The game’s creator Dan Marshall sets up the steampunk atmosphere thusly, “It means hacking into someone’s bank account using a steam-driven typewriter, that’s what that means. I was really keen to do something that no-one’s ever done before, and I’m pretty sure that kind of fits the bill.”
The game is physics-based, and the objective is to infiltrate various facilities - and rob them blind. The player, as in Deus Ex, can choose their method of getting the money. “Whether you want to do it stealthily by bounding around rooftops, or simply walk in through the front door shooting everything that gets in your way, that’s all up to you,” Marshall explains.
The most important equipment your character gets are steampunk gloves, which can be upgraded. Players can add new abilities such as faster typing skills, improved weaponry, or, what the developer calls the most important thing in gaming: double-jump boosters. The option for telekinesis has your character shooting people playground-style with their fingers.
Marshall was reportedly inspired by Assassin’s Creed II, explaining, “It’s one of my main hobbies. There’s nothing more satisfying to me than a big fat horde of fake money, and that’s something that I felt ASCII did really well… So that’s the core gameplay I’m working towards: nick stuff, upgrade your kit, go back and nick some more.” Frankly, it sounds like he was more inspired by Thief: The Dark Project.
Marshall goes on in his interview with Rock Paper Shotgun about how the player can choose their methods of completing objectives: “At its core, it’s a platform game. Running, jumping, shooting, whipping up and down ladders, the usual Megadrive-era mechanics. Where it differs is in your approach to getting in-and-out of a building: you might use telekinesis to lift a rock off a manhole so you can break in through an underground tunnel and bypass all the security guards. Maybe you’ll hack a terminal that takes down the security cameras, allowing you to plant explosives by a weak wall, and go in guns blazing. Maybe you’ll hop into a guard tower and use the double jump ability to land on the facility’s roof, where you can smash through a skylight. That sort of thing.”
The game has only been announced for PC so far.
