“If I have to hold my arm in this position for one more minute, I think I’ll cry.”

Russian developer Katauri Interactive has spotted a gap (let’s call it a hairline fracture) in the market for yet another fantasy themed MMO. Royal Quest takes place in kingdom besieged by greedy alchemists desperate to strip the land of its mystical ore. Rumour has it that the alchemists plan to use their ill-gotten gains to alter the name of the game to something marginally less generic, but this cannot be confirmed at this stage. Anyhow, the King has decreed that you and your fellow adventurers are to end this menace once and for all.

Katauri’s concept artists have provided Royal Quest with a much needed spark. Tentacle-armed clock men and top hat wearing cyborgs inhabit a world that feels like a fusion of SteamPunk and Alice in Wonderland. Sadly, this adventurous spirit doesn’t appear to have been carried over to the game itself, at least on the evidence of in-game screenshots released thus far.

Royal Quest is due for release on PC in autumn 2012. Publisher 1C Company is yet to announce a pricing model.