What is Dieselpunk and Why is it BETTER than Cyberpunk
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Dieselpunk is better than Cyberpunk, Solarpunk, Starfield and everything else.
(For legal reasons no Carmines were killed in the making of this video).
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Cyberpunk: Cool laser shotgun
Steampunk: Cool lightning hand cannon
Diselpunk: *75mm Assault Rifle*
Atompunk: I'll take all.
Atompunk: *Handheld nuclear warheads*
Solarpunk: Anti-Gravity projector that immobilizes someone for intensive negotiation and eventually psychological treatment, improving their life peacefully.
NASAPunk/Cassettepunk: Railgun.
Punk Punk. Yo dawg I heard you liked punk so I put punk in your punk for when you go punkin 😎
Biopunk: quite literally a disembodied c¥ck
>Talks about dieselpunk.
>does not talk about Iron Harvest or Generation Zero.
iron harvest is hands down one of th ebest dieselpunk pieces of media out there
Isnt generation zero more like retro futurism?
i was about to say that, especially in Iron Harvest and the scythe universe since all the mechs there were originally just farming equipment tech.
@@Randomusername56782 kinda a mix between, There also is a tiny bit of cyberpunk. MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW:
Since FNIX is like GLADOS in the way that the AI template was a human brain, it's also confirmed that a yet unseen side character was given a cybernetic leg by FNIX because of an injury she sustained due to her helping FNIX against the soviets.
@@titanfallgamerwithnotitanf8187 i see, I always kinda assumed generation zero was retro futurism because its set in the 80s and you mostly see 80s military equipment and appliances in the game. I always associated diesel punk with the WW2 and interwar eras.
“Atom Punk is just Fallout” yeah that’s probably the best way of explaining it.
Thing is
Fallout 1, 2, NV, 3 and Tactics
Or
4 and 76 ?
@@jetpilledmyron2056 Both are different faces of Atompunk, but are still Atompunk. Atompunk is less broad than Dieselpunk but as long as it has zany 60's-style tech and a general cold-war era vibe it's atompunk.
I think you could throw in Atomic Heart in there as a good exemple
Never played, so im not sure if it even uses nuclear technology. Even if it downet, it dose seem to fit the general asthetic.
@@Kain01able They do, they use ALOT.
the metro game series is a great example of almost pure diesel punk mixed with the aftermath of atomic punk
Plus, you fight both Red and Reich factions. Ever notice the RPD machine gun schematics throughout the Metro?
Agreed
METRO MENTIONED RAHHH WTF IS A BAD STORYLINE
The Orks from Warhammer 40k definitely have a Mad Max inspired Dieselpunk aesthetic, especially their vehicles and walkers
Your right but the orks don't use disale they use believing in something to work so yes but actually no
Genestealers have a similar aesthetic in some instances
The AdMech are literal walking, talking, breat... ok, filtering Dieselpunk people cranked up to 11
@@kellycrosby6062 that's a popularly misunderstood concept. The WAAAGH energies that masses of orks produce certainly does bend reality in their favor to a degree (such as vehicles painted red going faster), but some things keep even orks grounded to real world physics. An orks knowledge of science, engineering, and medicine is in their DNA which shows up in their weirdboyz (meks, mad doks, and such). They don't go to school or apprenticeships to learn these things, they just simply know it.
@@jetpilledmyron2056the admech is more like a mix-and-match between dieselpunk, steampunk, cyberpunk and atompunk they're cyborgs using wooden stocked guns that shoot radioactive bullets, have gas powered tanks, robot horses, their Society is a feudal empire mixed in with industrialists and corporate vibes etc,etc
Didn't mention the actual most famous Dieselpunk, like literally the image of Dieselpunk is Iron Harvest
Underated game
@@4epictimeabsoluteley, sad it got abandoned by devs after the whole "warmap" update
agreed, the artworks/ scythe are magnificent
I thought it was steampunk don’t the robots run of steam ? Also I thought that bioshock was considered biopunk
Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow, Mortal Engines, and The Rocketeer, are good examples.
I'm a fan of Stonepunk/Sandalpunk.
Stonepunk is essentially just Flintstones; everything powered by water, dinosaurs, wind, etc. A talking bird is your radio, a firebeetle is your lighter, torchbugs light the streets at night, which are traversed by mammoth "trucks", stedosaur schoolbuses, raptor taxis, etc.
It's a neat concept.
Now i kinda wanna see a world where this is the case but replacr animals and dions with demons and body horror monsters
So basically The Flinstones?
