The Steampunk Sci-Fi Subgenre, Explained
Steampunk is best known as a cosplay option for the most devoted Comic-Con attendees, but this science fiction subgenre pops up all over modern media. The history and modern incarnations of the specific aesthetic is an interesting story of sci-fi imagination and gradual iteration of an idea.
Though there is some debate, the central tenet of steampunk tends to revolve around an alternate history in which electricity and internal combustion never grew to prominence, and the steam engine reigns supreme. More common today, however, the stories take place in a fantasy realm with steam-inspired technology and design, with an aesthetic inspired by late Victorian England. The hallmarks of the genre generally include anachronistic technology, retro-futurism, and social commentary.
Best Steampunk-Themed Games
Steampunk typically refers specifically to the technology of a work's universe, but the term has been expanded to any media or design that features the aesthetic. The term originated in the late 1980s, but countless works of fiction earn the name long before its coining. It rose up as a term in the same era as its counterpart and opposite, cyberpunk. The first to coin the term was K. W. Jeter, who sought a proper umbrella term for his work along with the works of James Blaylock and Tim Powers. The term «gonzo-historical» was thrown around before then, but, with an optional added hyphen, Jeter is the one who gave the category its name. These foundational works were built upon the older foundation of H.G. Wells, Mary Shelley, and Jules Verne. There are countless texts that are now steampunk bibles that came out decades before the term came to be used, but a lack of internal consistency is one of the most important hallmarks of
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