Steampunk City Builder Lethis Announced

Steampunk style might never again look as cool as it did in (and on) the hands of Justin Bieber, but we shouldn't give up on steampunk simply because it's peaked. It's looking good in Lethis: Path of Progress, a newly-announced city-building sim set in a world kicking off a steam-powered industrial revolution. That's perhaps an interesting setting for a city-builder because the disparity between rich and poor, those who run the city and those who keep it running, is so marked in industrial eras. Lethis is pretty, at the very least. Come watch the announcement trailer.

Lethis: Path of Progress will put players in charge of building steampunk cities, making them opulent with architectural boasts to honour the Emperor, swanky squares, and all that while also expanding production, trading, and handling problems like pollution and class warfare. Sounds tricky, that. Our own industrial revolution could be a dirty, cruel, and bloody thing. As well as specific missions, it'll have a sandbox to play in.

Developers Triskell Interactive cite the '90s build 'em ups of Impressions Games, which include series like Caesar and Pharaoh, as a big influence.

They plan to release Path of Progress later this year. For now, they're having a crack a Steam Greenlight, which is also where you'll find the most information about the game. Here's the announcement trailer, which I do like for quietly revealing a lot by showing everything going on around one single building: