Clover is a watercolour side-scrolling platform puzzle game. In design it
resembles a traditional adventure game as most of the gameplay is centered
around item-based puzzle solving and adapting to the world’s events, without
health bars, harmful enemies, weapons or dying permanently. In that ways it is
reminiscent of the classic Dizzy series. The game is set in the peaceful land
of Sanha ruled by King Heydrich. One day the Sanhan merchant ship HMS Jingo is
attacked, sinking without survivors. The neighbouring nation of Andala is
accused and the teenager Sam Kirkwell receives notice that he is now entitled
to an orphan’s allowance, as his mother was aboard the ship. Finding no way to
cope with the loss Sam sets out to retrieve some of the ship’s debris, as
requested by the king.

Sam gets to explore much of the land of Sanha right away, talking to other
civilians and solving problems. There are no dialogue trees and all
interaction is done with a single key. Sam can pick up items to store them in
his inventory. Initially only two items can be stored simultaneously, but
later he will find a way to get a bigger bag. When a new item is picked up and
no room is left, another is dropped right away, but it does not disappear and
can be revisited at a later time. When solving a puzzle with the interaction
key, the process is automated when Sam is carrying the right item. No
inventory item combinations are needed and players also do not need to select
the correct item from the inventory.

There are a few minor platform elements where Sam has to jump over gaps or
avoid enemies. When dying or in a dangerous situation, the screen fades to
white and a retry is offered. Sam can also regularly pick up newspaper scraps
that are stored in his house and progressing through the game unlocks items in
an art gallery. The game is complemented with full voice acting.

The reworked Windows version contains new animations for every character, new
graphics, a revamped user interface and new effects. It also has complete
voice-acted English dialogue for an extended script (four times as much as the
original), and French and Spanish translations. The gameplay has been updated
with new puzzles and subquests, four new endings and a playable epilogue. The
controls have been tweaked to provide context-sensitive controls.

Clover