The City of Metronome
cancelled video game project
The City of Metronome was a cancelled 3D puzzle-platform game developed by Tarsier Studios. The game featured a young train-engineer named Tin, who had to use sound in order to solve puzzles and maneuver his way throughout an industrial city controlled by a mysterious corporation.
Gameplay was first featured at E3 2005 in its early-development stage. After failing to secure a publisher, the game was cancelled.
Features
The game was an artistic project inspired by several different sources, notably Studio Ghibli and The City of Lost Children. The story would have told itself through events, such as meeting new people and visiting new places. Both the game's official trailer and concept art reveal that the game would have taken place in a steampunk-based environment filled with grotesque humanoid characters. The game's plot was described briefly before its page was removed from the company's official website;
Venture into the city of Metronome, a sprawling mass of haphazardly built houses and huge steam engines where the outlandish inhabitants are carrying out their chores day and night. A city where the life of every citizen is dictated by the Corporation, a single bureaucratic entity that owns all the land, the entire infrastructure and all the industries.
The main characters consist of Tin, a train-engineer, and New, a young girl on the run from the Corporation that controls the city.
The public source identifies “The City of Metronome” as cancelled video game project. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around City, Metronome and cancelled.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “The City of Metronome”, the useful work is to connect “cancelled video game project” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4051000. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2005.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The City of Metronome”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The City of Metronome primary sources, The City of Metronome archive and City research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The City of Metronome”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The City of Metronome” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.