Steamlands
Fresh from the bronze halls of Nitrome comes Steamlands, a game that mixes strategy, defense, and building genres with a steampunk exterior to make a final product that begs you to become addicted. A great war has left Europe in ruins. Even though the last of the machines have been disassembled, pirates still roam the land with their patchwork tanks built from scrap. As a lone mercenary commander, you must pick up a spanner and build your own war machine by scavenging parts from defeated pirates. Embark upon dozens of missions in this expertly-crafted game of combat, strategy, and on-the-fly steam tank construction!
Read More64 Comments
This is brilliant so far. Once you get the hang of everything, it's a blast!
Okay, so, they tell you to aim, yet you cannot, in fact, aim in any fashion whatsoever.
Thanks, Nitrome. Why did I give this a chance again?
This game desperately needs some more hot key functionality. I'm trying to do too much with my mouse and I have almost nothing to do with my keyboard. It's kind of disappointing because it's a game that lends itself to a lot of UI customization options, but there's just nothing actually there.
Do you lose your power ups everytime you go to a new level? Nothing ever seems to stay the same.
Yea, I don't think anything stays across levels. I kind of like that, actually, it means I don't have to grind or save up for things. I also like how if you get the best score on a level once, you don't have to play it again in order to get all the shop items. Though I'm still getting a feel for the gameplay, I like how it reduces repetition.
You can assign groups of weapons to hot keys, and also use the z and x keys to move your tank.
Not all weapons can be aimed. The first weapon you find can only fire in a straight line. Most other weapons can aim pretty well until they start taking too much damage.
Well, I must say this is quite the comeback. An unexpected work of genius. I am also a fan of the changing tanks and the several paths, which allow for a lot of freedom of choice. Certainly a relief from some of the drivel Nitrome can put out.
And JIGuest... I'm not certain what you're actually going on about. I won't criticize the hotkey part as I never use hotkeys, but in what way is it impossible to aim? The determinator is impossible to aim, but you can put it wherever you want, and plenty of other guns can choose where to aim.
This game gets bonus points for letting me design my own flag.
The shop upgrades apply to the blocks you start with. If you pick up a repair box it will upgrade all blocks that are on your tank. The upgrades stay with you throughout the game.
Sorry this isn't explained, but we wanted to avoid over-tutorialising.
Nice that no one's figured out how to unlock the secret level editor yet ;)
Up up down down left right left right Z X start while on the intro screen?
What do the different awards signify and what are the requirements?
What happens after the first level where you get the driving license. I drive off the right and on the map I have moved I space further along the track but the only thing I can click is the first level which I replay but my tank hasn't moved. How do you get to level 2?
Awards are given based on damage management. The less damaged you keep yourself from getting,the higher the percentage, the better the award.
I am severely disappointed that I can't build and keep my own war machine. I'm pretty early on, but I'm not pleased that the effort I put into stealing parts isn't carried on to later levels.
z and x Keys are kinda nice, but on non QWERTY Keyboards it would be nice to set the keys for right- and left-movement - or use x for right and x AND y for left.
This is a fun game, but it loses it's fun-ness when the glitches come into play. I was on the first level with VIPS. My entire tank turned invisible and all of my guns became usless. Then I was defeated, even though I didn't see it.
What is the point of customizing your tank if you can't keep your custom made tank in the next level?
This is not a strategy game I'm afraid. This is just a puzzler, with a variety of guns.
Go to main menu, click a button... Sonic the Hedgehog sound sample???
How do you get the 'Secret level editor'? I heard about it and I've been dying to find out!
Umm, how do you actually get your guns to fire?
I can mount them, group them, fix them,
but how do you actually fire them?
this has to have the crappiest instructions ever
It's a decent game, but there's quite a few things that aren't apparent or intuitive at first.
Normally, a good tutorial would help a lot, but the problem with theirs is that it is WAY too slow and I'm guessing that most people just didn't bother to watch it all the way through. I suggest that a quick text overview of the tutorial should display along with the movie. Possibly allowing a secondary <—> to fast forward during the movies, dividing them into further sections.
Oh, the help tab in the main menu has the text with the movie, though not the in-game tutorial. Didn't notice that. Please change it so that both of them have the text as the movies are painfully slow.
Also, please make the mission map display which missions have how many medals (so which ones are completely finished and such). Rather annoying going into each mission to see what else you can do. And you will want to to get more money.
Anyway, here is the basics and some other notes regarding how to play the game:
Basic actions:
-
Drag pieces from your tank or "dusty" brown pieces on the ground to build your tank. All pieces must touch another piece or a tank trend. Pieces must be at least partially above the trends, or for weapons, attached to a piece that's completely inside the trends. If you hold the mouse button WITHOUT dragging for a while, it'll become a magnet that can attract pieces from the floor. Mostly useless though.
