As for what the announcement could be, there’s SteamWorld Headhunter, a 3D, third-person co-op adventure, which appears to have a Wild West motif. Publisher Thunderful Games revealed last year that four SteamWorld games, including Headhunter, were in development. A few months later, it teased “Caramel”, a turn-based strategy shooter for PC, which may be a sequel to SteamWorld Heist.

Perhaps we’ll learn more about the other titles in development. Thankfully, it won’t be a long wait, so stay tuned for more details. The last major SteamWorld title was SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech, a turn-based RPG with deck-building mechanics for Nintendo Switch and PC.

Turn-based tactics shooter SteamWorld Heist launched originally back in 2016, and has been ported over to multiple platforms in the years since then. Now, it looks like a sequel might be in the works. When asked about a possible SteamWorld Heist 2 on Twitter, Thunderful Games responded that it “might have some stuff planned” for fans of the tactics game.

Interestingly, of the three unannounced SteamWorld games currently in development at Thunderful, one – codenamed “Caramel” – has been described as a turn-based strategy shooter in development for PC, consoles, and mobile devices, and due out by 2024. That very much sounds like a SteamWorld Heist follow-up.

Of course, until such time something gets officially announced, it’s best to keep your expectations in check. When that announcement will come remains to be seen, but we’ll be keeping an eye out for more details, so stay tuned.

https://twitter.com/Thunderfulgames/status/1547513540738703360

Via IGN, we get to see what is essentially the game’s beginning. You’ll see the start by landing on a planet that is in the midst of a storm where you first see the titular gunk. There isn’t a whole lot of combat, but we do get to see how you clean up the gunk as well as traverse the area. The big thing is the introductions to the game’s characters and how they interact. You can check it out in full below.

The Gunk will be available on December 16th for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC. It will also launch on both versions of Game Pass.

By contrast, The Gunk is a fully 3D action adventure that focuses on exploration and combat as it does on survival and puzzle-solving. It’s out on December 16^th for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC along with launching day one on Xbox Game. Let’s take a look at eight things you should know before picking it up.

Story

The Gunk focuses on Rani (voiced by Fiona Nova) and Beck (played by Abigail Turner), two scavengers who travel the galaxy, mining resources and attempting to make ends meet. They arrive upon a mysterious uncharted planet that’s seemingly teeming with precious resources. Things seem to be looking up but they also find it covered in a mysterious black substance. This “Gunk” is actually a parasite and is seemingly corrupting the environment along with its wildlife. Rani thus sets out to learn more about the planet, cleansing the Gunk and unraveling its greater mysteries. Throughout the story, the relationship between Rani and Beck is also unveiled. As they remain in radio contact, we learn more about their struggles, conflicts and much more.

Setting

The planet in question is interesting for a number of reasons. It’s full of jungles, caves, canyons and barren deserts to explore, though it’s all been corrupted and warped thanks to the Gunk (which also seems to be affecting the weather by generating dangerous storms). By removing the Gunk, players can restore these areas to their previous natural beauty. With the help of the revived plant life, new areas can be unlocked. Players will also find evidence of an ancient civilization, including statues of alien figures – they must discern what happened to them and how the Gunk played a role in their apparent downfall. The August 2021 gameplay trailer also showcased a massive facility with giant, neon-lit pipes connected to it and alien architecture within. Perhaps it’s another species that set up shop on the planet for their own mysterious purposes?

Power Glove

In order to traverse the Gunk-filled environments, Rani must rely on her Power Glove. This device is capable of sucking up the Gunk, thus cleansing the environment. Some form of environmental manipulation also seems to be available but Rani can also suck up enemies and shoot them out to damage others (along with firing energy blasts of some sort). There are puzzles to solve, though we’ve only seen lever-pulling up till now. Given how the SteamWorld Dig series plays, expect some side areas with devious challenges to overcome. Though Rani’s Power Glove starts out relatively simple, it will be possible to enhance it with the right resources.

Crafting and Upgrades

Another aspect that carries over from SteamWorld Dig is using the gathered resources for crafting and upgrading one’s equipment. How exactly it works remains to be seen but there are Achievements for crafting five upgrades (which could be per equipment piece) along with crafting all upgrades. Perhaps the energy blasts that Rani can fire from her Power Glove are an upgrade. One Achievement also seems to hint at being able to blow up enemies – this may either involve an upgrade or utilizing the environment. We’ll have to wait for more details.

Corrupted Wildlife

The environment isn’t the only thing affected by the Gunk. Various wildlife have also fallen prey to it, resulting in corrupted creatures that will attack Rani. Some of them are fairly small and can be sucked up with the Power Glove to launch at others. But there are bigger creatures to fight which can charge at her. Interestingly, it seems that one will be able to defeat these larger foes by making them charge into each other or off of cliffs (at least according to Achievements). This is likely only a small sampling of the threats that players will face though.

