City of Steam

[CoS_Dorian]

First off, a quick thanks to Yash for allowing me to post this here.

Hello, all. My name is Dorian, and I work for Mechanist Games, the indie developer of City of Steam. The game is a Unity3D-based MMO transporting players to an industrial-age fantasy where clockworks, steam power, and arcane technologies suffuse every aspect of existence, from the half-organic, half-mechanical dwarves to the giant gears of the World Machine itself (which is exactly why we sometimes promote it as a steampunk-ish game). All this and it plays in a web-browser! Unlike some others out there the whole size is tiny but this doesn't take away the graphics and immersive environments.

I mean, just check out the world:

(or click on it to see the Unity animated project (it is indeed impressive!)

A quick look at our gameplay through our Alpha gameplay trailer on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRR6ENSr780. (More to be expected in the upcoming Beta version.)

On May 10th, the game's "Early Access" beta will begin. You're welcome to join us in and out of game on the forums by then.

Basically you can subscribe to our newsletter to get the priority to a Beta key. Key giveaway campaigns will be launched as we're closer to the CBT date, so stay tuned.

I'll be glad to read your input and answer any questions you have for me so feel free to post.

Update: With CBT drawing near (coming at 7pm on Friday, Nov.16th, Pacific Standard Time), key giveaway campaigns have been announced. Check out how you can nab a key here.

[judah4]

Hey, I remember seeing City of Steam on the unity forums From what I remember, it looks pretty impressive.

Good luck on the game.

EDIT: oh yeah, questions

How long have you been working on this game and how many people?

[CoS_Dorian]

Ha, must be from someone else from the team.

Well, City of Steam (the browser MMORPG) has been in development for about 3 years, but the ideas behind the game stemmed from before 2003, when David Lindsay, the co-founder/lead designer/GM of the team, started writing the series of RPG books, The New Epoch that the game is based on.

We started with a team of 4 in 2009, and then scaled up to a team of 11 that developed a huge majority of the game. But due to the expanding scope of the game and the complete re-writes we've been making, the team has been pushed to 30 developers, me included. We're very proud of what we have brought to pass so far with such a small team.

Any other things any of you want to know or want us to know? Feel free to post.

Edit: Forgot to mention this: Dave had a pretty endearing writing on all the way he and the game have been through since 2003. If interested, read it here.

[CoS_Dorian]

Dave, the Lead Designer, talked about multiple solutions to rendering framerate problems when it comes to having too many players jammed in one single map in his new dev journal. Your thoughts? Feel free to share.

[judah4]

depending on how you can do it, you could have a hybrid of option 2 and 3 where characters closest to the player have full animations/ visual quality and the further out from the player, the characters slowly loss quality and then are eventually hidden. This way, the player gets all the information they need and wont be able to tell on the graphical quality when the less quality chracters are to far for them to see well

[EvilNinjadude]

Oh, City of Steam? Must've missed the thread. I saw the trailer. It was nice.

[CoS_Dorian]

depending on how you can do it, you could have a hybrid of option 2 and 3 where characters closest to the player have full animations/ visual quality and the further out from the player, the characters slowly loss quality and then are eventually hidden. This way, the player gets all the information they need and wont be able to tell on the graphical quality when the less quality chracters are to far for them to see well

Ha, I informed Dave of your input and he said this is actually the way we see us going!

Oh, City of Steam? Must've missed the thread. I saw the trailer. It was nice.

Thanks and where did you see the trailer? On YouTube? Also, just a heads-up: if interested, don't miss the CBT coming in November.

[judah4]

Ha, I informed Dave of your input and he said this is actually the way we see us going!

Awesome, I'm glad I think the same you guys do

[Insomniac]

Oh hey, this game. Back in August, MMOGrinder did a Sidequest video of this game. I might try it out, since it's browser based and not some hulking behemoth that I'd have to download.

[EvilNinjadude]

Oh, City of Steam? Must've missed the thread. I saw the trailer. It was nice.

Thanks and where did you see the trailer? On YouTube? Also, just a heads-up: if interested, don't miss the CBT coming in November.

I saw it on Youtube, but i think I got directed there by someone else. Maybe someone I was subscribed to who liked the video, I'm not sure.

[CoS_Dorian]

Heads-up, guys - Big updates on the CoS official site, featuring Beta date announced (starting on Nov. 16) and new Beta Collaborator Packs launched with heaps of awesome extras, which will be around only for Beta! Hop over to the site for detailed info! And feel free to drop us a line or two!

[CoS_Dorian]

Just a recap of what we have updated after two weeks of no update in this thread.

First of all, Steam-o-meter! Pushing up the points on this meter will help us reach certain goals that we intend to reach in this CBT and as such bonus contents will be added as our thanks to you for the help. That, and, a few humiliations for some of the devs...Right now we've got to the point that one of the devs, Gabriel (or Gab/Gaby as we call him) will dress up as FemGab (the female character that he so fancied playing during the Alpha Test)! More points, more bonus features for CBT, including the mechanic Dwarves, Steambikes, pets and all! Read this to get what you can do to help push it up.

Second, Beta Teaser Trailer up. You may watch it here.

Third! With CBT drawing near (coming at 7pm on Friday, Nov.16th, Pacific Standard Time), key giveaway campaigns have been announced. Check out how you can nab a key here.

Feel free to like us on Facebook, subscribe to the newsletter and drop us a line or two here.

[TheMouse]

While the game seems like it would be fun for me, I doubt my machine could handle it. Good luck anyway, I look forward to seeing how things go!

[CoS_Dorian]

While the game seems like it would be fun for me, I doubt my machine could handle it. Good luck anyway, I look forward to seeing how things go!

Well, could you tell me what your computer specs are?

City of Steam is a browser-based game, which means very low entry barrier. We are still tweaking and fine tuning the game settings atm. Currently, a gaming computer that is around three to five years old will run the game just fine. Older, non-gaming computers and/or old laptops will need to reduce the graphic quality settings to achieve an acceptable frame rate. I really think it will work just fine on your computer, as long as it is good enough to handle a video game of moderate graphics released 3 to 5 years ago.

[Insomniac]

While the game seems like it would be fun for me, I doubt my machine could handle it. Good luck anyway, I look forward to seeing how things go!

Well, could you tell me what your computer specs are?

City of Steam is a browser-based game, which means very low entry barrier. We are still tweaking and fine tuning the game settings atm. Currently, a gaming computer that is around three to five years old will run the game just fine. Older, non-gaming computers and/or old laptops will need to reduce the graphic quality settings to achieve an acceptable frame rate. I really think it will work just fine on your computer, as long as it is good enough to handle a video game of moderate graphics released 3 to 5 years ago.

Hm...My laptop is a Toshiba Satelite from early 2009. At least, I bought it in 2009. Could be actually from 2008. It manages to chug through Star Trek Online at minimum settings, and barely keeps up with The Old Republic.