KickStarter First ever steampunk sandbox RPG with a multiplayer coming soon!

[SteamForge]

Hey there!

We’re the SF team behind Steam Hammer, the first sandbox-style RPG in a steampunk setting.

In August of this year we got the greenlight from Steam to start signing up alpha testers, and so far we’ve raked in over 10,000. That has been a huge indication for us of how many people really want to play Steam Hammer. And so, with that in mind, we’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign that will help us wrap up development faster and add some great new elements we have in mind to make the game even better. To learn more, check out our Kickstarter page.

If you don’t have time to read anything else, just watch our promotional video.​

​

Steam Hammer is the first hardcore sandbox-style RPG set in a dark and mysterious steampunk world. Experience the intensity as you try to survive on the mysterious Acribo Islands. Steam Hammer features:

• a classic Victorian steampunk setting with wondrous mechanisms, machinery, weapons, armor, clothing, and—of course—steam and smoke.
• an open-class system that frees you from arbitrary constraints. Engineer, scientist, farmer, gunsmith, stormtrooper, sharpshooter, and more can all be combined and switched depending on your skill set.
• a huge open world for you to explore, travel, and terraform. Go where you will and master the land.

Craft your Glory. Craft your Victory. Craft your Steam Hammer!

​

• Classic Steampunk vs. Biopunk: Play as either a technocrat of the Victorian Empire with mighty steam-powered artifacts or as an Acribian rebel that has fused machinery with living flesh. Each has its own crafting tree, weapons, equipment, and architecture.
• Conduct Daring Air Assaults: Use your steam jetpack to hijack enemy airships and assault impregnable forts protected by blazing turrets. Engage in PvP with up to 64 players using a non-target combat system that makes the players’ skills matter.
• Extensive Crafting System: Go from cobbling together a makeshift machete to building your own airship fleet. Construct multilayered modular structures and build unique equipment including steam motorcycles, military airships, and even flying leviathans. Team up with your friends to build whole cities.
• Steam Hammer and Leviathan: Create and customize steam-mechanical and biomechanics weapons, equipment, and vehicles to suit your style of play.
• Terraform the Terrain: Your world – your rules. Modify the terrain to suit your needs. You will need to dig mines, tunnels, and ditches to harvest the priceless celebrium sap, develop your technology, and conquer your foes.

If you have any questions, definitely let us know. We’ll do our best to answer them!

Press Kit

http://steamhammer.us/
https://www.facebook.com/SteamHammerGame/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/530560
https://twitter.com/SteamHammerGame
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bwg/steam-hammer-sandbox-rpg

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BR,
SteamForge team

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Your game doesn't even look steampunk. It's another boring, generic MMO, this time with a thin layer of "steampunk" on it.

Steampunk proper is about the times where scientific accuracy was expected in from any work of fiction. It is about a period where people who understand how machines worked were celebrities. It is not about brass doodads and iron gizmos, moustached and monocled men and cogs everywhere. Everything you showed in the trailer just screams that you do not care about those things, and just want to make another banal, shit, boring MMO with power armour. Your campaign looks scammy as well - 50k goal and 800k stretch goal? Ridiculous.

I have no idea why you think this community might be interested in this rubbish.

 

[SteamForge]

Your game doesn't even look steampunk. It's another boring, generic MMO, this time with a thin layer of "steampunk" on it.

Steampunk proper is about the times where scientific accuracy was expected in from any work of fiction. It is about a period where people who understand how machines worked were celebrities. It is not about brass doodads and iron gizmos, moustached and monocled men and cogs everywhere. Everything you showed in the trailer just screams that you do not care about those things, and just want to make another banal, shit, boring MMO with power armour. Your campaign looks scammy as well - 50k goal and 800k stretch goal? Ridiculous.

I have no idea why you think this community might be interested in this rubbish.

I don't think it would be fair to evaluate one year's work (which is far from being finished) based on a couple of screenshots and a 3-minute video. We truly love what we're doing and would like to put our heart and soul into our game. The idea itself was inspired by such games as Arcanum and steampunk movies and stories, and we really want to pay tribute to these great works.

We are a small team of indie developers investing our time and money into this project, not because we want to get paid and forget about it, but because we think we could give this truly wonderful world of steampunk another chance, so that more people from all over the world can enjoy it.

