SteamWorld is an anthology series of video games created by Image & Form. All games depict the adventures of a race of steam-driven robots in a post-apocalyptic steampunk world, with different genres for each game, ranging from action and strategy to role-playing and simulation.

Story overview

The story of SteamWorld begins in a post-apocalyptic Earth, where human society has fallen into collapse. SteamWorld Tower Defense tells the story of a huge war between humans and robots for the control of Earth. After a long conflict, the robots prevented the human invasion and the surviving humans took refuge in the underground. Since then the bots began forming a civilization reminiscent of the American Old West, with the upper classes composed of bots running on petrol, while the lower classes run on coal to survive. In SteamWorld Dig, a robot miner called Rusty inherits his uncle's mine and begins digging all the way to the ruins of an ancient race of electronic bots called the "Vectron", who is reactivated with his arrival. To prevent the Vectron from taking over the surface, Rusty defeats them, but disappears.

In SteamWorld Dig 2, a young robot girl called Dorothy who is Rusty's friend, looks for Rusty's whereabouts and discover that he was captured by the Humans, who intend to take control of the Vectron technology to reclaim the surface. However, the Vectron reactor in their possession overloads, causing a chain reaction that destroys Earth, with Rusty and Dorothy surviving by boarding one among several rockets created to evacuate the bots from the planet. The creation of one of these rockets is shown in SteamWorld Build, where a mysterious robot called Core guides a bot population to settle near an old mine where they dig up parts of a rocket. Once the rocket is completed, Core reveals himself as part of the Vectron Hivemind who infiltrates the rocket's systems as they take the city's inhabitants to safety.

List of SteamWorld games

TitleYearPlatform(s)Genre(s)
SteamWorld Tower Defense2010Nintendo DSiReal-time strategy, tower defense
SteamWorld Dig2013Nintendo 3DS, Microsoft Windows, macOS, LinuxPlatformer, action-adventure, metroidvania
2014PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U
2015Xbox One
2018Nintendo Switch
2020Stadia
SteamWorld Heist2015Nintendo 3DSTurn-based strategy, action-adventure
2016Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, iOS
2017Nintendo Switch
2020Stadia
SteamWorld Dig 22017Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation VitaPlatformer, action-adventure, metroidvania
2018Nintendo 3DS, Xbox One
2020Stadia
SteamWorld Quest2019Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, macOS, LinuxRole-playing, deck-building
2020Stadia
SteamWorld Build2023Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/SConstruction and management simulation
SteamWorld Heist II2024Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/STurn-based strategy, action-adventure
SteamWorld: HeadhunterOn holdTBAAction-adventure

External links