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[st33d]

Play It!

Play the Player Pack (user submitted levels)

Steamlands is a steampunk RTS/Tower Defense game where you embark on missions, pitting your tank against other tanks constructed from blocks.

It was inspired by the thought of taking Captain Forever's block stealing mechanic into the RTS genre and we pretty much moved on from there to make a completely different game.

The aim is simply to get to the right of the level. In your way will be enemy tanks. Destroy opponents efficiently and steal their armour or guns and get paid so you can buy upgrades, customise your flag or purchase spoilers on how to defeat a level.

The development process for this game was completely different to our usual 6-8 week schedule for a standard Nitrome game. This game took 9 months. It's a bit of a gamble, but it's far and away the most difficult and the most fun project I've worked on. So I can only hope it's as enjoyable to play as it was to make.

[increpare]

Interesting  [ I privately hope there'll be a way to fast-track past the, for me, excruciatingly flat difficulty curves that tend to characterise most nitrome games. ]

Will there be multiplayer or tank-sharing?

[st33d]

Multiplayer would require extensive server ground work. We've not released a multiplayer game before, and since the amount of visitors we get has broken our site many times in the past, we need to make a simpler multiplayer game first before managing this particular monster. We would not consider outsourcing the multiplayer server - it's simply not the way we work.

There is a main level path with optional level branches. Levels are mission based set-pieces with a different tank each level. You don't take your tank with you. RTS games box in the resources you can get in their campaign mode - it's an essential part of the RTS genre and allows you to teach the player skills and resource management. The most fun levels are the ones where you start with nothing and fight tooth and nail to get everything.

We considered adding an adventure mode with grinding for blocks, but we felt there should be a proper RTS campaign first. And if that goes down well, maybe we'll get on to adventure mode and tank-sharing.

[SFBTom]

Looks great! The aesthetic isn't that steampunky IMO, other than the colours, but I understand that the grid layout constrains things.

I'd be very interested in the adventure mode if it ever came to be, as long as there isn't too much grinding

[RichMakeGame!]

awesome love nitrome games, can't wait!
the little guy shovelling coal is a great touch :D

reminds me of captain forever in a really good way!

[knight]

Is this your big game you were mentioning earlier? Anyhow this looks interesting and I've loved all nitrome games in the past so I'm sure I'll love this.

[supershigi]

Wow, I LOVE the artwork... it's simple, yet very lovely.  I like all the little details (the tea drinkers on the top floor, the clock tower in the background, the little scuba guy burried in the dirt).  Seems like a pretty interesting gameplay experience too!  I'll make sure to check it out when the game is released.

[st33d]

Thanks folks. You can blame Stephen Ahlin of Guardian Rock fame for the amazing visuals.

This was indeed the big game I've been working on for many moons.

Whilst you won't be able to share tanks straight away, there's a pixel art editor in the game for designing and saving/loading flags for your tank. Penis tanks won't be available to share but penis flags will be possible from launch day!

 

(There is also a hidden campaign/level editor in the game - if you think the level curve is flat, you can always redesign the entire level structure. In the shape of... I'll stop there.)

Here's some tech from the game that I open-sourced:

Crates physics engine - and discussion

Storing text-metadata in the png file format - this is how the game remembers the colour of flags without putting that data in the image

[goshki]

Dining room in the bigger steam tank is adorable!

[Destral]

Loving the art, little details everywhere give it a lot of charm, and the gameplay sounds really fun. Looking forward to trying this out. 

[lapsus]

this looks great, i love the background!
but, imo, needs more brass and tubes and stuff for that steampunk feel

[superflat]

Cog pieces too...

(Perhaps they turn each other when placed next to each other...?)

This looks like it could be quite unusual and nicely hectic.  Looking forward to it, st33d. 

I'm not 100% sold on the tank segment graphics though, they feel a touch less polished than some of your other works.  Backgrounds, GUI and animations look great however.

[Destral]

Cog pieces too...

(Perhaps they turn each other when placed next to each other...?)

That sounds like an interesting seed.

I don't know if the game has an 'energy' resource or something, but if all the blocks in the tanks can be destroyed separately and have their own health, perhaps cog pieces have less health, but restore energy gradually over time.

Or maybe it's just dumb. 

[st33d]

The engine room (the guy shovelling coal) creates a power field (visible when you roll over blocks that need power). Only guns and other useful rooms are active within the power radius. The power radius can be extended through boosters (the blocks with the red lights on) but boosters explode when they get destroyed (notice how pretty much the whole tank gets wasted in the demo by taking out a booster - chain reaction).

So you're basically defending the engine room - which powers everything - and the boosters. Kill the engine room, kill the tank.

As for healing: The engineer can leave his room and repair blocks individually - but your tank is deprived of power till he returns. Later in the game you get repair men that actively crawl around the tank repairing it (see the screenshot). You can direct them to key areas. After each fight you get a repair pickup that floats down, this heals the whole tank so you don't have to wait for repairs but you'll have to choose between scavenging first or collecting it immediately - it will fade out if you get into a scrap again.

You can see cogs in the bigger blocks when they get damaged. We decided against pipes because it's confusing to look at. In the heat of battle you're not going to thank me for making it harder to tell what type of armour you're using in key areas.

I'm defending the game a lot here because we only want to make level design changes, fix bugs and broken gameplay at this late stage, but we have a plan that if it's successful we'll revamp and expand it - so we'll be taking these comments on board.

[Nugsy]

This sounds extremely interesting. And charming pixel art as always!

Edit: How does upgrading your tank with new parts work? I noticed in the video that some were stolen from an enemy tank, but what decides which parts can be stolen?

[st33d]

Anything can be stolen so long as it's unattached. It's just difficult to decide on an effective design whilst the enemy AI is aiming at your turrets.

(Plus I didn't want to use hot key groups in the demo.)

[rocketfactory]

Looks absolutely charming - I love the cutaway views inside the tanks! Can't wait to play this.

[Pineapple]

Looking great

[eigenbom]

[Destral]

I'm defending the game a lot here because we only want to make level design changes, fix bugs and broken gameplay at this late stage, but we have a plan that if it's successful we'll revamp and expand it - so we'll be taking these comments on board.

It's all good. Like I said, I was just typing ideas that came to my head from looking at the screenshots and reading what others were writing. Chances are once I've played the game your design intent will come through in the gameplay and the mechanics.

Looking forward to trying it out!