We also hired a professional writer and have been working together to come up with all the ramifications of the plot, and we would really love to tell our fans the epic story behind the game. If you are interested, you might want to follow our updates on our official Kickstarter page or the official website of the game. We have planned dozens of newspaper issues covering all the events preceding your cue in the game.

However, we would like to make Steam Hammer even better, which is why we decided to let you know about the game and hear what you think of it. At this stage we really appreciate any feedback from you. So, even though we believe it is not particularly justified (after all, you haven't actually played the game, have you?), thank you for your honest opinion.

Oh, one more thing: since you mentioned 'proper steampunk', could you give us any examples of what you consider as such? Thanks!

 

[SteamForge]

Here are a couple of our newspaper issues to prove my point:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-41rK6Iv_vlTnZOTnJ4c0Y1VDg/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-41rK6Iv_vldmFfb2QtMFY3Z3M/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-41rK6Iv_vlcWx6WUdEN2ZDUXc/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-41rK6Iv_vlTGVlMjVBNEVSZTQ/view

Enjoy!

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

City of Tarant in Arcanum is one example. Dwarves and technologically inclined humans. Game as a whole not so much due to bloody magic.

The Difference Engine by William Gibson. The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage for something more light-hearted.

Thief 2 in the Mechanists. Fuck, even Hammerites ring a truer steampunk tone that the crap you are showing.

All of those things do explore the setting, the consequences of steam being the primary source of power. I don't see a trace of that in what you posted. There's plenty of cool gears, proper moustaches, and fancy air ships. None of it, except the `stashes, makes any actual sense.

How is it not fair to evaluate your work by what you've shown? You chose what to show to the world - your art, your style, your direction. Your kickstarter materials is what is supposed to entice people to spend money on your vision. This is the exact thing to judge your work on.

It doesn't matter whether you love, or pour your heart and soul into this. Its still crap. It doesn't matter if you are big studio or small "indie" dev - what you're doing is boring.

 

[SteamForge]

City of Tarant in Arcanum is one example. Dwarves and technologically inclined humans. Game as a whole not so much due to bloody magic.

The Difference Engine by William Gibson. The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage for something more light-hearted.

Thief 2 in the Mechanists. Fuck, even Hammerites ring a truer steampunk tone that the crap you are showing.

All of those things do explore the setting, the consequences of steam being the primary source of power. I don't see a trace of that in what you posted. There's plenty of cool gears, proper moustaches, and fancy air ships. None of it, except the `stashes, makes any actual sense.

How is it not fair to evaluate your work by what you've shown? You chose what to show to the world - your art, your style, your direction. Your kickstarter materials is what is supposed to entice people to spend money on your vision. This is the exact thing to judge your work on.

It doesn't matter whether you love, or pour your heart and soul into this. Its still crap. It doesn't matter if you are big studio or small "indie" dev - what you're doing is boring.

Thank you for the titles!
Again, you can't possibly say whether it's boring or not before you have actually played the game. Don't judge a book by its cover, remember?
However, we would still appreciate some constructive criticism.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

Repeating ground textures kinda turn me off. I mean, it's obvious that they've got to repeat, but it's really noticeable. It kind of detracts from whatever visual aesthetics that you were trying to go for in the environment.

 

[SteamForge]

Repeating ground textures kinda turn me off. I mean, it's obvious that they've got to repeat, but it's really noticeable. It kind of detracts from whatever visual aesthetics that you were trying to go for in the environment.

Thanks for your feedback!

As for repeating textures, I'm afraid they are a necessary evil. However, you may use terraforming abilities to modify the terrains as you see fit.
We agree that the graphics isn't that great at the moment, but we're an online game, which explains it. Plus, you can build your own airship and start hijacking others, which, as far as we are aware, has never been done before.

 

[SteamForge]

BTW, what else would you like to see in a game like this? Thanks

 

[Bester]

1. Melee combat looks atrocious. In melee, all you can do is move backwards to "dodge" and then move forward to "hit".
2. Game is obviously going to be with first person view, but that is not shown, not even for a second. Probably looked very bad, so they cut it out of the final video.
3. Game with a heavy focus no fps melee/ranged battle experience, but no weapon dynamics shown. I see you haven't even worked on your prototype much, you've been hard at work on making promotional material instead of making your game.
4. Fake promises of MMO. Been there, done that with Life is Feudal. Thanks, but until you show netcode with seamless travel, don't even talk about MMOs.
5. Rust / Ark/ "7 days to die" clone with shitty graphics and some "ambitious" ideas, which frankly I don't even know if they'd work. You don't either, since you made no games before, and since most Russian "game designers" have 3 mobile games under their belt and nothing else. Feel free to prove me wrong and link your lead game designer's linkedin.
6. And all those things you mention in the video will be promised to be released "later" when you go to Early Access to reap money. Then you walk away with said money into the horizon. Been there before, thanks, not very exciting.

