Thunderful already announced SteamWorld: Headhunter, a 3D co-op title set in what seems to be a Wild West setting, last year. However, it later confirmed that three more SteamWorld titles were in development, including codename “Caramel,” a turn-based tactical strategy shooter for PC, consoles and mobiles, which could be a sequel to SteamWorld Heist.

The other titles include codename “Strawberry,” a puzzle game for mobile devices, and “Coffee,” a city builder for PC and consoles. Perhaps we’ll finally learn more about each and see the first gameplay footage for SteamWorld: Headhunter.

Stay tuned in the coming days for more details. Of course, this isn’t the only showcase next week, as Xbox and Bethesda are hosting the first Developer_Direct on January 25th. Head here for more details.

Folks, you're hereby invited to the SteamWorld Telegraph: Special Broadcast. Come see what's comin' up next for SteamWorld.

Mark your calendars for January 23rd, 6:30 PM CET / 9:30 AM PST. pic.twitter.com/9JSNFUEw7w

— SteamWorld Games (@SteamWorldGames) January 18, 2023

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.

The same was confirmed in Thunderful’s recent quarterly fiscal report, in which it listed three unannounced SteamWorld IP games that are currently in the works. The first is codenamed “Strawberry” and is described as a puzzle title in development for mobile devices. Then there’s “Coffee”, a city builder in the works for PC and consoles. Finally, there’s “Caramel”, a turn-based tactical strategy shooter, in development for PC, consoles, and mobile devices.

SteamWorld as a franchise has plenty of experience with branching out into new and different genres, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that Thunderful is continuing down that road. The series has tried its hands at Metroidvanias with the SteamWorld Dig games, tower defense with SteamWorld Tower Defense, turn-based strategy with SteamWorld Heist, deck-building with SteamWorld Quest, and will be going 3D with the aforementioned SteamWorld Headhunter.

Of the four SteamWorld games, three of them are scheduled to launch in 2023, with Caramel being scheduled for 2024.

Thunderful has announced a new game in the series, being developed by itself, called SteamWorld Headhunter. This one is shaping up to be quite a different experience from its predecessors. For starters, its fully 3D, a first for the series. Meanwhile, it’s also co-op. Its brief teaser trailer shows two robots involved in a Wild West-style standoff, though at the end, a spider-like robot emerges to spoil the party. It doesn’t tell us a whole lot about the game, but it does give us a good glimpse of what it will look like, visually.

SteamWorld as a series has never been afraid to experiment. Though the mainline Dig games are, of course, are 2D Metroidvanias, others have veered in different directors, from the deck-building RPG gameplay of SteamWorld Quest to the XCOM-style turn-based strategy of SteamWorld Heist to, of course, the one that started it all- the tower defence strategy gameplay of SteamWorld Tower Defence for the Nintendo DS. It should be interesting to see how this next jump fares.

No release window or target platforms have been announced for SteamWorld Headhunter yet. Stay tuned for more updates.