@@najlitarvan921then you should check out HR Geigers stuff and the game Scorn. It's full of those biomechanical body horrors where something like a train railway is made from spines
what about sandalpunk? is that like tactical turn based vietnamese resistance fighter or something?
@@najlitarvan921 Scorn is like that
The titans in Titanfall 1 show quite a lot of dieselpunk attributes. They have big exhaust pipes chugging out fumes and their structure is pretty bulky when comparing to Titanfall 2's titans which I'd argue, slot into the Nasapunk category
I agree, but some of the titan designs in titanfall 1 looked more like old nasa tech in sort of a mix between moon landers and the big puffy spacesuits
To me it seems like titans changed their design from titanfall 1 to 2 the same way that cars did from the older more curvy models to the newer models with sharper edges
Atomic Punk is pretty cool too, even if Fallout is pretty much the only major example of that genre. I am kind of interested in how Diesel punk and Nazi sci fi stuff tends to intermingle. Even though they aren’t codependent. There's also Bio-punk and Nano-punk.....cause you know. My favorite things that are diesel punk though? The Bioshock 1 and 2, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and Atlantis the Lost Empire.
Idk, I think Atomic Heart can be sonidered as the second major one!
@@Ocelot835 Very much what I have seen of it
Buck Rogers, Dan Dare and The Jetsons are pretty solid Atompunk
@@kerbal666 The Jetsons is retro-futurism. The "punk" part is usually something that challenges that.
@@gimmeyourrights8292 Exactly! But it wasn't when it came out. Make a grim version you get Atompunk. Same how gaslight fantacy became steampunk. Arguably you could say cyberpunk falls into re-fu because it its a vision of the future from the 80s. But yeah you're right about the punk suffix
I remember making an dieselpunk worldbuiling project when i was young, main inspiration of it came from the early 20th century aesthetic, blending militarism and cultural identity as the main theme. Since then i've also created a sequel for it, imagining what happend in that world after 100 years, taking inspiration from cold-war and military fantasy of metal gear solid.
Why don't you write a book or make a game with it then?
@@willywallyb2379 i've made a series of drawings and maybe a couple short stories, my writing skill is not the best so i focused more on the drawings
It was quite coincidental that this appeared in my recommendations right as I was drawing a dieselpunk dropship Zeppelin, lol.
EDIT: I posted the WIP under my post spotlight on Deviantart.
Fellow helghast
im sure a lot of people would love to see that
can you post it when its done plz
@@mickthick6170 I will, I've Been procrastinating about finishing it because I have been spreading Democracy in Helldivers 2. I will post it on my deviantart account when I'm done.
What's your Deviantart account called?
For anyone interested, I strongly recommend the artworks made by Keith Thompson for the diesel-punk and biopunk novel Leviathan.
Titles worth mentioning while at it:
Generation Zero: You're in Sweden and someone at Volvo misread the blueprints for 240 and started building death robots.
Iron Harvest: You're in central europe, it's 1920 and instead of tanks you have giant diesel-powered mechs.
High Fleet: Soviet-afghan war but every vechicle is just a pressurized methane tank with guns and rocket engines.
Heavily unerrated genre.
So, I'd Argue that Generation Zero and Simon Stalenhag's works aren't really fitting the Deaselpunk Genere, that are more Retro Futuristic, and kinda Post Cyberpunk esk
if you really want a decent example of diesel punk then you gotta try out HighFleet it is by far the best examples of diesel punk I've come to find
A game? I’ll have to look it up.
Also based pfp
@@Buster-McTunderany updates? What did you think?
@@JMonkey7575 bro forgor
Came here to say the same thing, Highfleet is amazing example of DP
@@druzhoksapozhok I think mixing it with like cold war era computer tech and missile warfare made the aesthetic of that game that much more unique while very much still being inspired. Plus there is of course the obvious Dune parallels to be made as well.
*sigh* the "punk" in all of these titles are meant to refer to the societal change and shift caused by the technology they refer to.
It's a reference to specific counter cultural movement of punk and the messages of freedom, self expression, artistic integrity, form over function and rebellion but like anything the term has been butchered to the point that people think that the "-punk" part of the name doesn't mean anything other than aesthetic like having your story include robot arms doesn't make it cyberpunk, no one on earth calls star wars a cyberpunk series
‘Sigh’ lol
That doesn’t seem to fit considering most -punk settings are well after tech development has halted.
@@Talon19
Except that they usually in the process of mass distribution in punk settings. How changes society. Or the problems arise from it. It's about how society actually adapts, or doesn't, to said tech. In many cases, it's about the exploitation of the tech by individuals that have society rocking effects.
