I find this really interesting. I have been in game development for almost 10 years now, and recently tried to get my own project off the ground with some other people in the industry.
Steampunk (or a variant thereof) is my genre of choice, and I believe to be the next big 'fantasy'.
Oddly enough, we pitched it around to all of the major publishers, and some not so major ones. We have a completely working demo. The ability to create your own characters and costumes, select and move, issue orders, hit points, etc. Sadly 'Marketing' doesn't find steampunk appealing, thus finances aren't given.
My game was an MMO/RTS hybrid. Personally, I think if we had the funding to get it off the ground it would have been a mini-success, but of course I'm biased.
Screenshots can be found
here.
Here's a screenshot of the game.
