My Steampunk/victorian ideas for a game

[Faille]

Did you try to explain to marketing how much of WoW is very much steampunk? Maybe that might get them more interested.

[Runnen]

I really like the concept of a steampunk MMO, and Millie's idea of a war between two worlds is interesting. I think it could be like a war between the industrious steampunk-themed faction that wants to take over the entire world and harvest all possible ressources into creating always more new, more powerful and potentially dangerous technology, versus the nature-loving people that want to protect the ancient forces of nature and use them in battle against the steampunk armies.

Think Druids / Shamans with animals and plants as pets, against the Steampunk army full of Steampunk "mechas" and armored soldiers.. I can totally imagine the steampunk cities looking like the Glukkon factories in Oddworld. In fact, Oddworld was very similar to this idea.. Mudokons were nature-loving with psionic powers and the Glukkon were industrious and only cared about profit and exploitation.. Hmm.

[Faille]

Originally Posted by Runnen

I really like the concept of a steampunk MMO, and Millie's idea of a war between two worlds is interesting. I think it could be like a war between the industrious steampunk-themed faction that wants to take over the entire world and harvest all possible ressources into creating always more new, more powerful and potentially dangerous technology, versus the nature-loving people that want to protect the ancient forces of nature and use them in battle against the steampunk armies.

I reckon you might be able to get Al Gore to finance that MMO! 8)

[Frax]

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

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.

Awesome! WTPlay that game.

Is there a lore/history behind all that stuff in the screen shots?

[slitz]

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

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.

WTF?
Can't believe no one has been interested in this....
Wish I had the money to support you in this, but unfortunately I don't 8)
Another option is to make it open source and let the community take care of it while still maintaining control over it, but I guess it's not an option? Pretty sure a lot of people would love to put their hands on this...

[Greyskye]

I just skimmed over this, but I'm curious where a setting like 'Space 1889' fits in here? Or does it at all? If so, I've got some old ideas from back in the late 80's. If not, disregard this post.

[Linbog]

Originally Posted by dubb01

Basically, I'm obsessed with a steampunk/victorian era London type mmo. I think it's basic fundamentals would be much closer to EQ than WoW, but I have put in very little thought into all that up to this point. I really like the idea of a group heavy game that gives all those old freedoms that EQ allowed. Honestly, the only thing I'm SUPER picky about in terms of gameplay is that a heavy majority of the items would be droppable/sellable/re-sellable. I always appreciated the buying/selling aspect of EQ and bringing back an economy similar to that would be great in my mind.

I'd like to do away with magic in general and replace it with technology. It's still has the same bones as most mmo's today just a different setting to give people a fresh outlook. I've also always thought an mmo should be built from the end-game down so you can plan a clear(er) progression from level to level, item to item. That could be completely impractical, was always just a thought I'd had that would improve the drastic leap most games seem to take in certain areas.

Back to the first post: Without magic making most items tradable makes sense, theres no concept of a 'soulbind' mechanic in a tech world, however it does introduce an economic issue devaluing everything without a different way to take it out of the system(like degradation/item destruction). Perhaps a barter system like Fallout has might help especially with the gold farmers.

I've also always thought an mmo should be built from the end-game down so you can plan a clear(er) progression from level to level, item to item.

The issue with this is with a successful game whatever you design as an 'end-game' will invariably become the middle as soon as you put out your first expansion(or sooner.) A good design will have a holistic system in-place that works from beginning to end, what most people likely don't remember is that while it wasn't a great one WoW at release had a system that included the end game, then raiders complained and they broke(changed) the system to appease them.
If a good system is designed and stuck to I believe the normal game can transition smoothly into the end-game without the jarring that is usually present.

And on the story front: Have you considered a Steam Cold War scenario with a looming superweapon? Are you looking at an actual alternate London setting or just a London fog feel? You could try checking out Neverwhere for an alternate London though it is magic not steampunk most of the story is in the underground.
Utilizing mechanical implants seems like a good way to distinguish characters or possibly classes beyond just equipment or skills.

[Ronne]

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

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.

Why is this game not in further development! /sadface

[GrobbeeTrull2.0]

Victorian Aristocracy v. Remnants of Druidic Stonehengites.

Problem solved.

[NeuadvenBonechillerr]

Originally Posted by dubb01

and some practice 3d to see how I could pull off something similar

Why is he wearing pieces of a ship on his shoulders? Did you learn nothing from WoW? Huge shoulders do not = cool!

[Camerous]

Just curious but how much money were you looking to get? Seems you got all the basic things there already. Just need to buy servers? Or?

[Zarcath]

Bonzai - Could you possibly explain the setting/storyline to your MMO?

Because the impression I got from the screenshots was a bunch of dwarves and gnomes decided to meet in some desolate field and bust out brawl bots? Could you give some more concrete information?

Are there any other factions? Are there more differences between machines? They don't seem very unique stylistically, they're a bit run of the mill.

Just off the top of my head for a storyline, I'd say something like... All of the races were living in stone cottages and such. There existed one advanced race who everyone spoke of them as a myth. They had a piece of land that hovered in the sky and no one ever knew what was going on up there. One day the land breaks apart and pieces of it crash all across the planet. Now chunks of the land are in other peoples kingdoms and the myth turns out to be true, a bunch of advanced robots and stuff are found in the remains of the floating island, except none of the power sources work. So each kingdom starts salvaging what they can, not really understanding how the tech works but start bootstrapping steamtech onto it.

All of the kingdoms begin racing to secure the crash sites of the rest of the pieces of land. PvP situations ensue.

[Buckaroo Banzai]

@ Camerous - The game we have is only a prototype. The player can create their characters and Steamforges ala CoH/V, and create their 'squad' and then enter a battlefield. The player can also create a battlefield of their own. They can then move each character and attack, etc. Each character has HPs and a damage rating. Thats about it.
We need funding to create the entire game, I wanted to get the basics together to acquire funding.

@Zarcath - The setting is more akin to FF. There are 4 races, human pirates, dwarven nomads, elf/gnome cave dwellers, and a vampire empire. They are all at war with one another with a setup similar to Dark Age of Camelot, where there are safe areas, and battle areas.
They are all actually quite different in style. The elves have a spider theme, the dwarves have a 'train/heavy iron' theme, etc.
Players take over each others lands and gain rewards for holding it.
The game architecture is similar to Guild Wars.

[Kuriin]

The one bad thing about DAoC (and I'm saying this only because the release of DAoC and through the first year or two was amazing) was the fact that there was no true realm-war. Sure, you can go out and massacre other players in the frontier, but people wanted to go IN other realms and kill them there. It was impossible because all the guards were purple and unkillable. Now, if they WERE killable but still damn hard...oh man, that would be sweet.

BTW, I really like the idea about magic vs industry. I think you can really go far with that because you can make it so that only certain magic affects steel, etc. ;O

[dubb01]

I didn't disappear, just haven't had anything to show for awhile. I did some sketches for environment stuff, so far just one of inner city stuff and one of the country side. I'm really digging the idea of those two worlds kinda warring with each other.
If you guys had any class suggestions, or npc suggestions, or possibly locations or anything, let me know as I can potentially get a visual going with it so its more than an idea in your head.

-Banzai

Those screenshots look awesome. It sucks to hear that you weren't able to get funding/get the project picked up. Sometimes people just need to pull their heads out apparently =/
good luck on it I guess if you're still pushing it around.