@@BlondieHound1
Give some examples.
I stumbled upon Dieselpunk with the tabletop RPG system called Warbirds. VERY interesting type of game about being WWI/WWII style fighterpilots part of a guild set on another world where the carribean islands have been somehow transported into that world, floating high above a roiling depth made of combustable elements and even pressurized fuel in a gas form that can be harvested, etc.
Is it similar to DnD/Cyberpunk?
No, it's quite different. other statpool format, it's like, if the era of WWI-WWII never happened but continued for an extra 100 years or so. With floating islands and warplanes and pirate-groups, each island a nation (like cuba, or the florida keys. etc.@@Buster-McTunder
@@kinagrill oh I know what you mean as to the world being different I meant like is it the same kinda TTRPG game mechanics
ahh then no. different type of system. a bit more simple but not bad.@@Buster-McTunder
@@kinagrill I’ll have to check it out
True, dieselpunk is great.
I personally think Edwardian era slightly fantastical europe is a a very underrated aesthetic/world.
So half way between dieselpunk and steampunk, like right before or during ww1.
Iron harvest has ww1 with mechs, and honestly the trailer to that game manages to achieve what i imagine tanks originally did. We are so dissensitized to horrors of history that a bit of fantastical igredients can bring the same feeling that real events did when experienced first hand without knowledge in hindsight.
Also engine go whroom is always more badass than any of that electric crap
I think the game Lies of P might fit this genre.
Bioshock Infinite was a favorite of mine in this era
you mean Victorian, Edwardian is the american equivalent
Finally, something about dieselpunk in general.
First stumbled upon diesel punk when i watched sky captain and the world of tomorrow as a kid. I very quickly jumped into 40k after that. Cold iron will always beat neon
was about to say, no movie has ever been more dieselpunk then the the way that movie makes you feel watching it. something surreal, heavy, military, and clearly fictional at the same time.
Waiting for punkpunk
I'm actually going to suggest FashPunk, where conformity and dedication to the State is the new rebellion.
@@mattrobson3603 bourgepunk when
That would be interesting to read for a change @@mattrobson3603
I love Steampunk due to it's aesthetics. In my stories Steampunks are the leaders in social and cultural advancement. They don't have the problems of cyber and diesel punk. But instead they live in harmony, almost like solar punk. Using the power of nature to supply their power and technology to bring folks together.
Steampunk is the defacto "quirky gimmick faction" in any fantasy game, plus its overrated as fuck, dont get me started on cyberpunk.
Yeah, Steampunk are going to be very great at eco friendliness and making advancements, but it’s things like Dieselpunk that are usually going to be at war with someone (or themselves) that will force them to create new technologies to fight more efficiently (in a sense, still a dramatic waste of resources). It’s like, Steampunk are the scientists during peacetime and Dieselpunk are the U.S. Marines strapping 6 75mm recoilless rifles to a tank and calling it a bunker buster.
@@Filther-13whats wrong with cyberpunk?
@@Filther-13so you hate it just because it’s popular?
Corny ahh comment
The battle block music Goes hard
Demonpunk definitely needs to be a mainstream thing now. I can’t get enough of doom eternal’s aesthetics
Iron Warriors from Warhammer 40k use demons to fuel theyr machines, so I think they count.
@@mateuszbanaszak4671 The Iron Warriors🤝Union Aeroespace Corporation
Using demons and demonic energy as an energy source.
I really like dieselpunk, but i also really like the aesthetics of the Half-life combine
biopunk is a creepy cousin that no one invites to the cookout
That’s a good metaphor
Good video, and a great summary on dieselpunk
Just one small note to add:
Wh40k isnt diesel punk, oil and diesel are only rarely used, if ever, and the aesthetic is quite a bit different from other diesel punk worlds.
Also theres generally some sort of technological innovation in all punk genres, which isn't really a thing in 40k.
So im not entirely sure if wh40k fits within the diesel punk, or any punk genre in general.
Aside from that, great video
THANK YOU, I have been searching for this comment for 5 minutes and I totally think you are right, if that means.
Well, the imperium and orks are totally dieselpunk, and those two got innovations too (very slow but there they are)
Remember that time Myazaki made movie where dieselpunk society tried to reactivate biopunk monstrosity and was stoped by girl from solarpunk comunity with giant bug from spe-evo ecosystem.
My guy do I have a book for you. It's called Leviathan and it is not only probably one of the best books I have read but it scratched the diesel punk itch like there is no tomorrow. There is a grand total of 3 books in the set and I was hooked from the moment I started the fist chapter.
