Poll: Why has no one made a Steampunk RPG recently

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Well one of my degrees is in history xD but I get your point.

However surely a game like arcanum could be classed as sci fi and fantasy, and that could never be a bad thing, done well, right?

 

[JUSTINtimeforalaugh]

I'm (slowly) starting up a group that will be making games for Xbox Live Indie Games. One of the idea's is a turn-based rpg in a steampunk setting. I want it to have this nice Miyazaki feel, like Howl's Moving Castle.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Dark cloud 2/chronicles I suppose.

That was easily the best RPG on the ps2, if not the best game on it period.

 

[mexicola]

I didn't read through all the posts but LoK: Blood Omen 2 is, although arguably the worst game in the series, steam punk. It doesn't focus so much on shiny brass fetishism but instead more on the dystopian angle of it. That said, I wouldn't recommend getting it if that's all you are after because while steam punk is present it's never the focus and only serves as a background framing device (with a few spots of technology abuse mindfuckery).

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Ahhh, you make me miss Troika Games.

 

[Kadoodle]

Because people are content to call Bioshock steampunk.

Some backgrounds and walls and whatnot were all cogs and gears and such, but that hardly makes a game. That would be like calling Morrowind steampunk because that section of the expansion where you head over to Sotha Sil's place looks sort of like it.

Ya know, Bioshock was never steampunk. Maybe dieselpunk at best, but nothing more.


OT: It's not an RPG, but Bioshock infinite is looking VERY steampunk.

 

[Kadoodle]

Isn't BioShock Infinate going to be kind of steampunk? Or at least clockwork punk. Bioshock itself was pretty steampunk. Thing is steampunk is an art style not a genre.

No such thing as clockwork punk. Clockwork is a part of steampunk.

 

[blankedboy]

Morrowind touches on the steampunk setting with the Dwemer... I should check out this Arcanum thingie. Off I go :3

 

[Rayne870]

As a big fan of the epic (but okay buggy) Arcanum I find myself longing for a game that mixes elves and steam trains, dwarves and hydraulic axes, orcs in tuxes and evil gnome inventors.

Pretty much all of this is found in WoW, though gnomes tend to be more curious for their own good than evil. I know it's not what you meant or wanted but yeah that stuff is in there.

I would like to see a steam-punk rpg though.

 

[killcheese]

Two words would describe this... BAD ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Theron Julius]

Some of the Final Fantasy games are kind of steam punk I suppose.

I love the Steampunk style. It's a pity there are so few games that use it.

 

[viking97]

ahem echo bazaar lol

u mean traditional rpgs?

no idea

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I just wanted to note that I didnt mean why has no one made a steampunk rpg game ever there just doesn't seem to be much interest in it recently

How nice would a AAA steampunk game be? Yum.

i do highly agree, and no offense but some of the games people listed, while they are steampunk, i would never list some of them under rpg category...

but yeah i could really go for a nice steampunk rpg

 

[OneEyeX]

As a big fan of the epic (but okay buggy) Arcanum I find myself longing for a game that mixes elves and steam trains, dwarves and hydraulic axes, orcs in tuxes and evil gnome inventors.

Truthfully?

Steampunk alienates based on level of detail. With traditional fantasy, there is little to explain, maybe the source of divine beings or the use of magic, but even then, those can be told be how characters use magic. A lot of the time, it's based on folk-lore and traditional fantasy-trope.

Steampunk never happened, it's sorta based on the Victorian era but not as deeply as fantasy is related to medieval. Thus there isn't much of a bases for everyone to dive into; what is the traditional Steam-punk hero? There is no strong answer for this; where as with Cyberpunk it's normally some sort of Loner-Recluse-Hacker.

Truthfully, for a lot of people Steampunk feels very exclusive. It's nice to look at; but it's very hard to dig deeper into a setting like that simply because of how obtuse it can be at times.

Edit; anything made by Troika is built-to-break. There is a story on Escapist of some guys computer breaking when playing Bloodlines.

 

[OneEyeX]

I haven't played Arcanum for a long time. Nice to hear there is a patch that makes it a bit more playable though

The fans absolutely love that game and they're a dedicated and talented bunch. All of Troika's games have received a lot of love over the years. The work on TTOEE is impressive and Bloodlines has been completely overhauled.

I remember one of the mod communities putting up an April Fools a while back for a COMPLETE over haul of Bloodlines to make it Mage: Ascension. All the screen shots were just scenes from the Matrix.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

As a big fan of the epic (but okay buggy) Arcanum I find myself longing for a game that mixes elves and steam trains, dwarves and hydraulic axes, orcs in tuxes and evil gnome inventors.

Truthfully?

Steampunk alienates based on level of detail. With traditional fantasy, there is little to explain, maybe the source of divine beings or the use of magic, but even then, those can be told be how characters use magic. A lot of the time, it's based on folk-lore and traditional fantasy-trope.

Steampunk never happened, it's sorta based on the Victorian era but not as deeply as fantasy is related to medieval. Thus there isn't much of a bases for everyone to dive into; what is the traditional Steam-punk hero? There is no strong answer for this; where as with Cyberpunk it's normally some sort of Loner-Recluse-Hacker.

Truthfully, for a lot of people Steampunk feels very exclusive. It's nice to look at; but it's very hard to dig deeper into a setting like that simply because of how obtuse it can be at times.

Edit; anything made by Troika is built-to-break. There is a story on Escapist of some guys computer breaking when playing Bloodlines.

Doesn't the very fact that it's obtuse make it more open for interpretation. I would say a good Steampunk hero would be a pilot or even pirate. There are plenty of things you could do with the Steampunk style. You could get people arguind that a dwarf would live in a tree top for example but with steampunk its all there to be laid down

 

[TBR]

Doesn't the very fact that it's obtuse make it more open for interpretation. I would say a good Steampunk hero would be a pilot or even pirate. There are plenty of things you could do with the Steampunk style. You could get people arguind that a dwarf would live in a tree top for example but with steampunk its all there to be laid down

Yeah, lots to do but NOBODY has ever made the most of it.

When choosing an era, setting, theme, etc, a game developer should embrace it and make the most of it. I've yet to see any sequence (let alone an entire game) that makes the most of a steampunk setting. Visually it can be neat, sort of like what happens when you get 2 fabricators and a mechanical engineer drunk, but the gameplay has never stood out as something steampunk.

Which is a shame, because there's some bloody good puzzle platforming, adventuring, and most importantly, user creation tool-ing gameplay that could come out of it.

 

[Zhukov]

I would like to see a steampunk game. Dunno about RPG though. I guess that could be cool.

The reason hardly anybody makes them is because fantasy RPGs sell better.