SteamWorld Heist 2 Interview – Setting, Development, and More

From Metroidvanias to city builders, the SteamWorld franchise has taken many different forms over the years, and though there’s a case to be made for the ultimate supremacy of each of those, its turn-based tactical RPG offerings with the original SteamWorld Heist stand to this day as some of the best content the series has ever delivered. Now, it’s coming back with a long overdue but incredibly welcome sequel, and based on the reception it has enjoyed since its release last week, SteamWorld Heist 2 has successfully managed to not only replicate its predecessor’s strengths, but in many ways, even build upon them. To learn more about the game, its development, and how it iterates on the original Heist, we recently reached out to its developers with some of our most burning questions. Below, you can read our interview with lead game designer Ulf Hartelius.

NOTE: This interview was conducted prior to the game’s launch.

“To set a sequel on the high seas was actually planned for already when we made the first game. Well, it’s actually more of a big lake since it’s all set on one of the shards of the shattered Earth.”

SteamWorld Heist was a great entry in the SteamWorld series, and fans have been waiting for a direct follow up for quite some time. What led to the long gap between releases?

We’ve been busy making other games! But ever since making the first game we’ve been talking about how much fun it was and how much we’d like to do another one, so it’s been simmering all this time. We also don’t want to make a sequel just to make more of the same; we want to make sure that it contains enough new great stuff to make both us and everyone else, whether fans of the first game or newcomers, excited about it.

What prompted the change from the space setting of the first game to the naval setting here?

To set a sequel on the high seas was actually planned for already when we made the first game. Well, it’s actually more of a big lake since it’s all set on one of the shards of the shattered Earth. We loved the shattered Earth setting that was established in SteamWorld Heist and SteamWorld Dig 2, and we knew we wanted to make games that were set on the actual shards as well instead of just looking at them from afar.

Besides that narrative reason, we also wanted to greatly expand on the exploration between missions. Having it set in a grounded environment, rather than the emptiness of space, provided a much more interesting world to explore. The lush Caribbean-like setting also fit the mood we were looking for.

The original Steamworld Heist had a lot of procedurally generated levels, while Steamworld Heist 2 seems to be going for handcrafted environments and characters. Are we to assume that this game will not have procedurally generated levels anymore, or will there still be some level of procedural generation involved?

There is still some procedural generation, but it’s more controlled and primarily serves to make it fun to replay the same hand-crafted missions by changing things around just enough that you don’t know exactly what will happen. So I wouldn’t call the levels procedurally generated, but they (and some other parts of the game) have carefully tweaked procedural elements. In fact, this is similar to SteamWorld Dig 2 which also has some procedural stuff in it; something I would assume most players do not know. Because after all, a good procedural system doesn’t feel procedural.

“There is still some procedural generation, but it’s more controlled and primarily serves to make it fun to replay the same hand-crafted missions by changing things around just enough that you don’t know exactly what will happen.”

The original Steamworld Heist was made for the Nintendo 3DS originally. How has the scope of the game been impacted by the fact that even the weakest system of the ones that the sequel is targeting is several times more powerful than the 3DS was?

The 4K graphics would be the easiest thing to point to, but the graphical fidelity has been raised on all fronts: a highly dynamic lighting system that really makes the 2D come alive, gorgeous particle effects, more advanced animations and much more. There are also lots of gameplay changes with more things going on at the same time, especially with the naval exploration and combat on the world map, more advanced enemies and abilities, more and bigger bosses, and so on. Then there’s also the fact that we could now design the interface for a single widescreen from the start, instead of having to adapt the 3DS’ dual screen setup into something completely different for the other platforms; so that’s been a relief for development and it has allowed us to make a more cohesive and thought-through interface.

I wanted to talk about the job system. That’s always one of my favorite things in an RPG. You’ve introduced that to SteamWorld Heist 2, and also overhauled the gear system to go with that. Can you elaborate on the kind of character customization that might lead to?

We love job systems too! We’ve taken what we’ve liked in other games, including our own (you might recognize the cogs from SteamWorld Dig 2), and taken our own spin on it to best suit Heist. For players new to the concept, it should be easy to understand and use and you should be able to play the game on the lower difficulty levels without engaging much with it for the first half of the game to allow anyone to learn the game’s many features gradually. But once you do start to make use of it, you should discover a tremendous amount of depth; which you will need to master if you want to conquer the higher difficulty levels. Our goal has been that there should be as much synergy as possible between the abilities from different jobs, as well as with various pieces of equipment; any time you wonder if you might be able to combine ability X with ability Y, the answer should be yes.

Let me give two simple examples: Give the Sniper’s perfect aim ability to a Boomer who uses rockets; and suddenly you get to preview not just the path the rocket will take but also the size of the explosion to allow you to really finetune your shooting angle for maximum effect. Another example is the hammer-wielding Brawler job that has an ability that lets it move after making a kill. This is useful to let them get out of harm’s way after exposing themselves to make a melee attack. But then give them the Reaper’s “extra attack after making a kill” ability, and now the Brawler can move and attack after each kill; again and again and again.

“For most players we’ve seen an average of 35 hours, with more if you want to truly complete everything. And for those looking for even more, I can recommend replaying the game on the higher difficulty levels and using a different set of characters as you’ll likely find yourself enjoying the game in new ways.”

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of the story mode be?

For most players we’ve seen an average of 35 hours, with more if you want to truly complete everything. And for those looking for even more, I can recommend replaying the game on the higher difficulty levels and using a different set of characters as you’ll likely find yourself enjoying the game in new ways. I’ve lost count of how much we’ve played the game at the studio but the many ways you can play it and customize your characters have kept it feeling fresh for us all this time, so I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone’s playthroughs.