YOOOO! I remember reading that series! It was totally awesome!
hell yeah! i didn't remember the name, but it's what immediately came to mind when i saw this video!
Either way, The bad guys ALWAYS got the best uniforms...No wonder we like them!
I don’t think nootzies are indicative of Dieselpunk, as much as it is that WWII is the era in which the dieselpunk takes inspiration from. In the same way that Victorian England is not indicative of steampunk per se, but the most fitting and easy setting in which to introduce steampunk elements.
Personally I always prefer my dieselpunk to be a more WWI flavor than it’s sequel.
(misspelling to avoid UA-cam censors)
I think soviets are actually a better example of diesel punk aesthetic than the Nazis, they have that heavy torchcut and crude vibe to just about everything they made. Honeslty though anything WW1, interwar or WW2 era is prime diesel punk material but i feel the soviets capture the brutal heft the best
As a 40k fan hearing your take on the technological stagnation of the Imperium, it... I want to correct you... Ah, fuck it.
Not only did technology not advance much between the 31st Millennium and the 41st Millennium, it actually degraded. The people of the 31st Millennium were canonically more advanced than those of the 41st. This wasn't an accident on the writers' part, but rather, was a deliberate follow-up on the introduction into the setting, "Forget the power of science and technology, for so much has been forgotten, never to be relearned."
Now, you present the hypothesis that it's due to constant warfare preventing technological progress, but no. That's canonically, and even logically not the issue. In fact, under normal circumstances, it would likely see the development of even more advanced technologies. And besides, the vast landscapes of blasted wastelands and battlefields that we tend to imagine are actually... Not that common in the Imperium. Yes, warfare exists throughout, but rarely to the scale and devastation that conflict between the majour factions of the galaxy may cause on a given planet (in fact, such planets that deal with such conditions have their own unique classification under the Adeptus Administratum as War Worlds).
Rather, it's a deliberate stagnation caused by one of the factions within the Imperium. And while you made a close guess, it's not the Adeptus Ministorum/Ecclesiarchy (the primary religious institution within the Imperium) nor the Adeptus Astartes (the Space Marines). In fact, both factions are very keen on the idea of having better technology than they presently have. No, the real faction that causes the stagnation and prevents advancement is ironically the exact same one that makes the Imperium more advanced, maintains their technology, and introduces more advanced technologies on occasion; the Adeptus Mechanicus. They straight-up view invention and innovation as the most abhorrent sins imaginable, and they're the ones in charge of the Imperium's technology because no one else knows how to work, maintain, and repair it. They've banned such technological progress as heresies, and thus, the Imperium's only hope for technological advancement is through the discovery of STCs from the Golden Age of Technology, which admittedly, are actually really damn advanced.
Looks like my searches finally caught up to me, working on a dieselpunk TTRPG.
i thought i was watching a youtuber with atleast 100k subs crazy how underrated u are
It means a lot, and i wish but the game is to make stuff I wanna share, numbers ain’t everything
I noticed that too. Only 718 subs!? This video looks way too good to have less than at least 100k subs.
Only critique I’d have is trying to expand it too much, genres have effect bc they’re limited, if u try to put everything in then it no longer counts (I’d say dieselpunk has 2 requirements, aesthetic being one, but the critiques of militarism and fascism being just as important)
In the same way that pro corporate cyberpunk isn’t really cyberpunk, idk if pro war diesel punk is rly dieselpunk
@@robbagel54Pro corp cyberpunk is either cyberprep or post-cyberpunk. The best examples I can think of rn are Toaru Majutsu for the former, and Ergo Proxy for the latter.
Probably the perfect example for for diesalpunk; run on war, based on oil, fascist overlords, is that of 1984. While I know it's a bit of a cliche at this point, it still perfectly fits the bill.
Ngl, I wish there were more dieselpunk games/media out there. The only Dieselpunk media that comes to my mind often is that funny comic about a group of red soldiers fighting an endless war against Blue, Yellow, and random mutants & bandits. Basically, the world is apocalyptic with a hint of Eldritch since in one of the comics, they seem to find "things" that are essentially Scps. But they don't care or they get killed, and the comic tends to move to another group of red soldiers constantly. Making us question "What happen to the previous red soldiers group?"
You unlocked such a memory rn. What was that comic called? I remember reading it like 14 years ago. Kinda reminds me of Girls Last Tour btw.
