Game Groups > Clonk series

Clonk started out as a very basic action game by Matthes Bender. The original version was just a sequence of 30 predefined rounds in which two players could send out their team to fight in a randomly generated landscape. The distribution of Clonk and its sequels on cover discs of German game magazines have made the number of its fans grow steadily, and today it is one of the most successful Shareware game series in Germany.

With subsequent versions, the games became more and more complex, allowing players to construct buildings, gather and process resources to develop new structures and maintain a working economy, direct battles and diplomacy and so on. Clonk 4 added total customizability, allowing players to edit or create every object and scenario imaginable, providing a C-like scripting language and allowing exchange between players. This feature, along with the split-screen mode, has since been the most important part of Clonk's success.

All editions of Clonk have been distributed as Shareware. In January 2001, developer Matthes Bender has made all games up to Clonk 4 available as freeware. Clonk Planet was added to the freeware selection a short while after its successor, Clonk Endeavour, had been released.