-
Click or click and drag to highlight a piece. Click on a target for it to use its action (attack, repair, etc.). You can also hotkey that piece/section by pressing 1-9 when they are highlighted. Press 1-9 to then quickly highlight those pieces. Very useful to quickly target things with weapons.
-
Drag the lever or use z/x to move the tank. Rushing forwards is not always the best idea. Note that weapons are dumb and will fire at the position a piece WAS, not will be. Each enemy will have an area that they will either chase you or run away to while in combat.
Weapons and Targeting
-
Weapons will only fire if they have a target to attack AND can hit them AND will not hit their own tank when attack the target (for non-mortars only). In addition, they must be within range of an active engine/booster and "ready" (if they have been recently moved). They will continue to attack until the target is destroyed or they no longer have power.
If you have them target your own tank, they will stop firing. So make sure you aren't highlighting any weapons when you are changing your tank. -
The basic engine room can ONLY either supply power to the tank (and trends allowing movement) or attack with coals (or repair a piece, but you almost never want to do that). Coals have the special property that they won't hit your own tank.
Combat/Damage and Medals
-
Pieces are destroyed when their hp = 0. Tanks are destroyed when the engine piece is destroyed. Engines and boosters EXPLODE when destroyed damaging nearby pieces. When you destroy a tank AND no other tank is attacking, a health box will drop. It restores ALL pieces on your tank to max hp and stays until you get attacked. So make sure to finish building your tank before clicking it.
-
Pieces may fall off the tank if they become no longer connected to the tank or when the tank is destroyed. You can then attach them onto your own tank. MAKING SURE AS FEW PIECES ARE DESTROYED (INCLUDING YOUR PIECES) IS THE POINT OF MEDALS AND HOW YOU GET BONUS MONEY.
-
You can get 3 medals per spot depending on the % of pieces still remaining. 25%, 50%, 75% -> $1k, 3k, 5k bonus money. THOUGH YOU CAN REPLAY LEVELS, YOU ONLY CAN GET MONEY FOR EACH MEDAL ONCE. You can't reset your shop choices, so make sure the things you buy are worth buying. Money gets rather tight later on unless you are always winning with 3 medals, which can be rather hard.
Increasing gameplay speed
-
You can skip a lot of scenes by just clicking. Going into town, going out of town and starting mission, level score, etc. Unfortunately you cannot skip reaching the finish line after you defeat all the enemies.
-
The movement lever can go past the red orb to almost horizontal.
Hey guys,
I'm just having some trouble with the level where your tank is pretty much just reflectable pieces, and no weapons. I can't seem to destroy the last tank.
Thanks.
Yeah fine. But there is a big problem to play this game. How do i get to level 2 ? I Pick up the stuff, then moving left / right. Nothing happens after this. I have finished Level 1 with 3 Medals.
Is that a bug?
Awesome game, Nitrome! Any tips on the level with Jack McBlack (or whatever his name is) and the bronze booster? I can't seem to defeat him.
@JIGuest: Have you tried moving all the way to the right side of the level? It doesn't end until you do.
'Special Delivery' was a blast... first really tough level :] Great game, although it takes a while before you really get the hang of it.
JIGuest, thats a bug i used to have. A flag is supposed to come up on the next red thing but it didn't happen. I tried it again the next day on a different computer though and it worked. I don't know how to fix it other than maybe leave it for a while and try again.
Special Delivery? I'm stuck on that one. How did you do it?
The developer here:
We originally put text in with the help, and all the play-testers refused to read it, they said it was too much information. A fast forward for the movie would require serious code-voodoo (possible but would take quite a while).
Keeping blocks between levels would make it impossible to design challenges. We were keen to do an endless adventure mode, but the development time required to do it properly (not a crappy survival mode) would have been extremely expensive for a free game. If it gets played a lot we might do a pay-for-follow up with bells and whistles.
The "<" ">" keys also steer.
We've had some bug reports that have been caused by bugs in the Flash Player. We can't get it to break in the office or at home. I've tried to put in some failsafes today and hopefully if you clear your cache, you might be alright. Sorry about this.
The level editor is unlocked by entering a code on the title screen. If you figure it out (you may have to be into old school games to do so), please keep it to yourself or at least spoiler your findings. It can unlock everything and cheat codes can ruin a game for some people.
I was also hoping for parts to be saved between levels. I understand what you mean about creating challenges though. You want to make sure people don't have too much, nor too little gear to complete a level. Otherwise, some people could get stuck halfway through the game, while others would think the game is too easy.
