Hi everyone, thrilled to be here — finally! I’m Brjann Sigurgeirsson, the worst-named CEO of the worst-named game development studio in the world, Image & Form Games. I’m here to present perhaps the world’s worst-named game: SteamWorld Dig. It launches on PS4 and PS Vita this year. Don’t let the title fool you — the game is great!
Image & Form is a Swedish game developer based in rainy, windy Gothenburg. There’s a dozen of us, and the rest of the lot is a bunch of brilliant, hard-working, and quite childish people. I also work hard and am rather childish myself, but instead of being brilliant all the time I focus on hogging credit and interacting with you guys. You can read more about all of us right here.
Take the role of Rusty — a lone, mining steambot — as he arrives to an old mining town in great need. Dig your way through the old earth, gaining riches while uncovering the ancient threat that lurks below.
SteamWorld Dig is what we call “a mining platform adventure.” The objective is mining, the controls are those of a platformer, and it’s a story-driven game with a defined beginning and end. It’s been compared to Minecraft and Terraria, but those are sandbox games and not that similar to SteamWorld Dig — which is more of a Metroidvania type of game. You dig down, find gems and minerals, get back up to the surface, sell the loot to upgrade your equipment, and go back down again. Both soil and enemies get tougher the further down you go, and also other aspects of the environment.
SteamWorld Dig is a dense and immersive experience, and it contains no filler. It’s designed so that the hours you spend with the game will be the best hours you’ve spent in a long time. The game has been nominated for — and has won — numerous Game of the Year awards all over the world.
Now that SteamWorld Dig is coming to PS4 and PS Vita, we’re so proud we could cry. Having the game on a console is a long-standing dream, and we’re very pleased that console will be the magnificent PS4. SteamWorld Dig has already proven itself as a great handheld game, and it feels like the Vita was made for it. The crisp, vibrant graphics almost pop off the screen, and the controls are super solid.
When we first released SteamWorld Dig in August 2013, a lot of people immediately asked us to bring it to the Vita. But the port seemed like a “long” project, and so we decided to make a stop along the way to release it for Steam first. That way, we would have single-screen play and HD graphics just begging to be brought to PlayStation. Still, now that it’s done, we never thought it would look this good.
Happy gaming!
Woooooo! Was going to pick this up on another platform but glad I waited. It’s going to look so good on the Vita screen.
SO PUMPED!
Awesome! Just a couple of weeks ago I thought how awesome this would be on the Vita.
Nice!
Looks pretty good, hope the price isn’t too high
YES! Awesome! Thanks so much for bringing to the Sony ecosystem! Will love this game on my Vita!
Can’t wait for this on the Vita, I’ve heard nothing but great stuff. Is there a release window yet, or just 2014 right now?
Awesome! This looks to be my type of game. Look forward to playing this on my vita in the future.
Aw yeah! Now I’ll definitely buy this game! I’ve been thinking about buying it for the 3DS, but now that it is coming to the Vita, with trophies and all, I’ll definitely get it!
Do you know when the this would be released? And also will it be cross buy? Thanks looking forwarding to playing on the vita.
I was this close to buying this game on GOG.com, but I want to play this on my Vita much more.
Will it be cross buy? I have heard many great things about this game, but I knew it’d make its way to PSN eventually :)
When I first saw info on this game months ago, I thought how awesome it would be to have on my Vita, and now, it is coming to the Vita! Definitely looking forward to it.
Picked this up on PC over the holiday and played the hell out of it. Looking forward to playing it again and collecting trophies!
OH tnx God it wasn’t for smartphones :)
August is so far away… I’d play the heck out of Spelunkaterrivania. :D
Can’t wait for this, BoI, Risk of Rain, Minecraft, Terraria 1.2, Starbound…. So much Indie sexiness… <3 And all the amazing games on PS4.. so much gaming this year. — FFX HD, Infamous, Sly Cooper HD, GoW, HD… my money..
I was one of those people asking for it on Vita. :P
I am thrilled. Much prefer to play (and buy) indie games on Vita than my 3DS.
Wow these people must all be high on bull! Either that pr their major sony b u t t kissing trolls trying to hype anything by sony. More indie junk for vita? Stop with this lame indie junk. This is junk… Save this crap for phones, its a shame with the vita’s power and all thats released is stupid indie junk. I didn’t spend over 200 bucks on vita to play phone games. I have my phone for that. Start releasing triple AAA titles or don’t waste our time. This is a shame and embarrassing to the vita. All that seems to be released for vita now is nothing but hand me down cheap and crappy 2 bit game indie junk. What a shame! I bought a stupid indie machine. Wish I could return it. This is pissing me off.
More lame indies for ps4 to lol. Man Im glad I returned it a day after buying it. Nothing but lame indie junk mostly on it. 400 dollar paper weight indie machine. Watching the dust collect on a ps4 is more entertaining than a sorry 2 bit lame indie game. Back to my ps3 I suppose… WHERE ALL THE GOOD GAMES ARE ALWAYS AT!