Logbook

Along with cleansing the environment, Rani can also scan it for different details. This would provide more details on the various flora and fauna along with the ancient statues and architecture adorning the landscape. All of this will be categorized into a Logbook which players can view. While the main story is focused on Rani and Beck, scanning and reading the Logbook could provide lore and additional clues as to the planet’s past.

Save or Profit

One aspect that’s been brought up a lot is the ability to either save the planet or simply strip its resources and peace out. The official description also speaks of the crew being caught in a “spiral of festering mistrust,” which seems to indicate that Rani and Beck have opposing views on what should be done (or that something is manipulating them into distrusting each other). As such, having financial troubles is only one aspect to their troubled relationship – by cleansing the Gunk and altering the planet, perhaps they’re messing with forces beyond their control. How this will ultimately play out – like possible choices that could lead to different endings – remains to be seen but it is intriguing.

Up to 4K and 60 FPS on Xbox Series X

For Image and Form’s first ever fully 3D game, The Gunk offers a unique art-style that looks vibrant while maintaining a grimy feel. Along with being optimized for Xbox Series X/S, it supports up to 4K and 60 FPS+ on Xbox Series X and PC. Smart Delivery is also supported, which means cross-gen save progression and only having to buy the game once on consoles. Xbox One players can experience it in 30 FPS but there’s no word yet on the resolution. Though PC requirements have yet to be revealed, the Microsoft Store indicates that it will require a minimum of 2 GB VRAM with 6 GB VRAM being recommended.

Things start going south very quickly as the world is discovered to be covered by a mysterious substance (referred to only as the Gunk). Rani can suck up the Gunk using her Power Glove, thus restoring the landscape to its natural beauty. Interactions between Rani and Beck also define the journey, from humorous exchanges to conflicts.

Though players can save the planet from the Gunk, unraveling the greater mystery of how it got to be this way, there may be some motivation to just harvest its resources and leave. Rani and Beck are in dire straits financially, and this tension is only heightened upon landing. The Gunk releases on December 16th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC – it also launches day one on Xbox Game Pass.

The Gunk will launch on December 16, which means it’s just a little more than a month away. The game focuses on a duo of outer space explorers who find themselves on a dangerous planet plagued by a corruptive gunk, with the larger gameplay structure focusing on exploration, survival, gathering resources, and crafting.

At launch, The Gunk will be available for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. Last year, game director Ulf Hartelius told us there were no plans at the time to bring the game to PlayStation or Switch. You can read that full interview through here.

Welcome to a vast alien world in The Gunk.

Encounter terrifying enemies and challenging puzzles on your quest to unravel the mystery of a forgotten planet… Can you save it in the process?

☣️Coming to Xbox and Gamepass 16th December!#ThunderfulWorld pic.twitter.com/fwWYNYbB9m

— Thunderful Games ⚡ (@Thunderfulgames) November 10, 2021

Not a lot of additional information has been revealed in the trailer, which you can check out below. The Gunk is an action-adventure platformer where players will travel to exotic alien worlds and rid them off the deadly gunk – called well, The Gunk. The game looks interesting with great art direction, and releases on Xbox Game Pass on launch.

Xbox’s holiday season seems to be packed with releases. Halo Infinite will reportedly be releasing sometime in November, Forza Horizon 5 will be releasing in November 9 as well, and with The Gunk being confirmed for December – Holiday 2021 seems to be shaping up great for Xbox fans.

There haven’t been many updates or new gameplay footage in the past year but it seems an announcement is coming soon. Thunderful Games confirmed on Twitter that the 3D platformer is still releasing in 2021 with more information “coming soon.” Whether it will still launch in September or has been delayed to later in the year remains to be seen.

The Gunk is currently in development for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC with no plans for releasing on Nintendo Switch or PlayStation. It sees players traveling to a planet afflicted by a parasite that covers everything in a strange gunk. In an interview with GamingBolt last year, the developer confirmed that the main story offers around eight hours of playtime but that there was extra content to keep players busy.

https://twitter.com/Thunderfulgames/status/1427993797451997190

"We’ll be focusing on making use of the new Xbox Series X, but of course the Xbox One is super important for us as well."

Thunderful has seen incredible success with the SteamWorld games, but The Gunk is looking like a pretty different beast, especially from a visual perspective. What lessons have you learnt from the SteamWorld games that you’re taking into The Gunk?

We’ve learnt a lot through the years that still holds true, but as you say it’s the most different for the artists. But even with the 3D and the new style, I think keen-eyed players can still recognize the unique feel of Tobias Nilsson (art director of most of the SteamWorld games).

Speaking of that visual difference, what led to the decision to take the jump into full 3D after having seen so much success with the 2D look of SteamWorld?

