Clockwork Derby Game Rules

The game clockwork derby is a fierce race between clanks. The goal is to race through the map, past obstacles and other clanks. Each clank is controlled by programming it 5 turns in advance. Be careful though. The other clanks might mess up your carefully planned program.

The exact goal of the game is dependent on what mode is being played. A game of derby is a race from flag to flag, where the first clank to touch all flags in order wins.

The rules below are for the default game. Some of the rules can be changed in the setup menu, and these settings are at the bottom of this page.

Phases

A game is divided into several phases. Each phase happens for all players at the same time.

• Card phase: each player is given cards to craft a program that the clank will execute
• Program phase: Where the program is being executed, in 5 registers. Each register will have the following.
  • Robots move according to programmed cards, in the order of the priority from highest to lowest;
  • Move all the fast belts one space;
  • Move all belts one space;
  • Move pushers if applicable
  • Move rotators
  • Board and clanks fire weapons
  • Clanks touch flags, check- and repair-points
• At the end of the 5 registers, all dead bots respawn to the last touched, available checkpoint with full health.

Dealing cards

The turn starts with dealing cards. All players remove all unlocked cards from the cardreaders. Locked cards remain in the cardreaders and are marked with red lights in front of the cards. All unlocked cards are collected and shuffled. Now each player receives cards depending on the amount of damage the clank has, as shown in the table below.

0 damage	9 cards
1 damage	8 cards
2 damage	7 cards
3 damage	6 cards
4 damage	5 cards
5 damage	4 cards
6 damage	3 cards
7 damage	2 cards
8 damage	1 card
9 damage	0 cards

The players now use the cards they have received to make a program. Each slot in the cardreader needs to be filled, no gaps are allowed. Once the player selected their cards and put them in the cardreaders, the cardreader handle is pulled towards the player.

During this phase a player may also decide to power down. When the clank powers down, all damage will be removed, but the clank will not move this entire turn. This is done by pushing the cardreader handle away from the player. This will make the clank start to power down. The clank will only actually power down the next turn, so for this turn the player does need to play all possible cards.

Register

When all players have either played their cards or are powered down, the turn starts and the following steps will repeat for each register.

Robot movement

The card of the register is played for each player. On register 1 that is the first card (the left most card), on register 2 the second card, and so forth. The number on the card is the priority. The order of the cards for each register is from high priority to low priority.

In order of priority, all clanks make the movement that is on the card, while interacting with the elements on the map.

Map movement

When all cards of the register have been played, the elements on the map starts to move.

1. All fast belts move 1 position;
2. All fast and normal belts move 1 position;
3. Pushers push if active this register;
4. All rotators spin 90 degrees;
5. All clanks and the map fire their lasers

Lasers

After the map has moved, all lasers are fired. The map lasers are shown on the map. For each laser that hits a clank, that clank take 1 damage.

Then each clank fires their laser. Lasers move from the front of the clank, in a straight line. Lasers are stopped by walls and other clanks. The first clank that is in the path of a laser receives 1 damage.

End of register

After all lasers have been fired, the register is over. Each clank that is on a flag or repair point when the register end touches that flag. Touching a flag or repair point sets you respawn to that tile and the clank removes 1 or 2 damage (based on the tile). If the player had that flag as their next target, the flag is now touched and the player can proceed to the next flag.

The game now moves to the next register.

End of turn

When the fifth register is finished, all cards have been played. This is the end of a turn.

Cleanup

At the end of the registers all players with lives left have their clanks respawned. Each clank is respawned to the last checkpoint they touched that is not occupied, going down the list of all previous checkpoints. The clank will face the direction they did when touching the checkpoint.

At this moment, there is no way for clanks to respawn at a save spot around a checkpoint. This has to be done through the debugging menu.

Winning

In Derby the goal is to touch all flags in order. The first player to touch all flags in order wins the Derby.

Map features

Conveyor

Conveyors will move the clank in the direction shown on the belt at each map movement phase. The conveyors come in two speeds, fast and slow. Slow belts will move 1 space each movement phase, while fast belts will move 2 spaces each movement phase. Slow belts have one arrow on them, while fast belts have two arrows.

Conveyors will rotate the clanks through corners. When a clank on a belt stops on a turn, the clank will spin in the direction of the turn. Merging belts move the clank in the direction the clank follows. When the clank moves in a straight line over the merger, the clank will not spin. If the clank moves in a corner through the merger, the clank spins in that direction.

When a clank is moved by a belt, but another clank that is not on a belt is in the way, the belt will push the clank as if it was another clank pushing.