Its called Gone With The Blastwave
funny, this video came up when I was drawing a dieselpunk armor set
It knows
This comment is underrated
tell me you're biased without telling me you're biased
Buster:
I mean… yes? 😅
I think theyre both amazing
Bit the image of a 75mm AT gun or a massive flak gun serving a dual purpose opening fire on Mecha is some of THE COOLEST things in Media
Man I hope you get 1k subs because you are definitely capable of making great content, well done and have a good one!
Here’s to hoping, might be a minute before the next video but locking in for something more substantial
I think dieselpunk and atom punk sort of fit together. Like if you look at fallout the vehicles (including power armor) may be powered by nuclear engines, but the tanks and vertiberds are so tough and thick that they could easily fit into a diesel punk setting, same with power armour just if it had been powered by gas. Same with some of the weapons, like the one that just shoots junk, or the artillery that the minutemen use or even the prydwen.
I always thought of diesel punk as
“Late WW1 / WW2 inspired futuristic”
And yeah, that sums up the aesthetic a lot.
It is funny (and morbid) to imagine that Jules Verne indirectly created Steampunk, and Gavrilo Princep created Dieselpunk by starting WWI, killing the Belle Epoque.
By the way, it is always refreshing to see someone on YT who isn't afraid of putting actual Swastikas on a video, instead those Iron Crosses.
Other Diesel Punk ideas/titles that could have been mentioned are "Sky Crawlers" series, "Valkyria Chronicles" series, "Last Exile" (though less diesel in these last 2, but they still follow the fossil fuel idea with a use of 1920's-1940's tech), High Fleet, Factorio, and the last one I got is Foxhole.
Dieselpunk is my favorite genre of punk, Steam and cyber kinda fight for 2nd depending on my mood but Diesel will always catch my heart
Dieselpunk in my opinion is basically a remix of retro-futurism. Retro-futurism is like that sweet wholesome Christmas song you hear every now and then, and Dieselpunk is heavy metal remix of that song. It's industrial, it's grimy, it's lived in and it's badass! Raypunk is the EDM version of the metal remix of said Christmas song. Cyberpunk is just pure dubstep.
"Captain America: The First Avenger" and "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" are what got me into -punk stuff in the first place
dieselpunk is cool but i honestly prefer biopunk, i just love how gross it all is
This is also cool, I mean they’re all cool. Tyranids are dope
Combining all punks would be absolutely mad.
I'd love it.
There is a fantastic representation of Diesel Punk almost to the letter: Trench Crusade.
As one working on a diesel akin to *Wolfenstein* and *Warhammer 40k*, I can attest that I feel like we’re living in some twisted parody of a dieselpunk world. Ă.Ă
Peak diesel punk is whatever the 40k Orks in happen to be doing at the moment.
Despite its flaws i think that CoD Vanguard nailed the Dieselpunk aesthetics with its Gunsmithing, a shame the campaign couldn't keep up.
Steampunk: Cogs, gears, airships, steam engine magic that makes everything works.
(BioShock series)
Cyberpunk: Dystopian near future, cybernetics, "high-tech, low-life", corporates
(Cyberpunk 2077, Deadlink)
Dieselpunk: WW1 - Interwar with technological advancements out of relative time with its time aesthetics.
War, mechs, super tech, politics.
(Iron Harvest, Scythe, Wolfenstein)
My first introduction to the concept of dieselpunck was Scott Westerfield’s Leviathan series.
Known about dieselpunk for a while, a book series called leviathan introduced it to me. Don't know if it holds up
A really good book series that incorporates Dieselpunk is the "Leviathan" series written by Scott Westerfeld, it takes place right around the beginning of ww1, and may or may not also include some aspects of biopunk, I highly recommend reading it if your into Dieselpunk!
I think ultrakill fits this perfectly from the artsyle to the world history except instead of gasoline it all runs on blood
We are living in dieselpunk right now. Sitting here and watching a Boeing 777 taxi in
1:12 Putting Starfield instead of Star citizen has to be blasphemy
Facts I don't play star citizen sadly but I can agree with you
So Cyberpunk phrase was coined in the 70s and later defined in the 80s to mean Cyber = Technology, Punk = Rebel or more precisely Counter Culture. I suspect as the genre is finally becoming more mainstream (been a fan since the beginning) and expanding the meaning is broadening. But lets not water it down to much. I tend to stick to the format of X + Counter Culture, if it doesn’t have that then it doesn’t really fit the SomethingPunk. Take Starfield = NasaPunk, this is inconsistent, Starfield is just Scifi or Space Opera, there is no counter culture in Starfield… but then this is all conjecture you call it what you want, it’s all subjective.