For the kind of themes and experience we’ve set out to do with The Gunk, it was much better suited to both 3D and a non-SteamWorld setting.

Can you talk about what taking such a leap meant in terms of the groundwork you had to do before getting to work on the game? For instance, how much work did that entail in terms of setting up an engine for The Gunk?

Both lots and very little. Since we’re using Unreal Engine we’re getting a lot of things straight from it, but then we’ve also added some development features into it that were fundamental parts for our in-house engine that we’ve been making the SteamWorld games with. There’s also an enormous amount of work involved in getting the actual gunk looking and behaving like we want.

In the blog post on Xbox Wire following the game’s announcement, it was stated that with The Gunk, you wanted to take full advantage of the hardware available to you. Given the game’s cross-gen nature, has that proven to be a complication?

We’ll be focusing on making use of the new Xbox Series X, but of course the Xbox One is super important for us as well. As an example, when we made SteamWorld Dig 2 we focused on the then-new Nintendo Switch, but still made sure to get the 3DS version running at a smooth 60 fps and keeping as much of the visual bells and whistles as possible.

"We’re doing a lot of work to make this world you’ll be exploring really feel like something you haven’t seen before. This is a world with a history, but we’ll be focusing more on what’s happening now than what has happened in its past."

How much of a focus will The Gunk put on its setting and the mysteries of its past?

We’re doing a lot of work to make this world you’ll be exploring really feel like something you haven’t seen before. This is a world with a history, but we’ll be focusing more on what’s happening now than what has happened in its past.

Given its setting, The Gunk seems like the kind of game that would really benefit from environmental variety and variety in enemy designs. Is that something that players can look forward to?

Yes, we’re definitely aiming for a lush and varied environment. As for enemies, while the game does have some amount of combat it’s not really centered around it.

Can you talk to us about the two central characters, and how much the relationship between the two plays into the game’s story?

They’re scouting the outer perimeters of known space for lucrative planets and what they find, and how they deal with that, is going to be a big part of the game.

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of The Gunk be?

For players who go pretty straight through it, I think it’ll take around 8 hours. But there will be plenty more content apart from that core experience, as it’s a game that encourages exploration.

Why did you decide to launch as an Xbox console exclusive?

Since making this game is such a big step for us we knew we wanted to find a strong partner and Microsoft had been excited about it since our earliest conversations. But to clarify, it will be available from day 1 on Windows 10 and Xbox One, in addition to Xbox Series X.

Do you have any plans to eventually bring the game to PlayStation or Switch?

Unfortunately not.

"Since making this game is such a big step for us we knew we wanted to find a strong partner and Microsoft had been excited about it since our earliest conversations."

As a Xbox console exclusive, how can players expect the game to leverage the Xbox Series X’s unique capabilities?

The Gunk itself is using an advanced rendering technique that should benefit a lot from the added power of the Series X. It will also be a lot easier to get the game world as lush and vibrant as we’re aiming for.

The Xbox Series X’s Velocity architecture has been one of its biggest talking points- how has it impacted the game and the way you have designed the game? 

That’s definitely one of the most exciting things with the next-gen consoles for us as developers, and something that I think players will really come to appreciate once they’ve experienced it.

What resolution and frame rate are you targeting on Xbox Series X? Furthermore, will the game have multiple graphical modes?

We haven’t established much definitively yet, aside from absolutely having at least 60 frames per second on Series X. A high and solid frame rate has always been a staple for us and that holds true going forward as well.

Lastly, what is the one feature that you are most excited about the game?

What it all comes down to for me, is that I really want to make a game where it’s exciting to explore!

Image and Form Games have established themselves as one of the best indie developers in the industry over the years thanks to multiple excellent games in the SteamWorld series, but with their next game, they’re doing something rather different, and much more ambitious. The Gunk is a 3D third person action-adventure game, and it’s been on the minds of many since its recent reveal.

Curiously though, the game has been confirmed as an Xbox console exclusive, leading many to wonder why the developer decided that, and whether The Gunk will eventually release on other consoles as well. These were questions we posted to game director Ulf Hartelius in a recent interview, and got some interesting answers.

Hartelius told us that with The Gunk being some a major step forward for Image and Form Games, they wanted to find a “strong partner.”

“Since making this game is such a big step for us we knew we wanted to find a strong partner and Microsoft had been excited about it since our earliest conversations,” he said.

But will The Gunk eventually find its way to PlayStation and the Nintendo Switch as well? It doesn’t seem that way. When we asked Hartelius the same, he responded, “Unfortunately not.”

Of course, there’s every chance that plans might change and The Gunk manages to find its way to non-Xbox consoles down the line- but as things seem right now, it seems like console players will only be able to play the game on Xbox.

The Gunk is scheduled to launch in September 2021 for the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC. Stay tuned for our full interview with Hartelius.