Studio Behind Xbox Exclusive The Gunk Plans To Return To Nintendo And SteamWorld

The Gunk was revealed during the Xbox Games Showcase in July and showed off a new direction from development group Thunderful and Image & Form. After years spent developing new entries in the SteamWorld series, the studio still plans to tell more stories within that universe on Nintendo platforms.

Launching exclusively on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC first, The Gunk is the first 3D game from the small team based in Sweden. "The Gunk is a game that is technically very demanding, and the team is, as you know, brilliant but fairly small," Thunderful CEO Brjann Sigurgeirsson explained to Kotaku.

"We're doing 3D for the first time, using a commercial game engine for the first time, and the gunk itself, the way we want it to work, is quite heavy."

Thunderful plans to return to SteamWorld in the future, as the studio still has more stories to tell within that series.

"SteamWorld is indeed closely associated with Nintendo," Sigurgeirsson said. "And we certainly haven't made our last SteamWorld game. Nintendo Switch (and future Nintendo consoles) are natural parts of those plans."

Hand of Gilgamech is the most recent SteamWorld game, which featured deck building gameplay within the quirky steampunk world that was first introduced in 2010's SteamWorld Tower Defense.