Hello! My name is Gemma and I’m the Community Manager for the beloved SteamWorld franchise from The Station & Thunderful Games.
I had the pleasure to sit down with Brjann Sigurgeirsson (Founder) Adam Vasse (Producer) and Elin Svensson (Associate Producer) to talk about the latest instalment, SteamWorld Build, and find out more about their vision for the game.
Thanks for joining me everyone. Let’s get right to it! Why did you choose a city builder? What took you in this direction?
Adam: When we were acquired by Thunderful they asked us “Hey, what can you bring to the table?” and we said “We’re good at doing city builders!” and that’s really how it all got started. We had two prototypes. I think both are really good, so we may use the other one in the future, who knows? But we ended up with this one which is now SteamWorld Build.
What interests you about the particular genre of city builder?
Adam: The genre is really cosy, but there is still an element of tactical gameplay tied to it. All of us at the Studio here in Karlshamn love to play a system driven game where it’s not so much focused on the narrative aspect and really that’s what inspired us.
Brjann: The previous games before SteamWorld Build typically take a genre and twist it around a little bit, and I think that’s what The Station presented when they pitched SteamWorld Build. It’s not just, as you know, a city builder. It’s also a dungeon crawler. It’s a wonderful mix of genres, so when they approached us we thought “Yes, of course, this is great!” It sounded great to us on paper, but it turned out even better. It’s so seamless in the way that it’s executed and the team has really pulled it off.
Adam: We knew that SteamWorld overall is a mix of different genres, so that was the approach we knew we also wanted to take when we started development.
Brjann: The setting itself works for the story and gameplay style too. Much like the settlers heading to the West, they are building a new world for themselves in an untouched land so to speak. Digging for gold during the gold rush. So being able to build a town, gather resources and also mine for minerals really works. It’s flawless. It’s obvious and amazing that nobody has thought to do this before.
There is a shortage of Dungeon Crawler games. Was the ability to add to that genre whilst experimenting with styles something that appealed to you?
Adam: Absolutely. First and foremost we were inspired by Dig 1 and Dig 2 because obviously that was focused on being underground and digging, so we had to use that. Then of course Dungeon Crawler games are a loved genre that have been forgotten about in more recent times, so we really wanted to revisit that since we know there is an audience for it.
Elin: I started working on the project a year after production had started, I came in thinking it looked so cute but also really cool that it lightly touches on all these genres and elements, Both a city builder and a dungeon crawler, without going too deep in either genres, which means players may find that they can go into the challenges of SteamWorld Build in a new way to what they would usually expect from these genres.
A deliberate move on your part then. How did you decide how much was going to be city builder and how much was going to be dungeon crawler?
Adam: One of the core pillars for the game, and overall the franchise itself, is the accessibility, so we couldn’t go too deep into either genre. We didn’t want to scare away new players that had never touched this genre before. We couldn’t lean too heavily into strategy, for example, because we wanted the game to be open to newcomers. It’s still complex, but it can also hold your hand along the way if you need it. You’ll be juggling different things and before you know it you’re saying “Oh, I guess I’m a city builder now!” and you didn’t notice.
Brjann: It does have tutorial elements that come along just at the right time, I think. You are introduced to something just when you feel you need it - you’re not entirely left to yourself and it makes sure you have a good understanding of the mechanics.
A core pillar of SteamWorld games is that they want to be a jumping point for people to move to other games within that genre. Do you think that accessibility is something you put a lot of thought into?
Brjann: Yes, certainly. I’d agree 100% that it is. The SteamWorld games centre around really tight gameplay, but then we also take on the pretentious role when it comes to accessibility of being like guides to new genres. We’ve received a lot of feedback from the community for every new genre we’ve introduced to SteamWorld. They are willing to give it a try because it’s a SteamWorld game. We have done the community a service here by teaching people how to play games - and love genres - they never thought they would.
Adam: Yes, we get a lot of comments during live streams and at events where we see people saying they would never have normally played a game like this, because it’s not their genre but since it’s a SteamWorld game they are willing to give it a go. Yeah, that feels really good.
Not only did you have to meet the demands of your core fan base, but also your new audience of city-builders too. How did you decide on what parts of the lore or story you were going to keep to make it a SteamWorld game?
Elin: We talked about this a lot, and we investigated different approaches from the start. We didn’t know if we wanted the game to have a heavy story tutorial or if we were going to do a lot of voice acting. We also knew that players who want to play a city builder maybe wouldn’t be so interested in a lot of talking and storytelling. We recorded a lot of voice work, but it didn’t feel quite right. In the end we chose to make a shorter story and let the Steamworld quirkiness shine through in the tutorials and also in the animations of the buildings and the environment - and that felt right. It suited the genre more.
Adam: Yes, we had all the recordings of the full story, but it didn’t feel quite right somehow - so I had to give Elin the difficult task of cutting 50% of the story, which was a brutal task, but it turned out to be the right decision in the end.
Brjann: It’s two very difficult genres to mix - text heavy RPG’s and city building - and in this one, it wasn’t the characters that are the main protagonists, it’s the town and it’s the buildings. It would have been a lot to say to the players that they have to pay attention to city buildings, but also ask them to read through a lot of dialogue. I think it was the right decision to narrow that down and focus on the city buildings. You hate to cut things. You’ll like a joke and want to keep it, or you’ll worry that someone won’t understand something if it’s removed. It’s really hard to do that.
Elin: After run-throughs, we realised that it would have been much much longer if we had kept all the narrative and dialogue, so it was better for us to just hint at the story because it pushes the player to just play and explore all the buildings, show don’t tell - because they are the real characters really. We really didn’t want people to lose immersion by having a long story and lots of dialogue to read.
Adam: We also talked about the idea of using the old characters, but that felt like a very big commitment, so instead we wanted to add our own characters and flirt a little with the old ones!
Brjann: And I think that’s good. It works. You know, [SteamWorld] Build takes place at the same time as SteamWorld Dig 2, so it would have been impossible to use the same characters really.
Would you say that cutting back on the story was one of your biggest challenges?
Elin: Yes. We had a lot of stories which I had to edit, and it’s really hard to edit when you are falling in love with it, falling in love with the characters and we really love them all. We got to know the original characters really well in the original games, but we had a task to do and I had to make sure all the informative bits were in place first, then work on the cute SteamWorld jokes and the personalities. People didn’t get tired of the Rust Bucket jokes and stuff. We love them! But we had to focus on the city-builder aspect of the game and think of what those players would want as well. You need some story, but you have to balance it. I think that it worked out really well.
SteamWorld Build will be released on PC, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and Xbox on December 1st.
Pre-orders for consoles are available now!
Wishlist it on steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2134770/SteamWorld_Build/