City of Steam sneak peek thoughts

On February 28 the City of Steam "Sneak Peek" event kicked off.
The sneak peek lets us get a very early glimpse of the steampunk MMO, allowing players to jump into the steamy world of the game and go slay monsters and explore dungeons, all from the comfort of your internet browser.

City of Steam is indeed a browser based game, but while "browser based" might conjure up horrible images of "Farmville" in your head, don't think that this design choice means that City of Steam is a ghastly looking game.
While it's clear that City of Steam does not stand a chance of living up to the graphical splendor of something like Star Wars: The Old Republic, it manages to make itself look perfectly presentable and functional as it chugs along in your Chrome window.

You won't confuse City of Steam with Guild Wars 2, but the graphics aren't bad for a browser game

The game itself reminds me of something a bit like a mix between the original Diablo, with several elements from the standard MMO tool box bolted on.
You'll be moving around your character from an overhead or behind-the-back view by left clicking on the ground. When nefarious enemies rear their brassy gear endowed heads you'll left click on them to fight them with one of three standard attacks, or you can use your skills from the quick slot bar at the bottom of the screen.

Your chance to play a sneak peek build of City of Steam!

I'm very happy to be able to announce that the guys over at Mechanist Games have given me 20 keys to hand out for their upcoming sneak peek event for the upcoming MMO "City of Steam".
I've previously had a rather in depth preview article about City of Steam, which is a browser based F2P MMO that features a cool looking steampunk setting, complete with a huge gear-shaped world and mechanical dwarves.

Here are some highlights of the game from Andrew Woodruff of Mechanist Games:

Key Features:


While not all of these will be perfectly working during this sneak peek we hope they will be apparent for future tests and give a taste as to what’s to come.

-Graphics! Sets a new audiovisual standard for browser gaming
-Lightweight! Play from any computer without bulky client installation
-Big World, Tiny Footprint! Intricate, immersive scenes take up mere megabytes
-Gameplay! Hardcore or casual, ten minutes or ten hours
-Teamwork! Go it alone or adventure with friends
-Flavor! Even the smallest detail is suffused with the history of an ancient world
-Customization! Augment weaponry with visible components
-Abilities! Each class wields a unique array of stunning combat effects
-Backgrounds! Each character has a personal history to explore
-Monsters! An extensive bestiary balances raw power with intelligent tactics

Alpha testing sign-ups are open for City of Steam

Back in November I had the chance to interview the "City of Steam" developers, Mechanist Games, about their upcoming steam-em-up F2P MMO.

The developers have been hard at work on the game ever since (no doubt using coal powered, mechanical computers with brass keyboards) and you now have the chance to get a key to the upcoming alpha sneak test of the game. For a chance to get into the alpha test you'll need to head on over to the official City of Steam website and sign up for the newsletter.

No date has been set for the test yet, but according to this thread on the City of Steam forums, Mechanist games is targeting it to take place within the next month or two.

In the mean time here's the latest gameplay trailer from the game, which shows the different classes of the game in action:

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Exclusive Preview of City of Steam - Your chance to play a mechanical Dwarf!

There are only so many traditional fantasy based MMO's that one man can stomach. When you're walking through a magical Eleven forest for the 24th time, you can start to suffer from some real Tolkien related fatigue.
Enter "City of Steam".
This free to play browser based MMO is going to take your Elves, your Dwarves and your medieval themed fantasy world, and process them in a giant, hissing piece of brass decorated machinery, spitting out a distinct steampunk setting, where the world is one giant machine and one of the base elements is rust (earth is so quaint).

Trains and airships. This isn't your average Lord of the Rings fantasy world

City of Steam is being developed by the China based "Mechanist Games" and has been in development for a couple of years.
I've had a chance to interview lead designer David Lindsay and Ian Morgenheim, who has been part of the process of creating the RPG books that the game is based on.

Q: First off, can you tell us about how you came up with the background for City of Steam?

A: City of Steam is actually the third iteration of the a setting that began as simply "Industrial Age Fantasy". That first version was a... bloated unwieldy beast of a thing! It had horns, tentacles and a monstrous index, I tell you! Imagine the Necronomicon from Army of Darkness: Painful to open, terrible to behold, but definitely a force to be reckoned with. But as a first product, and a solo writer/developer, it was a massive learning curve and a great experience.
I keep it in a locked trunk so it will never see the light of day, but without making any of those mistakes, today's game would never have been possible at all.