''SteamWorld'' is an anthology series of
video game
A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
s created by
Image & Form
Image & Form International AB was a Swedish video game developer based in Gothenburg. The company was founded by Brjánn Sigurgeirsson in 1997 and formed the Thunderful group with Zoink in 2017. In 2020, Image & Form was integrated into Thun ...
. All games depict the adventures of a race of steam-driven robots in a
post-apocalyptic
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction are genres of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronom ...
steampunk
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and Applied arts, aesthetics inspired by, but not limited to, 19th-century Industrial Revolution, industrial steam engine, steam-powered machinery. Steampun ...
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
''SteamWorld Tower Defense'' is a tower defense video game by Swedish video game developer Image & Form. It was released digitaIIy on Nintendo DSi in North America, Europe and Australia on July 5, 2010. It is the first game released in the ''Stea ...
'' 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
''SteamWorld Dig'' is a platform action-adventure game created by Swedish video game developer Image & Form. The second installment in the '' SteamWorld'' series after '' SteamWorld Tower Defense'', ''SteamWorld Dig'' has the player control Ru ...
'', 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
''SteamWorld Dig 2'' is an action-adventure platform video game developed and published by Image & Form. It is the fourth installment in the ''SteamWorld'' series of games and the direct sequel to 2013's ''SteamWorld Dig''. It was first released ...
'', 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
''SteamWorld Build'' is a city-building dungeon crawling video game developed by The Station and published by Thunderful Publishing. An installment in the ''SteamWorld'' series, the game was released for Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 ...
'', where a mysterious robot called Core guiding 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
References
External links
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Video game franchises introduced in 2010
Video games set on fictional planets
Indie games
Steampunk video games
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