Maybe a little biased, but I really like steampunk best. The machinery is elegant in design and function, can be just as much art as it is practical.
There's sense of optimism, the feeling you can do literally anything if only you can fashion the right machines to help you.
It's when tech still had the aura of man-made magic, before everything got chunky and drab as in dieselpunk, and we felt things could only get better and better.
Then things like the Titanic disaster and World War 1 happened, and it all came crashing down to earth.
Guess I'm a sucker for shiny brass and copper trim...
I do think there could be a bit more grime to steampunk, while the Victorian era high societ and fashion are mesmerizing and very nice it is also when the Industrial Revolution was occurring, when factories were becoming a big part of society but safety standards where not fully realized yet, child labor was a thing, and class divide
A lot of that is still with us today in the real world, and a lot nearer to home than most might realize.
I like to be a craftsman, to create, and in dieselpunk the creations always seem to be built in the service of war, and in cyberpunk the soulless mega-corps' bottom lines. Solar and nasa punk, everything is either from the Apple Store or from Radio Shack respectively, it has no soul and half the time you've no idea how it even works.
In steampunk, you build an intricate automaton to serve tea just because you can. You work with steam, and any steam engine is about as close as we've ever gotten to imbuing a machine with the breath of life itself.
Grit's there in steampunk, just ask any stoker or mechanician, but to my mind the harshness and grittyness can get depressing when it's overdone, to the point where it's misery porn ala Warhammer 40k lore (and I happen to like 40k, oddly enough. Just wouldn't wanna live there!).
Speaking as a writer, the distinction within settings, namely Cyberpunk, Steampunk, and Dieselpunk is more or less the level of technology and the worldbuilding itself.
Cyberpunk is usually several _years_ into the future, with sleek designs and overarching dystopic vibes. There's very much an emphasis on style and angles, where everything is bleeding edge.
Steampunk is usually _Post_ industrial revolution where everything is stylized, but it works. It's _just_ advanced enough to seem plausible, but still takes its liberties (usually in fantasy) with things such as magic, or exotic energy sources.
Diesel punk is often _during_ an industrial revolution, or post, post Industrial revolution. Everything is grimy, grungy, and serves a distinct function over form. Weapons and vehicles are blocky, or stripped down to their bare parts.
Worldbuilding is also very much a factor in these settings. With Cyberpunk worlds, a lot of the times it comes down to corporate entities who rule over the city and there's a distinct separation of class. With a lot of the times it being a social commentary on what the current world is facing. Steampunk, by contrast is usually about the _wonders_ of technology and how its "Made life for the better" with different companies competing for approval, the distribution of the latest tech, and focuses on the blending of modern sciences with fantastical elements. Usually you'll have different groups all sort of vying for control over the latest substance, and complex groups within each of these different factions at play.
Dieselpunk, once again, by contrast is mainly all about resources and the different groups trying to get them. Usually you will have an overarching narrative such as post-war world, or one that is _during_ a war. With dieselpunk, everything is or could be invented within the next 20-30 years. If the saying is "America runs on dunkin'" then dieselpunk runs on, well, diesel. Or the very least some variation of Gas, oil, or fuel. Everything in a Dieselpunk world usually has a very industrial look to it. Beit large walking mechs that are used as loaders for construction sites, big fuel silos that are fracking and refining resources. Everything has some kind of function and rarely if ever is used beyond that. And that, IMO is what makes Dieselpunk such an underrated Genre that I wish we had a lot more of.
Doom Dark Ages will be the greatest example of why Doom is Dieselpunk in my opinion... but Demonpunk is an absurdly cool term to characterize it too.
I'd personally argue you could have dieselpunk even without the presence of nazis. Iron Harvest lacks nazis but is pretty hard in dieselpunk territory.
I'd argue Dieselpunk, as I'd define it, contains the following:
1. Mass, almost dependent usage, on diesel machines. Often times the bigger the better but pragmatic design can also shine through.
2. Cynicism. The light of hope almost completely smothered by war, death, plague, smog, despair, society, and choking smoke. Where steampunk and solarpunk promise the raising up of humanity by the progress of technology, the dieselpunk story will show that same technological salvation bury mankind.
3. The weight of society and government crushing more and more individuality and freedom. While it's especially obvious in settings where an authoritarian regime is in charge the same exists for the liberal states too. Rationing, drafts, internment camps, suspension of elections due to wartime concerns, paranoia due to fear of spies. These measures were taken in the UK under Churchill with Clement Attlee's assistance. And even without war there's crime and corruption (see the LA Quartet to see how bad that can get)
You like making The Proud Boys angry because you think they're nazis
I like making The Proud Boys angry because they're feds
We are not the same.
