Pipes, flames and huge trains: a little about dieselpunk (16 photos)

What is dieselpunk: games, films and books in this genre.





In addition to such well-known trends as cyberpunk and steampunk, there is a third one - dieselpunk.



What is it? Unlike cyberpunk, which reflects the decline of human culture against the backdrop of technological progress, or steampunk, which is based on ideas about steam power and aesthetics of the 19th century, dieselpunk is based on the period 1920 - 1950, namely on the alternative technologies of the two world wars.







But it's not that simple. Dieselpunk itself is divided into two more directions: “piecraftian”, based on the ideas of the meaninglessness of military conflicts that harm the development of culture, and the mirror direction “Ottensian”, the founders of which did not consider wars and crises to be an obstacle to the development of technology.



Many consider the role-playing game Children of the Sun by Lewis Pollack to be the first work of this style, which can later be seen in films, books, and other games.





For example, among games these are quite well-known series like BioShock from designer Ken Levine and Dishonored from Arkane Studios.









Moreover, both of them are representatives of the Immersive sim genre, the essence of which is overcoming obstacles with many abilities.

To make it clear that we are talking about games, let’s take an ordinary room, you can climb into it through a window, enter through a door, blow up a wall, or not enter it at all. All options will be correct, this is the essence of Immersive sim.

Both games received good reviews in the press and also have a large fan base around the world.

In films, dieselpunk as a genre is very blurred and in most cases, when watching a film, you may not even realize that it belongs to this direction.





As an example, consider the 1991 film “The Rocketeer” or the Marvel comic book “The First Avenger” about the superhero Steve Rogers.

The dieselpunk Rocketeer only has equipment: a rocket pack, a special helmet and zeppelins. But “The First Avenger” is filled with all the accompanying signs of dieselpunk. It contains an alternative history, which only partially overlaps with the real one, and military technology, super-soldier serum, as well as other elements characteristic of this genre.

With books, everything is more complicated; there are no directly famous works, but “Radio Hospice” and “Shadow of the Ingenium” are worthy of attention.



By the way, in a sense, the work of Howard Lovecraft can be classified as a genre, since creepy monsters are often intertwined with a “diesel” setting. Despite the visual similarity, this statement is quite controversial.



It is extremely difficult for an uninitiated person to recognize examples of “dieselpunk” in creativity.



This article presented popular and obvious examples of works in the dieselpunk style. This is a very specific genre that is associated with relatively recent events. Who knows, maybe in 50 years the genre will be more popular.