A brand-new steampunk festival just dropped on the map, ladies and gentlemen: Aurora, Indiana threw its first-ever Steam Punk Festival this past weekend, September 12-13, at Gabbard Riverfront Park on the Ohio River. Gears, gadgets, Victorian-inspired chaos, costume contests, vendors, and live music courtesy of Thawind Mills all weekend, plus Seventh Day Slumber with Magdalene Rose closing out Sunday afternoon. First-time event, riverfront setting, live performances. The Doctor approves of this origin story.

Aurora is a small river town with a lot of 19th-century bones, which makes it arguably a more authentic backdrop for a steampunk gathering than most convention-center hotel ballrooms I could name. The fact that somebody looked at that historic riverfront and said, “you know what this needs? Corsets and clockwork” is the correct instinct, and I respect it entirely. If you’re in the Indiana/Ohio/Kentucky tri-state orbit, put this one on the calendar for 2027 because first-year festivals either die quietly or grow into something ridiculous. I’m betting on ridiculous.

Via: Visit Southeast Indiana

The beta events are happening right now, chooms. WeirdCo and CD PROJEKT RED launched the Official Cyberpunk Trading Card Game onto Kickstarter back in March and the internet promptly lost its mind: $28 million pledged by 50,773 backers, with the $100K goal vaporized in somewhere around five minutes flat. That is not a typo. Five. Minutes. The Doctor is choosing to interpret this as confirmation that Night City is the only city that matters.

The game ditches the traditional life-point grind entirely. Instead, you’re running Gigs, stealing your opponent’s dice mid-combat, spending Eddies, and building Street Cred to drop the heavy cards. Your starter decks are “The Heist” (Mercenaries) or “Embracing Power” (Arasaka), and your roster includes V, Johnny Silverhand, Jackie Welles, Judy Alvarez, Adam Smasher, and more. Physically: real cards, real boosters, real deck-building, not a digital port slapped onto cardboard. The art is franchise-native, chrome implants and holographic dystopia all the way down.

Beta events run through September 20 at local game stores worldwide; hit cyberpunktcg.com to find one near you. Full retail release drops November 6, 2026. The Doctor will be there on launch day, deck pre-built, ready to be absolutely destroyed by someone half my age. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal.

Someone looked at Iron Harvest and Company of Heroes and said, “Yes, but what if we turned it up?” The result is Veil of Ashes, an incoming dieselpunk mecha RTS set in an alternate history that trades the usual grim realism for something with considerably more walking death machine energy. Riveted steel legs, diesel smoke, and enough tonnage to flatten a trench line. The Doctor approves of this direction in RTS design. STRONGLY.

The pitch: imagine the interwar period, but the arms race went sideways into giant mechanical warfare instead of just, you know, regular catastrophic human warfare. The game leans hard into combat and strategy over base-building micromanagement, which means you spend your time actually commanding dieselpunk monsters on the field rather than clicking a barracks menu seventeen times. If you have ever looked at a 1920s diesel engine and thought “that should be a leg,” this game was made for you specifically, and also for me, and we should probably form a club.

No firm release date is nailed down yet, but the visual fidelity screenshots making the rounds are genuinely striking. Wishlist it, bookmark it, carve a reminder into a gear with a calipers. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal, but a well-piloted dieselpunk mech comes close.

Tomorrow, September 12th, downtown Colfax, California transforms into a living SteamPunk postcard, and it’s completely free. Colfax Railroad Days 2026 celebrates the town’s pivotal role as the primary supply terminus during construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, which is exactly the kind of history the Omega7Red Formulae was practically invented to describe. Steam-era industry, dangerous mountain terrain, rival railroad empires racing toward a golden spike: if that isn’t SteamPunk origin lore, I don’t know what is.

The lineup is not messing around: model train displays, a Union Pacific heritage exhibit, a working blacksmith shop, living history re-enactors, the Black Flag Gang and the Pinkertons doing Wild West theatrical performances, free trackless train rides, craft vendors, a beer garden, and a quilt show. (Yes, a quilt show. Don’t laugh. Victorian craftsmanship is on-brand and you know it.) The Sacramento Steampunk Society has run an encampment here in past years with a British Expedition tent, a Traveling Egyptian Exhibition, and a Nautilus Expedition, because of course they did. The Doctor approves, high-5.