I would still have rather seen something more like: each level gives you a X amount of energy to work with (not too much, not too little). Tracks require energy to be placed. And tracks can carry a Y amount of weight. And every other block has a weight.
So the tracks limit the weight of the tank and energy limits the amount of tracks you can use.
Then, parts would be saved between levels and you could re-do a level to "farm" parts you want. If you fail a level, you might get more energy the next time you try.
This way people would grow more attached to their tank and have their way of building it and their preferred weaponry and their own play-style.
1) I can't stop playing and I'm seeing little bullets coming down from my tabs right now.
2) I don't understand how the medals work. I've redone some of the earliest levels, without losing a single piece, but I still can't get the top medal.
Does anyone know what Aaron Steed is hinting when he says the code for the secret level editor has to do with old school games and/or what the code is?
well, for the secret level editor i've tried
Every variation of the Konami code I could think of, though I may just be unimaginative
anybody else got a suggestion?
This game is so great I don't know where to begin... tank building, steam, pirates, tea, the dancing viking, black and white projector film tutorial, non-linear level progression... the list just goes on. The thing I love most is you really have an idea of a little game-world that is tootling along. All the little graphical and narrative touches are beautiful and make it a little box of pure fun.
@St33d: I take my top hat off to you sir. Keep up the good work and treat yourself to a cuppa. Also this game makes me want more Dirk Valentine!
While it IS good, the difficulty cranks up wayy too much near levels 'Hook Line and Sinker', 'The Highest Bidder'.
Can someone please post the code to the level editor?
@Nester 64
The Konami Code traditionally ends with "start"
>CharlieTango
There's more than one level like taht. for the first one, you need to get and use the Thor Hammer from the 2nd to last tank.
>Xylozex No idea what lvl that is. Clarify position on map?
>enalzi
Medals count both pieces from your tank AND from your enemies. So you need to try to destroy as little as possible and go straight to the engine to get them. More firepower isn't always the best idea in this case.
I know that it has already been asked but i ask of anyone who reads this: PLEASE WHAT IS THE SECRET LEVEL EDITOR CODE!!!
@steed
I had tried spelling "start" a few times before I posted, but your hint made something click. you are a mad genius, and deserve a kick in the rear followed by a medal. I tip my hat to you.
@everyone else
the hints for the code are all in this thread. if you can't figure it out, maybe i'll e-mail it to you
Steamands Dev Mode: A review
The following will be in spoilers to protect the innocence of those who prefer to figure out the code before reading about what it unlocks.
So, I tinkered about with the editor for a bit, and though it does have its faults, all in all it is a fun and powerful tool.
The first thing one needs to find is the menu, which can be a little hard to locate at first. It is outside of the map proper, up in the upper-left hand corner of the game box itself. it has an option for downloading a copy of the help file, which you should take advantage of.
The editor itself is very user friendly, allowing you to design a level from scratch very easily (though, making it balanced is something else entirely) you can write your own gossip and set up the contents of the shop to your liking, and the editor can detect if both values are empty if you want to start a game without a shop.
I haven't really taken advantage of the map editor, but from what I have read and the time I played with the tools, one can piece together whatever story and campaign one wishes.
No, I don't believe one can set up the build-from-humble-tank-to omnipotent-behemoth campaign, but one can come close with the way one sets up the levels.
All in all, the tool is very nice for those looking to extend the steamlands experience, or wanting a god-mode for the campaign like the dirty cheaters that we are ;)
@Nester 64 I seriously have no idea what the code i,s can you please tell me?
Is it the original Konami code, and how do you enter "start"?
Call me an idiot but i still can find the code even with the 'hints'. Please help me.
I found the code! Aaron Steed, I was thinking about how to enter "start" in Steamlands when I realized I should "start".
Everyone, if that didn't help you, just ask me for the code.
How to activate Dev Mode
At the title screen with the "Play" button, press these keys in this order:
[up] [up]
[down] [down]
[left] [right]
[left] [right]
[B] [A]
Then press "Play"
What! I accidentaly unlocked everything with dev mode and I can't re lock anything. Is the game pretty much ruined now or can you delete the max cash and all levels unlock thing.
Ok, a few bits and pieces: Firstly, if you really want tips on how to play this game, here's the best I can offer.
1: You DON'T need the upgrades, or the cash. It is entirely possible to win without, however it is a good idea. So, replaying levels is a good idea. It should also be possible to buy everything, although I have not flag-checked.
