Exclusive interview with Clockwork Symphony Creative Lead Rachel Williamson By Cecil Adkins Cecil Adkins is a fiction writer and covers MMORPGs for Examiner.com.  He is an active player of City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, and several other MMOs.  He can be found on the web at www.ceciladkins.com.

Clockwork Symphony (full title:  Clockwork Symphony – Being a True and Factual Account of the Marvels of the Machine Age) is a Steampunk MMO, currently in the early stages of planning by the Clank Crew, a startup with plenty of attitude and ambition.  Set in late 19th century San Francisco, the game will feature "a rich, historical backdrop… with both famous and infamous figures on hand."  More information, including a detailed timeline and character class descriptions, can be found on Clockwork Symphony's official forums.

I had an opportunity to chat with the Creative Lead for Clockwork Symphony, Rachel Williamson, and we talked about details of the game as well as her hopes and fears for the future.

Cecil:  How did this project get its start?

Rachel:  Well that's easy. I was riding with my fiancé to a nearby town and we were hunting for a topic to discuss. We settled in on gaming and it snowballed from there. Soon we had classes and organizations. From there I solicited help from the City of Heroes forums, ModDB, Brass Goggles... pretty much anywhere I could think to look.

Cecil:  Have members of the Clank Crew been involved in game development before?

Rachel:  Surprisingly not. Our Technical Director, tried a few startups early on in his career, but never landed one that went far. Though he's been in the software development industry for years, now. There were times when myself or Michael Hendricks tried to create games, but never anything on a scale this large and nothing that got off paper.

Cecil:  Obviously, the Steampunk genre is virtually untapped in the MMO world. In fact, the only other Steampunk-flavored game isn't what many people would think of as pure Steampunk.  What else, besides the genre, is going to set Clockwork Symphony apart from other MMOs?

Rachel:  Well, we've got a unique concept we like to call Dynamic Spawns. Essentially every enemy that spawns inside or outside of an instanced map will spawn specifically for the person who triggered it. Right level, right enemy group. Everything. This will lead to a more dynamic feel to the world, with enemies that make sense in the context of the player's current story-lines.

We also plan to make use of Vehicular Combat. Something no other MMO has touched on, aside from auto-assault, a game where the whole focus was car-combat.

Cecil:  On your website, you mention different paths that a character can take. Can you elaborate a bit on this?  How much trouble will it be to switch from one "path" to another?

Rachel:  Well. in the Steampunk genre you, generally speaking, have 3 wide paths. Three styles.Sub-genres, if you will.

The first is Gaslight Romance. It's "Classic" Steampunk. Heroes are honest men and women, bold and daring. They hunt for truth and overcome fantastic obstacles for truth, love, and the safety of their homes.

Then you've got the Weird West. Torn from books such as the Deadlands or comics like Jonah Hex. Even the media has touched on it with Wild Wild West.  Similar circumstance, different villains. The Weird West is a gritty place with gunfights and ancient curses.

And then you've got Pulp Adventure. Tarzan of the Apes, Indiana Jones and any film he's ever done! The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  Famous adventurers traveling the world and, again, overcoming fantastic obstacles. Whether it's the Mummy or their own vices.

The core of Steampunk is that the human spirit can overcome anything. Human ingenuity can open doors and scale mountains if it needs to. As for switching paths? It's as easy as walking over to your contact or finding a clue that leads somewhere you didn't expect it to.