We are a small team of indie developers investing our time and money into this project, not because we want to get paid and forget about it

Yep. That is exactly what I would say if I was working on a game just to make money. And that is exactly what all those companies said, too.

I don't think it would be fair to evaluate one year's work (which is far from being finished) based on a couple of screenshots and a 3-minute video.

You created a special video demonstrating your work specifically for people to evaluate it and throw money at you based on said evaluation. But when evaluation is negative, suddenly it's "don't criticize too harshly, I only spent 5 minutes working on it". Shows exactly what kind of attitude you have towards players. Lying attitude that is.

We truly love what we're doing and would like to put our heart and soul into our game.

Sorry, but that's irrelevant in this discussion. Appeal to emotions is a very basic form of trickery/manipulation, too. Sad to see it employed here.

The idea itself was inspired by such games as Arcanum

New Star Wars were inspired by old Star Wars. Any other genius arguments up your sleeve?

All in all, another project full of incompetent or dishonest people.

 

[Grokalibre]

So it's just another survival game like Ark and 7days2die, or will it have proper rpg mechanics like romances?

 

[Aenra]

You didn't need such a long OP. All you had to type was "hi, we're young, unread retards thinking steampunk = dwarves + guns and sandbox = PvP. We're also greenlit"

Brevity.

 

[Severian Silk]

Guys, I am making a sandbox RPG about being a janitor! Please support my game!

 

[SteamForge]

1. Melee combat looks atrocious. In melee, all you can do is move backwards to "dodge" and then move forward to "hit".
2. Game is obviously going to be with first person view, but that is not shown, not even for a second. Probably looked very bad, so they cut it out of the final video.
3. Game with a heavy focus no fps melee/ranged battle experience, but no weapon dynamics shown. I see you haven't even worked on your prototype much, you've been hard at work on making promotional material instead of making your game.
4. Fake promises of MMO. Been there, done that with Life is Feudal. Thanks, but until you show netcode with seamless travel, don't even talk about MMOs.
5. Rust / Ark/ "7 days to die" clone with shitty graphics and some "ambitious" ideas, which frankly I don't even know if they'd work. You don't either, since you made no games before, and since most Russian "game designers" have 3 mobile games under their belt and nothing else. Feel free to prove me wrong and link your lead game designer's linkedin.
6. And all those things you mention in the video will be promised to be released "later" when you go to Early Access to reap money. Then you walk away with said money into the horizon. Been there before, thanks, not very exciting.

We are a small team of indie developers investing our time and money into this project, not because we want to get paid and forget about it

Yep. That is exactly what I would say if I was working on a game just to make money. And that is exactly what all those companies said, too.

I don't think it would be fair to evaluate one year's work (which is far from being finished) based on a couple of screenshots and a 3-minute video.

You created a special video demonstrating your work specifically for people to evaluate it and throw money at you based on said evaluation. But when evaluation is negative, suddenly it's "don't criticize too harshly, I only spent 5 minutes working on it". Shows exactly what kind of attitude you have towards players. Lying attitude that is.

We truly love what we're doing and would like to put our heart and soul into our game.

Sorry, but that's irrelevant in this discussion. Appeal to emotions is a very basic form of trickery/manipulation, too. Sad to see it employed here.

The idea itself was inspired by such games as Arcanum

New Star Wars were inspired by old Star Wars. Any other genius arguments up your sleeve?

All in all, another project full of incompetent or dishonest people.