2: If you take out the blocks surrounding a piece, it falls. So, if you want an enemy gun, shoot the block it's anchored to. Explosions damage pieces on the ground, too. Boosters and engines go boom. (P.S. It's an extremely bad idea to put the engine room above the tracks. Don't put pieces between them, or else you can lose the engine, which I think may have happened to some of you.
3: When you get reflectium, please note, the angle makes a difference. The enemy can ALSO target different blocks. So, with no guns, try to re-arrange your layout to fire them back.
4: The bigger cluster bombs make littler cluster bombs. So, you can have a cascade of bullets if you do it right.
5: Destroy as LITTLE as possible. You can re-use everything, which is a good idea, and gives you more points.
Oh, and it's a good idea to put your engine at the back, unless you have to "return to town". Put additional tracks at the front. Cannons like the hail stone and cluster bombs can fire from the back wall too. Also note, they DO NOT fire if they are too close to another gun.
Finally, the coal chucking is a good idea if you have no guns and lots of reflectium!
Sorry this is so long, and good luck!
Dev messers: You can't undo the unlock codes unless you special dev saved first. You CAN erase the save, but that'll sned you back to the beginning. THINK FIRST!!!
@jay
Thank you for this code.
You are a great man and deserve a medal .
Every one else: DON'T READ THIS.
Use Clear Game Save Data to undo unlocking everything.
You're right that there should be a confirmation popup on unlocking everything. Sorry about that. It's one line of code so I'll try and put that in as soon as I'm back at work.
Need some help on the very last level, the Titanic level. Any suggestions please?
@maestro
You have a lot of reflectium. Try taking as much extra reflectium as possible (while keeping the general main build of the tank)and use it to build a tall wall against the front tank. This allows you to put full force on the back-attacker, so take aim and fire at the bottom right engine. You might want to group all your weapons (minus the ones that are distracting the front tank) with a macro so that you can blast that tank.
I can't beat the blackhammer. I can beat the first column of guns but then I lose all my guns and I die. I could ceat with dev mode but that would kind of ruin it.
I've finished all the levels - now what? I'm guessing there is some post-game movie, story or at least a message "Hooray!"... yet I have none of these. Sad.
to beat the black hammer use get rid of the guns on the front and then use the coal to get rid of the hail stone and then destroy
the booster at the back with the coal. finish him with wood peckers
Been ill with a chest infection, sorry about taking so long to update.
Patch 1.01:
Added auto-drive out (except on levels with no enemies such as the first where the player needs to learn the driving skill).
Added a confirmation prompt on Unlock Everything in the Campaign Map Editor.
The game completion animation is now accessible (complete THE PIRATE COMMANDER to view it)
The title now has a version number to help distinguish between cached versions of the game - if you don't see "v 1.01" on the top right of the title screen, you're not playing the latest version.
Hello all,
Probably missing something but I'm stuck at the first shop instance. Bizarrely, the Z/X keys no longer function. Nothing seems to be interactive on hover except for the engine room, and there is nothing for it to interact with.
What am I missing?
This game is quite entertaining and addictive; requiring strategy and some quick mouse skills at times. I love the steam punk vibe but wish the game was made in a higher resolution, as it is now it takes up very little of my computer screen. One thing that annoys me is when the mouse moves the camera in game as it moves quite erratically and I would just prefer to control this with the arrow keys. It would be nice if the levels map clearly showed at a quick glance which areas had items for purchase. The developer has made some improvements to the game since the last time I played it, such as forcing the tank to go to the finish line after you defeat all the enemies. This improvement made it so that you do not waist time building up your tank with the enemy parts as this does not contribute to your score or benefit you in any way. I had a dickens of time with two areas (Voyage of the Titanic and The Pirate Commander) but ultimately these areas were beaten with a bit of strategy. I wish the upgrades were not so expensive as money gets tight late in the game. Also a mode of the game were you are able to retain every aspect of your tank from area to area would be awesome.
You can turn off mouse scrolling in the pause screen and stick to using the arrow keys or w,a,s,d to scroll. All nitrome games with mouse scroll older than Rubble Trouble will support this feature as it's a popular complaint.
There are still some bugs but they're extremely hard to track down. Restarting may fix the problem - also, if you're on Vista or Windows 7, you may need to run the browser as Administrator:
This is because the newer Windows can block the game saving information.
We want to make a version where you can keep tank pieces, have loads more weapons, share tanks, etc. But we're trying to find a pay-for platform to fund it. No luck contacting Valve to put it on Steam so far...
I need help! I must be something stupid. I am stuck on level two, I destroy the pirate, but I can't advance to the next level! Please tell me how to advance. Thanks in advance!
i need help with the mission unarmed. pretty hard
i know i'm late...
Hey, I bought pieces at some towns that I think are supposed to stay with me for all missions?
