For Christmas I bought the iOS game "80 Days". It is a Choose Your Own Adventure-style game based off Jules Verne's "Around the World in 80 Days", and it's really fun - I've already completed 5 or so trips around the world, from London to back.
But what I found most intriguing about the game is its setting. It is set in a steampunk world with numerous political and technological differences - there is a society called the Artificers which is mostly responsible for all the innovations seen, and as a result airships dominate the skies, experimental ships and submersibles cross the seas, and submersible and even levitating railways are king on land, in addition to numerous other mechanical monstrosities seen throughout the game.
Having played through several times, here's all the political changes I have noted:
- The Franco-Prussian War happened more or less like OTL
- Burma successfully resisted British attempts to conquer it
- The Zulus under Cetshwayo conquered (at least) numerous parts of the British Cape Colony, including Port Elizabeth (Bhayi), possibly even annexing the entire Cape Colony, expanded as far north as Zanzibar, and reformed into a federation
- The Orange Free State joined the Zulu Federation as its only white-majority state, and practices slavery
- Aceh was conquered by the Dutch, but an uprising against the Dutch has formed, and has even reached Batavia
- The Trans-Siberian Railway (now called the Trans-Siberian Express) and Orient Express are completed early
- Belgrade is utterly destroyed, with a rag-tag Serbian resistance fighting the Austro-Hungarians
- The Ottomans and Egyptians are both fiercely independent, but are brilliant airship builders
- Iran (Persia) is in an alliance with the Ottoman Empire
- Haiti is a regional power in Central and South America
- The French are at war with Mexico, as they are shown bombarding Acapulco
- Vancouver is called Gastown
- Porto-Novo is a hub for slavers
- Agra is (apparently) a walking city
- A sea monster (the Nautilus, commandered by Captain Nemo no less) haunts the coasts of southeastern Africa
That's all I remember. Based on this information, shall we try to develop a timeline which can perhaps illustrate how this happens? I know the setting is pretty ASB, so let's try to make this as plausible as we can.
But what I found most intriguing about the game is its setting. It is set in a steampunk world with numerous political and technological differences - there is a society called the Artificers which is mostly responsible for all the innovations seen, and as a result airships dominate the skies, experimental ships and submersibles cross the seas, and submersible and even levitating railways are king on land, in addition to numerous other mechanical monstrosities seen throughout the game.
Having played through several times, here's all the political changes I have noted:
- The Franco-Prussian War happened more or less like OTL
- Burma successfully resisted British attempts to conquer it
- The Zulus under Cetshwayo conquered (at least) numerous parts of the British Cape Colony, including Port Elizabeth (Bhayi), possibly even annexing the entire Cape Colony, expanded as far north as Zanzibar, and reformed into a federation
- The Orange Free State joined the Zulu Federation as its only white-majority state, and practices slavery
- Aceh was conquered by the Dutch, but an uprising against the Dutch has formed, and has even reached Batavia
- The Trans-Siberian Railway (now called the Trans-Siberian Express) and Orient Express are completed early
- Belgrade is utterly destroyed, with a rag-tag Serbian resistance fighting the Austro-Hungarians
- The Ottomans and Egyptians are both fiercely independent, but are brilliant airship builders
- Iran (Persia) is in an alliance with the Ottoman Empire
- Haiti is a regional power in Central and South America
- The French are at war with Mexico, as they are shown bombarding Acapulco
- Vancouver is called Gastown
- Porto-Novo is a hub for slavers
- Agra is (apparently) a walking city
- A sea monster (the Nautilus, commandered by Captain Nemo no less) haunts the coasts of southeastern Africa
That's all I remember. Based on this information, shall we try to develop a timeline which can perhaps illustrate how this happens? I know the setting is pretty ASB, so let's try to make this as plausible as we can.
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