canyon Cliffs, though you can't control the movement of the minecart. Not that you even need to anyway, since you eventually collect the ten gems you need to win regardless. After winning, you receive the Hand of Earth, and replaying this minigame will lead to the minigame crashing, and you leaving it as if nothing happened.
• Mushroom Man: The Princess, who wears a mushroom on her head. Even when turned into a bunney, the mushroom stays.
• No Antagonist: Aside from the difficulties of exploring Mushroom Zones and getting to trade with characters, there is no Big Bad opposing you. The event causing time to stop in the first place, which instigates the plot, has no apparent cause either. With no enemies to fight, there's no need to have combat abilities either.
• Oxygen Meter: Exists in the Mushroom Zones as a time limit for you to explore them before you're forced to stop and begin at the entrance again. The air meter's capacity can be extended by finding memories, and you can buy Oxygen Eggs to decrease the rate at which you lose air. You can also buy Air Bubbles to instantly refill your air.
• Poison Mushroom: Exist as an item in-game and they are stated to give you "poison damage", which is presented by the Princess's sprite turning purple and stretching briefly. Subverted in that the poison damage hardly does anything to hinder you.
• Power-Up: A majority of rare shrooms give you a positive effect of some sort when in your inventory. Other rare shrooms give you a vanity effect like giving you sparkles if you hold a Sparkleshroom.
  • Floatshrooms make you fall slower.
  • Kitteyshrooms give you extra small jumps.
  • Springshrooms extend the height of your base jump.
  • Speedshrooms make your horizontal speed quicker.
• Practical Currency: Mushrooms, which are stated in-game to be tasty.
• Racing Minigame: There's one in the Cavern of Ancients with Slash, a self-proclaimed Racing Queen that can float through the map. You'll need to collect Speedshrooms from Mushroom Zones to outpace her and earn her title and one of the Twelve Hands she holds.
• Rainbow Motif: Done with the regular mushrooms, except indigo is traded for pink. Also applies to the Kitteyshrooms.
• Respawn Point: The entrances of each Mushroom Zone, should you run out of air within them. If you turn a Memory into an alternate entrance to its Mushroom World, it becomes one too.
• Sadist: Graal, one of the three followers of Eivlys, who only became one to get her hands on a crimson shard stated to be one of Eivlys' body parts, and in the same memory, gloats about how much she watching others suffer, uses magic spells to harm others, and will only trade her shard for "your legs".
• Sdrawkcab Name: Eivlys, an unseen witch central to the game's lore, which is backwards for "Sylvie", one of the creators of the game.
• Secret Path: The Mushroom Zones and a few other areas have these, with some areas only being accessible through said paths. They reveal themselves if you enter them or have a specific item equipped to see them automatically.
• Secret Room: There's a hidden room right above the north-west area of Cylvey City, which contains its own Mushroom Zone, though it needs a unique key to open. There's hardly any hints on its existence, but you can fly or jump into it.
• Shifting Sand Land: The Canyon Cliffs sub-world, which has a large canyon with skulls at the bottom.
• Shout-Out: The Speedshrooms, being shrooms that are also blue, hedgehog-shaped, and zooming through the room, are obviously one to Sonic the Hedgehog. Additionally, the minecart minigame where you collect diamonds is called "The Minecraft".
  • Company Cross References: One merchant sells a "JIGGLER plush", which is one to Jiggly Zone.
• Springy Spores: Springshrooms are these when not in your inventory, which can be used to your advantage in Mushroom Zones.
• Swiss-Cheese Security: While you're asked not to steal stuff, by its owner, Queen, and some signs, you can get help from another NPC to steal items (they're copies of whatever items you've found before) from the museum in the Cavern of Ancients, but you can only steal one item per day. You can continually do this, and the game even counts how often you do so.
• Time Stands Still: The main premise of the game's plot, with you collecting things for the sake of restoring time. Oddly enough, all entities in the game are unaffected by time stopping, speaking and trading with you as if time never stopped. Though some NPCs note that their usual businesses are affected by time stopping in the first place.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Bunneys in this game, on top of liking carrots as expected, can also be fed swords which are much healthier to bunneys. The "unique and legendary" Scimitar of Sevily that is found in the hands of another NPC is considered premium bunney food.
• Wall Jump: A very odd case where you always bounce off walls on contact even if you're not airborne. But it's still usable to achieve greater heights then normal, especially when climbing Mushroom Zones.
• White-and-Grey Morality: Every character in the game is either a harmless animal, a friendly NPC, or an NPC that can be a bit of a jerk or has more questionable morals, including the ominous character wanting the three shards of Eivlys known as Galfio, but they all do nothing to really harm you.
• Winds of Destiny, Change!: The Bunney Pin, when in your inventory, is stated to boost your luck dramatically, which actually does make rolling a 6 from a dice to be really frequent. Once you complete the Luck-Based Mission stated above, you will be blessed by a divine entity known as the Dice Goddess, impressed by your luck, letting you find rare items in Mushroom Zones more easily. Discussed by a Memory mentioning this that such a blessing would make finding rare shrooms feel less rewarding.

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