Thanks for your opinion! I'll try to respond to your concerns.
1. Apart from dodging and hitting in a battle, you'll be able use special abilities such as crushing blow or armor-piercing shot. Also, let's not forget that the use of a steam jetpack can change the outcome of your battle.
2. Yes, it's going to be first-person view, but it looks pretty good. We'll try and show you some shots in our future video updates. Thanks for the idea!
3. You're right about the weapons range. We're doing what we can at the moment, but as you know developing new weapons is quite costly, hence our Kickstarter campaign to raise funds and make more improvements and additions, including fantastic new weapons.
4. As for Life is Feudal, here's their official website http://lifeisfeudal.com/mmo. As you can see, MMO is already in beta testing mode. Again, we can't possibly show you the final product yet, because the game is far from being finished, but we're doing what we can to make this all happen.
5. Are you trying to say all Russian games are bad? Or that anyone making their first game will never be successful? Oh, and here's one example: No Man's Sky was a British game. Should I now think that all British games are atrocious? I'm sorry, but that sounds too far-fetched to me, and can't be considered as constructive criticism.
6. Let me quote you and say "that's irrelevant in this discussion". We respect your opinion, but can't help but notice it's very subjective, sorry.

One final remark here: We're planning more videos in our updates to show the game at its best. It's literally impossible to squeeze everything we have so far into one 3-min trailer, so we will keep them coming. Right now, I can show you our first teaser so that you won't have to judge the game by one video:

​

Also, let's not forget the game is under development, and more changes and improvements are coming. Thank you again for your honest opinion!

 

[Norfleet]

Guys, I am making a sandbox RPG about being a janitor! Please support my game!

This thread is now about the Janitor RPG.

So, tell us, where will be janitoring?

 

[Severian Silk]

We will be janitoring first in Cryodiil. Yesterday's mincemeat pie was spoiled and there is now a mess in the hall after the Duke's son disgorged himeself.

 

[SteamForge]

So it's just another survival game like Ark and 7days2die, or will it have proper rpg mechanics like romances?

Thanks for your question!
We have advanced rpg mechanics with skill caps. You'll be able to choose your class, create and level a unique character to suit your style and change and upgrade your skills.

 

[Reinar]

We agree that the graphics isn't that great at the moment, but we're an online game, which explains it.

It doesn't.

an open-class system that frees you from arbitrary constraints. Engineer, scientist, farmer, gunsmith, stormtrooper, sharpshooter, and more can all be combined and switched depending on your skill set.

So it's just another survival game like Ark and 7days2die, or will it have proper rpg mechanics like romances?

Thanks for your question!
We have advanced rpg mechanics with skill caps. You'll be able to choose your class, create and level a unique character to suit your style and change and upgrade your skills.

What are "advanced" RPG mechanics?

 

[Bester]

5. Are you trying to say all Russian games are bad? Or that anyone making their first game will never be successful? Oh, and here's one example: No Man's Sky was a British game. Should I now think that all British games are atrocious? I'm sorry, but that sounds too far-fetched to me, and can't be considered as constructive criticism.

You mentioning this title shows exactly how much you care about making a good game versus how much you care about making a ton of money. NMS sold a shit ton and it's your idol game now. And it's universally recognized as shallow shit. Huh, sounds like your game, too. Coincidence?

And no, Britain has game design taught in academia, Russia doesn't. Let me reiterate, your game designer may have 3 mobile games under his belt, if he's lucky. Prove me wrong, post his linkedin. That person simply isn't qualified to make actual games. Just as you aren't qualified to manage community, because each post you make comes off duplicitous and fake. You sound like the most fake person I've ever seen marketing a game.

Apart from dodging and hitting in a battle, you'll be able use special abilities such as crushing blow or armor-piercing shot.

Did you not understand what I said before? Your combat looks half-assed not because of lack of "abilities", that are abilities in name only, but because your entire movement system is "press S to walk back... good job, you dodged". Such deep combat mechanics.

We're doing what we can at the moment, but as you know developing new weapons is quite costly

No, it's not "quite costly". Yet another lie from you... What you probably lack is first person view hands mesh and animations, which you conveniently "forgot" to make, because all you were doing was a trailer for the last couple of months, not a game.

we decided to let you know about the game and hear what you think of it.
[...]
Thanks for your opinion!
[...]
At this stage we really appreciate any feedback from you
[...]
Thank you again for your honest opinion!
[...]
Thanks for your feedback!
[...]
[your opinion is] irrelevant in this discussion. We respect your opinion, but can't help but notice it's very subjective, sorry.

Did you just go full retard?

