The PMOG, The Passively Multiplayer Online game, has just launched. This is a new type of online game that uses the internet as the game-world. Players can create quests that have you journey from webpage to webpage, avoiding traps, earning badges and discovering treasure that you can use gain new items and bonuses for your “avatar”. What’s even better is that this game has a wonderful steampunk look that adds a whimsical touch to everyday web-browsing. They have truly created what some in the steampunk community call “the Aethernet”. The only things that are missing are airships and internet-kraken.

The PMOG currently only works on Firefox.

The year is 1897 and the world has been beleaguered by the machinations of the evil Baron Battenberg.  Five long years the few free countries of the world have fought against the Baron and his steam powered war machines, but now Britain has been struck a terrible blow – the evil Baron has kidnapped Queen Victoria!

Now is the time for the world’s greatest hero – Dirk Valentine!  Explorer, spy and expert in multiple exotic and secret martial arts, along with his scientist friend Monty for advice, Dirk will have to infiltrate the headquarters of the Baron using the nifty Chain Cannon weapon and tool – it can vanquish foes and aid in navigation both.  Time is running out – perhaps you can help Dirk save the day?

Congratulations on a game well made to the Nitrome team, and thanks to Ms(?) Djainette, Mr Xenocryst, Mr Brandon and Mr Rick for bringing it to my attention!  Evil is most certainly afoot as you say, Mr Rick!

Anyone for a Steampunk MMO?  Upcoming from the Flipline developer, and slated for release on the Kongregate site (known for free to play, Flash based games), Remnants of Skystone is a very Steampunk multiplayer game featuring character creation (look for gas masks, spats, goggles, brass cuffs and the most stunning facial hair I’ve yet seen in a game), socialising and co-operative side scrolling missions battling the bally alien invaders!  There may even be the opportunity to have your own floating residence!

Apparently going to go live sometime this autumn (or fall, if you prefer) it looks like it has some potential indeed, and the blog has some nice backstory, art inspiration pages, and character screens.  Several of the characters could do with smiling more, but I suppose with alien mimics denying the very ground you stand on, you might be a little disgruntled too!

If the creators of the game should perhaps stumble across this little post, you’d make me very grateful if you’d reserve the name Tinkergirl for me.  Thanks to Mr Tony for pointing it out some time ago, and to GameBunny for reminding me!

Mr Xenocryst wrote to point out a lovely little Flash game called StormWinds from Hero Interactive.  It reminds me a little of the Steampunk setting in the Hungry City Chronicles as you are charged with defending your home in the valley beyond the mountain pass from the hoards of attacking airbourne enemies.  Each level sees you using your bought and maintained weapons to destroy helicopters, airships, blimps, bi-planes, hot air balloons and more.

There’s 25 levels in the basic version, (and may I recommend picking up the machine gun, and then a sniper gun – the cannon is a pain to aim) and some rather tricky levels near the end and a huge boss to defeat once you get there.  It’s not perfect, and I’d love to have been able to work out the ‘levels’ of my various weapons, but it’s definitely dangerous if you’ve got a couple of hours to spare.  Thank you, Mr Xenocryst!

There is a group of people who like Zeppelins, and a group of people that like hardcore business simulation games for their computers, and in the small but terribly interesting area where those two groups of people overlap, there is the game Zeppelin – Giants of the Sky on DOS and Amiga. A curious but somehow fascinating creation, Zeppelin – Giants of the Sky (made in 1993) sees you buying and selling stocks, researching new Zeppelin technology, setting up trade routes, passenger trips and fulfilling governmental building orders – oh, and searching the world for your wife, Roseanne.  From reading about it, this is not a game for the faint of heart – there’s no handholding or warnings against getting yourself into a financial pickle here, but it seems that those that do like this game, love it.

I’ve not tried getting it myself (business simulations are a little out of my preferred genre-set) but do let me know if you do and what you think of it.  If nothing else, it’s unusual to see a game quite so sepia!  Thank you to Mr Christopher for knowing how much I like all things lighter than air.

Over at Neatorama, they just posted about a new Flash based adventure point and click game set in 1904 called Covert Front.  This, episode one, seems to tell the tale of Europe at war, and several important scientists gone missing – you, a beautiful and mysterious agent are sent to investigate another important man who has gone missing in the last few days.

So far (and I’m generally quite terrible at these games) I’ve encountered curious steam boilers, secret rooms, mysterious technology and suspicious manservants.  It’s a very stylish game, and just how Steampunk it is (although set very slightly late – some definite Pulp elements) I cannot say without getting further.  Alas, I am stuck at the moment.

Do let me know how you get on, and if you can figure out how to light that darned lamp!

Mission: Red Planet by Asmodee Editions is an apparently family friendly board game of strategy and luck that very much sets itself in a Steampunk universe. Set at the time of the Paris World Fair, governments are racing for Mars to stake their claims on the mineral rich land there using recruiters, explorers, femme fatales and scientists to ensure they emerge victorious! There’s a rather good (and family play orientated) review over at GamerDad, which tells a lot more about the game than can be found on the official site. Sounds like it could be fun to play – as long as you don’t bring real rayguns to the game table!

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Mr Huang sent a link to the upcoming MMORPG, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.  Now, despite being an ex-Warhammer Fantasy player myself, I’d let this slip off my radar a little, but looking at the concept art for the Dwarves has brought it all back – and with rivets on!  There’s Dwarven steamtrains, ironclads, what looks like a fantasy Steampunk still, multiple Dwarven armour sets with spanners/wrenches and goggles aplenty and probably more that I’ve not yet found.

I do like some of the sets of armour, and most particularly the goggles, for some of the Dwarves – in fact, the one with the swivel lenses looks most interesting indeed!  No idea what the game will actually play like, of course, and I’ve burnt out a little on MMORPGs since SWG (not even WoW could hook its claws into me) but I will no doubt take a look at this when it emerges, and walk amongst the Dwarves to see what’s brass and shiny.  Spanner-holster shoulder pads though – why don’t we have those for day to day wear?

Mr J Roberts had a soft spot for the game, American McGee’s Alice – a violent variation on the tale of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Caroll). In this variation, a broken Alice must return to a far darker Wonderland (though never exactly quite right in the first place) to do battle with the Queen. Of interest specifically to us, is that the Mad Hatter has partaken of far too much of the hatters curse, and has become obsessed with all things time and clockwork based.  Controlling an army of clockwork automatons, and experimenting on both the Dormouse and the March Hare, he is a terrible but cog-wealthy foe.

While not terribly Steampunk at all, I could not let this post go by without pointing out some lovely concept art for a future McGee project. The boy who went forth to learn fear, and The icky shop. The boy who went forth, was one of the stories I remember from my childhood, despite it being one of the less popular ones. Pushed into a pond indeed!

Reader Thalarion sends word of a little flash based game called Automaton (part 1).  It tells the story of the fourth of four Steampunk styled automatons created originally for war, but now converted for peace.  Your creator (a brilliant, but very sad scientist) wants to send a message to an ally of his, but without the King knowing.

There are a few puzzles in your way, and this being part 1, it is incomplete as a story, but it has a nice start to it.  The puzzles are very simple (even I could do them!) and the music seems to be from the game Arcanum.  I wish the creator luck with future parts to this – it could develop into a lot of fun!