Steampunk in the Far West - Steampunk & Wuxia meet in the American Wilds of the 1900s...

I was researching for new articles and Steampunk works, and eyeing some of the latest Kickerstarter projects, when I came across a particular project which was quite stunning.  As those who are familiar with the Kickstarter program know, a project has a period of time to allow people to bid on a project - if the desired financial amount is reached by the end of the asking period, the project is funded, and if not reached, then it isn't funded.  So when I read that this group of developer met their goal in 15 hours (I wasn't able to find out how much the goal was), I was quite impressed with the results Far West obtained... so I read about the project myself... and was quite impressed!

The Far West's Kickstarter pledge video

The basic premise of Far West is a combination of three genres - Steampunk, Western, and Wuxia.  Steampunk is fairly obvious (likely the reason for the visit to the Tribune), Western (again, there is plenty of background on this genre as well), but Wuxia is probably less familiar to many.  To oversimplify an explanation, think of classic Shaw Brothers kung fu movies of the 60's and 70's, (or the Kill Bill series, for those who never indulged in the outstanding Hong Kong productions of the era).  From what I correlate, Far West will mesh them all together into one endeavor (a Transmedia project, as they call it), including an interactive website, classic paper-and-pencil role playing game, and more (still working on additional aspects of the project).

Characters from Far West (also, a wall paper, for those who might be interested!)

As on who enjoys Steampunk and Kung Fu, I will certainly be keeping an eye on the Far West endeavor.  They are still working on some of the RPG mechanics, and as one can gather, the effort is being worked on furiously, but to read more about the Far West, please visit...

Their main website, at: http://intothefarwest.com/

Background on conceptualization for the Far West, at: http://intothefarwest.com/2011/06/01/beginning/

Their Kickstarter website, with even more information regarding the project, at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/Adamant/far-west-western-wuxia-mashup-adventure-game