 

[Shadenuat]

Looks like a mix of steampunky Borderlands with Minecraft. It would probably feel weird to build steampunk out of nothing by skipping the whole progression of Minecraft where you begin with wood and stone but end up with complex things. Doesn't seem there is an overarching plot either, just tools and bricks.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

We will be janitoring first in Cryodiil. Yesterday's mincemeat pie was spoiled and there is now a mess in the hall after the Duke's son disgorged himeself.

Is the Duke's son ok? Was he just a bit sick or did he got a full blown food poisoning? If yes then maybe a quest line to clean up the bog can be made?

 

[Ninjerk]

Why wouldn't you judge a book by its cover?

 

[SteamForge]

Hi! Sorry we couldn't get back to you earlier, we're very busy with the game atm.

What are "advanced" RPG mechanics?

By this we meant more advanced compared to the games mentioned by Grokalibre.

NMS sold a shit ton and it's your idol game now.

What makes you so sure? How come you're that confident what other people think? Please speak for yourself.

And no, Britain has game design taught in academia, Russia doesn't.

Again, what's wrong with being Russian? It seems to me that you have an issue with that. And btw, we're an international team from Eastern Europe, the US and Russia, so it's not just a Russian project.
Also, are you trying to say that all successful games have been made by people taught in academia? You know it's not true. What really makes you think we're bound to fail?
Now, if we were a big company with successful projects up our sleeve, we wouldn't have to advertise ourselves on forums. Our game designers have had successful indie projects on Steam, but it's the first time we're working together and definitely the first time we're trying something this big, and we'll do our best to make this game a wonderful experience for our players.

You sound like the most fake person I've ever seen marketing a game.

What's wrong with being polite? It's just our way of saying we respect your opinion whatever it is.

Did you not understand what I said before? Your combat looks half-assed not because of lack of "abilities", that are abilities in name only, but because your entire movement system is "press S to walk back... good job, you dodged". Such deep combat mechanics.

As I was saying, the game is still under development, and it's your chance to make some useful suggestions.
Today we're planning to upload another video showing our combat system in more detail.

What you probably lack is first person view hands mesh and animations, which you conveniently "forgot" to make, because all you were doing was a trailer for the last couple of months, not a game.

I'm sorry, but you don't know that. Just because the game hasn't been released yet, it's no reason to accuse us of fraud. Have a look at our twitter where we regularly post pictures of new models, or better yet, you may sign up for an alpha test. You'll see everything for yourself quite soon.

Did you just go full retard?

My last remark was about you accusing us of something we have not done.

And all those things you mention in the video will be promised to be released "later" when you go to Early Access to reap money. Then you walk away with said money into the horizon. Been there before, thanks, not very exciting.

How can we possibly comment on these speculations? And how is that related to what we said about the game? We never asked you or anyone else here to "support us" or "like us". Yes, we're building and extending a fanbase, and we're excited to tell about our game on Kickstarter so that more people know about it before it's released. What's wrong with that? However, the reason we've come here is to get some constructive feedback, answer your questions and listen to your suggestions. If you can't do that, why bother posting things like: You're going to steal our money? How's that supposed to be constructive criticism? If you learn that your new friend is Muslim, is that the reason to accuse them they're terrorists? I'm afraid you're jumping to conclusions.
How is calling someone a retard constructive feedback? What are we supposed to answer to that? You wouldn't talk like that if we met in real life, would you, so why do it here?

All in all, we feel that squabbling here about what you think we will or will not do is useless and counterproductive, so I'll only answer to constructive criticism and suggestions. We're a really small team, and it's critical for us to do whatever we can at the moment to not waste our time, but make the necessary improvements to the game. We owe it to our backers, we owe it to our fans, and we're going to keep working no matter what. Our Kickstarter campaign is just another way of drawing attention to the project. It won't matter if we don't collect the money now, we're very determined to finish the game with or without it. We're very sad you don't believe in Steam Hammer as much as we do, and we'd like you to change your opinion. Hopefully, you will in the future.
All the best,
SF team

 

[SteamForge]

We're happy to announce we've been called the "project we love" by Kickstarter. To celebrate this, we're going to post an update with another video showing our combat system. Please stay tuned!

 

[GuiltyofBeingTrite]

This is the last update of your previous Kickstarter attempt, One Dog Story. Are you continuing to make that game? If so what is the current status, and is it still on track?