But then I could never use them. They just took away my money! how does that work?
You don't get that block.... That is an upgrade for that particular block... you get different blocks/guns each level. If you buy the UPGRADE then armor/guns get more health,reload,or damage.
I can't beat the level "Steel and Gunpowder". The pirates make up for the relative weakness of their tanks (at least for the ones I last long enough to see) by not giving me a moment's peace between attacks to perform necessary repairs to my tank. They overwhelm me with their numbers.
Of course, the fact that my tank is carrying three whole munitions carts & I lose if any of them are destroyed doesn't help either.
Definetly one of the best Nitrome games! Great work!
Definitely*
Leave a comment [top of page]
Game of the week
Walkthrough Guide
(Please allow page to fully load for spoiler tags to be functional.)
It's a decent game, but there's quite a few things that aren't apparent or intuitive at first.
Normally, a good tutorial would help a lot, but the problem with theirs is that it is WAY too slow and I'm guessing that most people just didn't bother to watch it all the way through. I suggest that a quick text overview of the tutorial should display along with the movie. Possibly allowing a secondary <—> to fast forward during the movies, dividing them into further sections.
Oh, the help tab in the main menu has the text with the movie, though not the in-game tutorial. Didn't notice that. Please change it so that both of them have the text as the movies are painfully slow.
Also, please make the mission map display which missions have how many medals (so which ones are completely finished and such). Rather annoying going into each mission to see what else you can do. And you will want to to get more money.
Anyway, here is the basics and some other notes regarding how to play the game:
Basic actions:
Drag pieces from your tank or "dusty" brown pieces on the ground to build your tank. All pieces must touch another piece or a tank trend. Pieces must be at least partially above the trends, or for weapons, attached to a piece that's completely inside the trends. If you hold the mouse button WITHOUT dragging for a while, it'll become a magnet that can attract pieces from the floor. Mostly useless though.
Click or click and drag to highlight a piece. Click on a target for it to use its action (attack, repair, etc.). You can also hotkey that piece/section by pressing 1-9 when they are highlighted. Press 1-9 to then quickly highlight those pieces. Very useful to quickly target things with weapons.
Drag the lever or use z/x to move the tank. Rushing forwards is not always the best idea. Note that weapons are dumb and will fire at the position a piece WAS, not will be. Each enemy will have an area that they will either chase you or run away to while in combat.
Weapons and Targeting
Weapons will only fire if they have a target to attack AND can hit them AND will not hit their own tank when attack the target (for non-mortars only). In addition, they must be within range of an active engine/booster and "ready" (if they have been recently moved). They will continue to attack until the target is destroyed or they no longer have power.
If you have them target your own tank, they will stop firing. So make sure you aren't highlighting any weapons when you are changing your tank.
The basic engine room can ONLY either supply power to the tank (and trends allowing movement) or attack with coals (or repair a piece, but you almost never want to do that). Coals have the special property that they won't hit your own tank.
Combat/Damage and Medals
Pieces are destroyed when their hp = 0. Tanks are destroyed when the engine piece is destroyed. Engines and boosters EXPLODE when destroyed damaging nearby pieces. When you destroy a tank AND no other tank is attacking, a health box will drop. It restores ALL pieces on your tank to max hp and stays until you get attacked. So make sure to finish building your tank before clicking it.
Pieces may fall off the tank if they become no longer connected to the tank or when the tank is destroyed. You can then attach them onto your own tank. MAKING SURE AS FEW PIECES ARE DESTROYED (INCLUDING YOUR PIECES) IS THE POINT OF MEDALS AND HOW YOU GET BONUS MONEY.
You can get 3 medals per spot depending on the % of pieces still remaining. 25%, 50%, 75% -> $1k, 3k, 5k bonus money. THOUGH YOU CAN REPLAY LEVELS, YOU ONLY CAN GET MONEY FOR EACH MEDAL ONCE. You can't reset your shop choices, so make sure the things you buy are worth buying. Money gets rather tight later on unless you are always winning with 3 medals, which can be rather hard.
Increasing gameplay speed
You can skip a lot of scenes by just clicking. Going into town, going out of town and starting mission, level score, etc. Unfortunately you cannot skip reaching the finish line after you defeat all the enemies.
The movement lever can go past the red orb to almost horizontal.
Posted by: JIGuest | April 18, 2011 11:26 PM
How to activate Dev Mode
At the title screen with the "Play" button, press these keys in this order:
[up] [up]
[down] [down]
[left] [right]
[left] [right]
[B] [A]
Then press "Play"
Posted by: Jay
|
April 20, 2011 11:56 PM