SteamWorld Heist Announced For Nintendo 3DS; Is A Turn-Based Strategy Game

SteamWorld Dig developer Image & Form have revealed their next game, titled SteamWorld Heist. The game is a turn-based strategy title scheduled for release in Spring 2015.

SteamWorld Heist takes place some time after Dig. A cataclysmic event has shattered the planet and forced its population into spaceships. Water is hard to come by, and heisting other ships and bases is the only way to get by. Once you board an enemy ship, the turn-based battle aspect comes into play.

In an interview with Nintendo of Europe, Image & Form point out how the game tries to set itself apart from other turn-based strategy titles.

“One of the key features of the game is the free aiming system,” says lead designer Olle Håkansson. “As far as I know, there are no other turn-based strategy games that do this. You have to aim really carefully before you fire, but you can also bounce shots off the walls, so that’s a really good way of getting those enemies in cover.”

“Heist isn’t a sequel to SteamWorld Dig,” said Image & Form CEO Brjann Sigurgeirsson in a press release sent to Siliconera. “It’s set in the same world and the cowbots are still the heroes. But a lot has happened to SteamWorld since then, and we want to make a game that is radically different.”

“Partly because we really wanted to make a turn-based strategy game, but also because it felt like a clever move. The obvious follow-up would’ve been Dig 2; we wanted to surprise instead.”

SteamWorld Heist is in development for multiple platforms, although Nintendo 3DS (confirmed in the Nintendo interview) is the only platform that has been officially announced thus far.