Also when Solarpunk/Lunarpunk video, luv me Lunarpunk
Only the feds could come up with a boys club that will beat you until you can name 5 breakfast cereals.
Star wars is raypunk with an aesthetic that is technically NASA punk with a healthy dose of diesel and cyberpunk.
Which is probably why I tend to enjoy a lot of these genres, since I do love star wars.
I would Love you If you would have included Iron harvest footage
Dieselpunk and Atompunk are my favorites. The technology is so cool looking
You mentioning and playing some Three Days Grace hit me right in my childhood :")
Biopunk has always been one of my fav punk aesthetics…reseident evil and bioshock 1 are prime examples and for those unawares focuses on the advancement of biotechnology
I think a good example of dieselpunk is BattleTech / MechWarrior. True they're spacefaring and it can lead more into NASA punk but considering that all the max are powered by Diesel and militarism is that its height and an intergalactic wars. Plus there's a common saying among mechwarriors is "kill the meat save the metal"
I saw the title for a split second and thought it was a vid about dieselpatches
One of my favorite factions in Warframe, the Grineer are just straight up dieselpunk mixed in with half-life 2 beta art
Their machines are held together by ductape and wires, their soldiers looks like they are ready to fall apart and blow up, and their environments are just smog-filled industrial areas
Cyberpunk is basically “sci fi future” but corporate
Steampunk is basically “sci fi future” but we kept that 90’s aesthetic and we also mainly use steam
Solar punk is basically “sci fi future” but it’s literally just a utopia
Atom punk is basically “post-nuclear sci fi future”
Nasapunk is basically “realistic sci fi” or something among those lines
Diesel punk is basically “sci fi future” but we went “fuck it” and went ham on the industrial design and used that design aesthetic *everywhere*
the funny thing is that we actualyhad a dieselpunk moment in history and not a short one WWI
Iron harvest RTS game is also dieselpunk
I think I’ve seen it, it looks like Sythe, right?
@@Buster-McTunderit is scythe, but under a different name
@@Buster-McTunder yes
@@Buster-McTunder what are your thought on the scrin from command and conquer and the zebesian from metroid series.
@@jamespaguip5913 I’ll be honest I’m not familiar with either of those
Dieselpunk has a technological age requirement. It's specifically an industrial revolution era thing.
In "flight of the Eisenstein" gravity sling is treated like an ancient, forgotten, deep lore of spacefaring. Explanation is that fuel is so abundant that nobody needs to think about that stuff.
So basically:
Steampunk - 1880s - 1920s
Dieselpunk - 1930s - 1940s
Atompunk - 1950s - 1960s
Cyberpunk - 1970s - 1990s
"Brother, why have our guns not changed in ten thousand years?"
"Because the last time we tried somrthing new our toasters tried to stab us to death!"
Shane Acker's '9' is a pretty good example. Acker calls the characters "Stitchpunks," but the world definitely goes all-in on the Dieselpunk aesthetic.
1:45 / 5:36 / 6:57 Sounds more like the Soviet Union with its city-size factory complexes, brutalist architecture, statist bureaucracy, social collectivism, and soul-crushing command economy.
3:48 The Bolshies did the same thing.
4:21 Why democracy? Why not republicanism?
5:05 8-2-10-Z-N
5:16 8-10-Z-N
6:53 The irony is that Nazis - at least in their rhetoric and propaganda - would claim all that sort of thing was due to "Jewish capitalists" or whatever (Bolshies used the same anti-Semitic arguments). Nazis fancied themselves as neo-pagan naturalists. Granted, they were good with tech, but that's a German thing, not a fash thing. Germans were good with tech before and after National Socialism.
7:37 Why do so many right-handed characters in third-person games sling their gear left-handed? Especially long guns worn on the back, but sometimes it's other things like left-handed gas masks being worn by right-handed characters in worlds where everyone's right-handed (like Krieg from Borderlands 2 and The Pyro from Team Fortress 2). It's even infected other media like 'The Mandalorian'!
7:58 That falls within the purview of Soviet brutalism. However, don't utilitarianism and aerodynamics both fall within the purview of ergonomics? Ergo, they ought not contradict each other. More like a min-max thing if they're combined just right.
this implies a medival fantasy "Steelpunk" where all technology is just gears, rope, blades and levers used in clever ways.
Brutal Industrialist Utilitarian War cooking with high octane petrol.
