Metroidvanias may be one of the most popular genres in indie games, from Ultros to MIO: Memories in Orbit, to the point of oversaturation, but back when Nathan Hiemenz first began working on Clockwork Ambrosia over a decade ago, it was arguably a niche. Even then, it's still an unusual track, as he observes that the game is more influenced by the Metroid side, given its focus on range-based combat.
"In Super Metroid, you can combine weapon effects, so that you can put a wave effect that goes through terrain with another one that has a freeze effect, which was kind of simplistic but pretty cool for its time," Hiemenz explains. "So what if we took that concept but applied it to a more in-depth customizable rules-based system where we can add complete modifications to your weapons. It's almost like Slay The Spire in that you're almost building your weapon, even if it's not a deck, or theorycrafting your character in a game like Path of Exile, but on the scale of the weapon itself rather than your character."