If you’re within driving distance of Placer County, roughly 50 miles northeast of Sacramento, there is zero excuse not to show up. Goggles optional but obviously correct. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal, but a working blacksmith and a free beer garden comes close.

Via: Historic Colfax / Colfax Railroad Days

inXile Entertainment (the same mad geniuses behind Wasteland and Torment) have been building Clockwork Revolution long enough that I started to wonder if Lady Ironwood had used the Chronometer to erase it from the timeline. Good news: it still exists. Bad news: it’s 2027 now, not 2026. The Xbox Games Showcase in June confirmed the slip, dropped a four-minute gameplay trailer, and then said absolutely nothing about a specific date. “Coming in due time.” Sure. Fine. I’ll be here, gears rusting.

The setup, though? Legitimately excellent. You’re loose in Avalon, a steam-powered Victorian metropolis run top-to-bottom by Lady Ironwood, a ruler who already got to the Chronometer first and quietly rewrote history to cement her grip on everything. Your job is to go back, make choices, and watch the butterfly effects ripple forward through the city. The comparisons to BioShock Infinite and Dishonored are warranted and the Doctor approves of both reference points. inXile has apparently written 750,000 words of dialogue for this thing. That’s not a game, that’s a civilization.

Xbox console exclusive, also on PC and Game Pass day one. Wishlist it now and let the waiting be someone else’s problem. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal.

The Magnanimous and Beneficent Dr. Warthan hereby raises a brass monocle to Level-5, because Professor Layton and the New World of Steam is still happening, and it is still set in a steampunk town called Steam Bison. They named the town Steam Bison. That is either the best or the most gloriously unhinged thing in game development this year, and frankly the Doctor does not care which. It’s canon. It counts.

Level-5 nailed the timing down at their VISION 2026 showcase: end of 2026, simultaneous worldwide release, on Switch 2, Switch, PS5, and PC. That last pair is a first for the series, and a worldwide simultaneous release means there are no region-locked excuses this time. The good Professor has been stuck in development purgatory since 2023 (delayed from 2024, then 2025, now finally actually 2026), so forgive the Doctor for not booking the champagne until the cartridge is physically in his hand. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal.

The steampunk hook here isn’t just window dressing: Steam Bison is a full-on Victorian-industrial American boomtown where steam engine technology has surpassed even London’s finest clockwork. The villain is apparently a ghostly gunslinger (a SteamPunk Western, basically), the theme song is being composed by Joe Hisaishi (yes, that Joe Hisaishi, the man responsible for every Ghibli film that ever made you cry), and puzzle design duties passed to quiz collective QuizKnock after the original puzzle master Akira Tago passed in 2016. That’s a legacy worth inheriting carefully. Level-5 says development is progressing smoothly, and given how many times they’ve said that, the Doctor rates it at “optimistically skeptical.”

The Omega7Red Formulae did not need to touch this one. Level-5 handled it themselves. So put on your best waistcoat and go wishlist it, because a clockwork mystery in a town named after the most diesel animal on the plains goes straight to the top of the holiday SteamPunk gaming pile. High-5, Level-5. Don’t blow it.

Via: Nintendo Everything and Level-5

This Saturday, September 12, at the Fox River Trolley Museum in South Elgin, Illinois: the Fox Valley Steampunk Festival runs 11am to 5pm along the scenic banks of the Fox River, and The Doctor is annoyed he cannot be in two places at once. Steampunk-themed trolley rides with costumed conductors and storytellers. Teapot Racing. Nerf Gun Duels. Parasol Dueling, which is Rock-Paper-Scissors with parasols and Victorian-era grievances, which is honestly how all disputes should be settled. Tea Dueling. A Makers Market. A costume contest. Food trucks. It is completely free to enter the sporting events and open to all ages, so you have no excuse.