Right of the start, wrong! NASApunk and Cassette Futurism are two different things.
NASApunk is sci-fi with the aesthetic of what we had in space in early XXIc till now. A mix of touch screens, analog controls, cables. Basically, how ISS looks today. So, Starfield, and all sci-fi movies, where our tech looks like it hasn't advanced much in the last XX years into the future it takes place.
Cassette Futurism, is sci-fi with the tech of 80s and early 90s. 100% analog, CRT screens, almost nothing is wireless, and if it is, it's the size of a suitcase. It's Alien, Blade Runner.
"as someone who takes great joy in making the Proud Boys angry, I fucking love it"
Same XD
Nice Heroforge model right at the end it's good for oc and pfps alike
Everyone ALWAYS talks about the Victorian Era influence on Steampunk, but no one EVER talks about the Edwardian Era, which is arguably far more influential on the genera.
Automobiles, Voice Communication, Electricity, Rigid Airships (as we know them), are all Edwardian Era
I actually want to see more Arcanepunk, sure you can say any fantasy world is arcanepunk but arcanepunk is rarely known.
"Undead Nazi's count too" is the funniest line ever!
brother, gasoline being important in a world doesn't mean that world is Dieselpunk
I think factorio is the peak of dieselpunk, must expand factory, must mine more oil, must kill bugs.
Thanks for this overview of dieselpunk (& some of the others--holy crap there are so many!) I would not have thought of Warhammer 40K as dieselpunk, but it kinda fits. What I like about dieselpunk mainly is that it seems more plausible than steampunk, which, unless you're talking about tanks, submarines and airships, just doesn't work. And I've seen too many steampunk fans who doll themselves up with *junk* that has no purpose, let alone function (like costume jewelry.🤮) Also, femfans who dress up in dieselpunk are way sexier than steampunk. Okay, NASApunk and atompunk are pretty cool, but, like HALO, they're based on undiscovered "science" and are pretty much just general SF of "could be." Dieselpunk is the past that *could have been.*
For me I think that there are in between periods for punk eras not mentioned much. Like how Teslapunk is the period between Steampunk and Dieselpunk as people move away from steam to electricity and the energy sources used to power electricity. Also, Steelpunk being an in between era between Atompunk and Cyberpunk as the war torn period and spycraft of the Atompunk era starts moving more toward the use of increasingly miniature and complicated electronics and equipment that will eventually lead to the hyper electronic based era of Cyberpunk.
Good examples of Teslapunk would be games like Close to the Sun, and Bioshock Infinite as both games use elements of Steampunk and Dieselpunk with a hefty use of electricity and similar elements of designs of the post Victorian Era and up to the first world war.
Good examples of Steelpunk would be movies like Robocop and the classic Terminator movies. Both have elements of Atompunk as there is some semblance of nuclear power being used still and it takes place in the late and post Cold War era. Also there are elements of Cyberpunk creeping in as both movies involve powerful mega corporations that have a high level of control and / or the ability to ruin the world, and there are increasing levels of things like computers, hacking, and early internet usage.
Love the font in the thumbnail, can you share which one you used?
I believe it’s called “Jared” on the Pixlr suite
Dr. Slump is the ultimate diesel punk, she runs on gasoline haha
You really forgot about dishonored as THE dieselpunk setting? Everything being dark, grimy and covered in wale oil... rats devouring people whole... everyone being in debt to a fascist state full of creepy elites... makes me feel at home.
I honestly have no idea how I missed this, Dishonored goes hard
@@Buster-McTunder another fun mention would be the Fire Nation from Avatar. Hypermilitarised, warmongers, industrial style war machines, rivets everywhere. Only thing missing is the diesel itself, but those combustion engines work pretty well with magic fire king fu.
I have realised that the punks are just the image that certain eras had of the future. Cyberpunk is the 80' future, neon lights, lasers. vaporwave. Atompunk, the vision of the 50' and the 60'. Diselpunk, the vision of the 30' and the 40'.
Dieselpunk is so cool, Wolfenstien is probably the best DieselPunk game since it does the aesthetic perfectly
Doesn't dieselpunk lose its identity, if you are stretching it so far that when a "complex chunky machine", "Nazi's" or a "gas powered chainsaw" is existant, thus it is dieselpunk? You might see it as a plus, though I find that to be a minus as that sounds like it waters down the aesthetic and vibe.
Personally, I prefer cyberpunk (genre) for the message, the feeling, the realness it can have.
This does apply to basically any of the Punks, which is true. But that’s why I tried to make the point that these definitions are as arbitrary as we make them.