What is steam punk?

Steam punk is a genre of science fiction where steam power is used as the main power source for industrial technologies. Steampunk has become a subculture with a rather large following and doesn't just refer to books and novels written on the genre.With it being based on steam power most of the work on steampunk is set in an alternate universe of the 19th century and will normally incorperate fashion, culture and art similar to that era. Steampunk is influenced by, and often adopts the style of, the 19th-century scientific romances of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and Mary Shelley. Scientific romances and now commonly known as science fiction. Several pieces of work adapted the steam punk style before it was ever given a name. Most notibaly was Metropolis , a 1927 film by Fritz Lang. This film was set in 2026 in towrering city skyscrapers and featured robots and a stylistic genre which was uncommon at the time.

Although this genre had been around for decades the term Steampunk didn't arrive until the 1980s as a tounge in cheek variant of Cyber Punk. Cyber punk is a post modern scientific genre which focuses on advanced technologies and mega corporations. Many films show example of the cyber punk theme such as blade runner and total recall. Cyber punk has a strong influence in Manga and Anime and is very evident in Japanese culture and is well accepted. Animes that are well known and have adopted the cyber punk theme are Akira and Ghost in a Shell. 

Ghost in the shell

Akira

Steampunk has often moved away from just recreating known historical eras such as victorian and wild west and  has moved into fantasy worlds which rely on steam power technology. This is often incorporated into video games such as Final Fantasy and the Elder scrolls franchises. 

The Dwemer race in the Elder Scrolls video games is heavily influenced from steam punk technology and features a lot of giant cogs and mechanics and uses steam power. I will continue to research both steampunk and cyber punk and any ideas will be posted on here.