Rotator

The rotators will spin the clanks during the map movement. The arrows show which way the clank is spun. Each map movement the clank is spun 90 degrees.

Wall

Walls are obstacles on the map that block the movement of clanks and stop laser beams. When a clank moves in a certain direction, and a wall is in the way, the movement of the clank stops at the wall. Colliding with walls itself does not do damage to the clank. Walls also block the lasers fired by the clanks.

Laser

Some of the maps have lasers. The lasers fire at the end of each map movement phase. The lasers on the map are piercing, and each clank takes damage when they are hit by the laser. The lasers with 1, 2 and 3 beams do 1, 2 and 3 damage for each shot respectively.

Pit

When a clank drives over a pit, or stops on a pit, the clank receives max damage, instantly dies and the player loses a life. The dead clank is instantly moved to the parking position the moment it dies.

Pusher

Pushers push the clanks in front of them 1 space away from the wall. The register that the pushers are active is shown on the pusher. It is either in every odd, or every even register. The way the pusher push is the same as when clanks push each other.

Repair points

The repair points provide two functions in the game. The first is that they provide a checkpoint for any clank touching the point. Second is that the clank touching the repair point removes some damage. The hollow repair point (on the left) repairs 1 damage, the repair point with the gear repairs 2 damage. What counts as touching depends on the initial settings.

Starting positions

The starting positions are the positions where players start with their clanks. The number of arms correspond to the player number. In the image in the top, from left to right and top to bottom, it goes from 1 to 8. Other than providing a starting position and an initial checkpoint, the starting position has no special functions in the game and is treated as a normal floor.

Parking

The parking positions are not playable elements. They exist to give the broken clanks a place to go when they need to be removed from the board. The parking row is always a full row at the bottom of the map. The parking row has collision and will block any clank from entering it, as if surrounded by walls.

Pushing

Pushing clanks, Crushing

Setup

The first step is to pick a map. One your map is picked, place it on the board. Place the flag markers on the spaces you want. Ideally the flags are not too close to each other, and the first flag is far away from the starting positions to give each player a similar distance to travel. For extra challenge you can place the flag near (or even on) danger.

Place all clanks for each player on their starting positions, facing away from the parking row.

Once all settings have been copied to the digital game, there are a few choices to make. The defaults are bold, and are a good starting point.

• “Flag hit” determines when a flag is touched by a clank. Can be set to “On pass”, “Register” and “Turn”. “On pass”, the flag will be touched by the robot simply by moving over the tile. “Register” Is after one of the five registers, after the map is done moving. “Turn” Is after the last register, after the map is done moving.
• “Checkpoint” determines when a checkpoint is touched by a clank, and a respawn point is set. Can be set to “On pass”, “Register” and “Turn”. “On pass”, the checkpoint will be touched by the robot simply by moving over the tile. “Register” Is after one of the five registers, after the map is done moving. “Turn” Is after the last register, after the map is done moving.
• “Healing” determines when a clank is healed when landing on a healing tile. Can be set to “Register“, “R+1&T+10” and “Turn”. “Register” will heal a clank the amount on the repair point after the clank lands there after one of the five registers, after the map is done moving. “R+1&T+10” heals the clank the tile value after each register, when the map is done moving, and to full health after the final register. “Turn” Is after the last register, after the map is done moving.
• “Power down turn” determines when a player will power down when the player declares a power down (by pushing the lever to back instead of towards the player). This can be “This” and “Next“. “This” does the power down this turn, effectively stopping the clank immediately on the spot it currently stands on. “This” requires the player to keep all old cards in the reader, so that the locked cards are known if the clank sustains too much damage. “Next” stops the clank on the next turn, and requires the player to play a set of cards and hope the clank does not end in a dangerous spot.
• “Lifes” are the number of lives each clank has. This can be set to “Inf.”, “1”, “2” and “3“. “Inf” is infinite lives. A clank will keep respawning. “1”, “2”, and “3” are one, two and three lives respectively.
• “Card Lock” determines whether cards are locked when a clank sustains too much damage. Options are “Off” and “On“. When card locking is “off”, a player will get fewer cards when damage accumulates, but the minimum number of cards is 5 and no cards are locked. With card locking “On“, each damage a clank receives gets the player 1 card less, and beyond 4 damage, a card for each damage will be locked from right to left. At 9 damage, all cards will be locked and no cards will be dealt to the player.

License

The project described on this page is licensed under the Creative commons – Attribution  – ShareAlike license.