The trolley museum angle is the part that gets me: you board actual historic electric trolleys, the conductors are in full regalia, and somewhere between the Fox River scenery and the gear-and-goggle crowd on the platform, the Omega7Red Formulae has clearly already been applied to the entire property. Whatever locomotive-obsessed civic ancestor built that rail line in 1896 had no idea he was setting up a steampunk festival venue. Good job, high-5, anonymous trolley guy. Via: Fox Valley Steampunk Festival

Warcradle Studios has been steadily rolling out factions for the new edition of Dystopian Wars, their alternate-late-19th-century naval wargame, and this month the Kaiser sends his regards: the Imperium hits the tabletop in October. Blood and iron, baby. We’re talking Blücher Cruisers as the Prussian workhorse, Augustus Bombardment Cruisers lobbing heavy mortars from long range, and Reiter Flak Cruisers watching the skies so your fleet doesn’t get chewed up by enemy aircraft. One starter box, multiple build options, maximum carnage on the Dystopian Age high seas.

If you somehow missed the new edition: Dystopian Wars is a miniatures wargame set in an alternate 19th century where super-science-fueled great powers clash over resources and dominion, on, above, and below the ocean. The new edition streamlined the rules without gutting the crunch (they trimmed the special-rule list from over 200 down to something a human being can actually memorize), and existing minis are still legal. Your old fleet doesn’t go in the bin. The Doctor approves of this policy; nothing can beat old age and betrayal, but at least your Imperium dreadnoughts get to die with dignity.

The Commonwealth Starter Set is already shipping this month, so if you want to get reps in before the Kaiser crashes the party, now is the time. High-5 to Warcradle for keeping the new-faction pipeline moving. Via: Warcradle Studios Blog

Next weekend, September 11-12, downtown Fergus, Ontario gets the full SteamPunk treatment. Cogs & Clockwork is back for its 4th annual run, and the lineup is not playing around: Steam Powered Giraffe headlines with ticketed shows at the Fergus Grand Theatre Friday and Saturday nights, fresh off their stint at Weekend at the Asylum. Professor Elemental and Johnny Sprocket from The Cog is Dead are also on the bill. That is, frankly, an embarrassing amount of talent for one Victorian street festival and I mean that as the highest possible compliment.

The daytime events are free, which is the correct price for robot races, teapot races, tea dueling, puppet shows, circus performers, a toy boat race, a scavenger hunt, and a chess match against an actual international chess master. Fashion shows and artist demos round it out on Provost Lane. And yes, there is a festival-exclusive red ale called Clockwork Rouge being poured at The Outpost taproom all weekend. A steampunk festival with its own bespoke beer is operating at a level the Doctor fully endorses. High-5, Fergus.

Fergus is about 100km west of Toronto, and the timing is cleverly staged the weekend before the Amherstburg festival, so if you are the kind of person who chain-runs steampunk events across Ontario (you know who you are, you glorious disaster), this is your double-header. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal, but a solid convention itinerary comes close. Via: Downtown Fergus

Twenty thousand goggles descended on Hannibal, Missouri this Labor Day weekend for the 11th Annual Big River Steampunk Festival, and if you slept on it again, that’s on you. Historic downtown Hannibal is basically a SteamPunk stage set that was already standing before anyone coined the term: steamboats on the river, Victorian architecture up and down Main Street, and the ghost of Mark Twain scowling at everyone for not reading enough. The Doctor approves of this venue on a cellular level.

The lineup this year included Nerf and Tea Dueling (which is the most perfect sentence in the English language), vaudeville shows, illusionists, a full costume contest, live music, workshops, and a Pet and Human Costume Parade on Monday morning because apparently even the dogs in Hannibal have aesthetic standards. Admission was free, with some ticketed events layered in, which means there is literally no excuse. None. You could have shown up in a corduroy blazer and a pair of goggles from the hardware store and called it a day. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal.

Worth noting: the city council tried to table the festival permit back in March (some councilmember had, apparently, never heard of having fun) and the community pushed back hard enough that it went through. Good. Hannibal without its SteamPunk weekend would be like a dirigible without a boiler: technically still a structure, completely useless. Mark your calendar for Labor Day 2027 and stop making excuses. High-5.

Via: The Steampunk Explorer