All I’m hearing out of S_L_I_C_K-T is “Stop having fun guys!”
How the heck is indie games fun? They all suck!
SLICKT: you can go back to your bloody FPS retarded slaughterhouse games where brain dead idiots shoot each other and have more stress than fun. I’m having fun with Don’t Starve, Knack and Fifa 2014 on PS4.
With that said, we really need more games and discounts for PS4… and Vita should really get more games that aren’t just indie.
Looks FUN. :)
SLICK-T, please do us a favor and take your complaints elsewhere. It’s not this studio’s job to release a new God of War or Gran Turismo. This game is not for you, obviously, so just leave yourself out of it.
Can’t wait for this.
Two things:
1) The phrase “triple AAA titles/games” is highly redundant and amusing to me every time I see someone type it. “Triple A games” or “AAA games” are the correct forms.
2) “Where all the good games are always at!” is an awesome phrase. It’s formed like a question, but shouted like an exclamation. I’d buy that on a t-shirt. I’m simply positive it’d break people’s minds who saw it in person.
/sarcasm
This game looks awesome and fun. I’m curious if it’ll be cross-buy, as it seems to be a nice pick up and play game for the Vita, but the graphics also look really crisp, and I could see myself “digging” into this on PS4 as well. Looking forward to more info on its pending Playstation release.
This looks interesting. I will definitely keep an eye out for the release.
Also, I was in Gothenburg a couple summers back for Way Out West Festival. Fun city!
Played this on my 3ds. So glad its coming to other consoles! Super good game!!!!!
I wanted to play this game since I seen it on 3DS on Reviews on the Run, I was going to ask Sony to bring this game to there consoles.
Can’t wait to buy this game it looks Great!
Played through this on my 3DS- it is a lot of fun! May have to pick it up again for PS4 and get some trophies!
So then this is different from spelunky then? because if so this will be an amazing platformer.
I must have this, it’s a perfect add to my ps4 collection :)
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!
This is perhaps some of THE BEST news I’ve heard in a long time!!! Saying this game will be perfect on the Vita is the understatement of the century!! I have the game on my 3DS and now that I know I’ll be enjoying it in all of its brilliant wide-screen glory, I think I’m going to pause on the 3DS version so that I can save the rest for playing the superior Vita/PS4 version!!!
To those who haven’t played the game yet, while it may not look like much in pictures, I really think it’s the best Metroidvania style game since, well, Metroid and or Castlevania. If you’re at all curious about the game, don’t think twice and just buy it. It seriously has provided me with some of the best gameplay I’ve had in a very long time.
Nice, I already own this on the other handheld platform but it’s an excellent game and it’s great to know that it will reach a larger audience with this release.
Loved this game on 3DS and played the heck out of it. I’d pick it up again it was so good, if the price is right. I look forward to seeing the HD visuals and hope there is some additional content. Maybe an extra level at the end with Dorothy as the playable character.
You had me at “metroidvania” <3
Hi everyone, Brjann at Image & Form here, and I’ve got to say: WOW, THE LOVE!! Thank you SO MUCH, glad we announced on Valentine’s Day – seems like everyone was in the mood for love. :) We have submitted SteamWorld Dig for approval, and we now hope that our friends over at SCEE and SCEA process our submission as quickly as possible.
I’ve obviously played SteamWorld Dig both on the Vita and PS4, and I think even a guy like SLICK-T will love it… if you give it a chance. ;) Talking about triple-A titles versus indie games may actually be less relevant these days. So many ingenious indie studios around the world are if not levelling, then at least changing the gaming landscape, and we’re thrilled that the traditional platform owners treat us so well and give us the attention we need. You don’t have to rewind that many years to safely say that the relationships are quite a bit different today.
We’ll be with you soon. Can’t wait, and will post here when we have a confirmed release date. :)
Sold on the Vita release, thank you!
so, why not mention that it’s like SUPER MOTHERLOAD? is it because that game wasn’t received well enough to compare it to? Minecraft, Terraria, CastleVania, and Metroid are a lot more popular than SUPER MOTHERLOAD, but not the closest “LIKE” game :)
SUPER MOTHERLOAD (PS4, VITA via remote play):
“There’s a special sort of fun in tunnelling deep beneath the surface of Mars, collecting precious ores – smelting combos, selling them off to unlock game-changing upgrades at the shop. SUPER MOTHERLOAD encourages smart plays with ore combinations, special items, and puzzles.”
STEAMWORLD DIG (3DS, PS4, VITA-natively):
“You dig down, find gems and minerals, get back up to the surface, sell the loot to upgrade your equipment, and go back down again.”
SM also on PS3 *
BTW, if you have a 3DS, you can get the game now for only $4.49(+tax)