Sidekick Publishing and Randwerk bring the castle-on-wheels roguelike with 250k wishlists to Steam Next Fest with a surprise demo
Berlin, Germany – February 23, 2026 – Sidekick Publishing and developer Randwerk are excited to announce their partnership on the highly-wishlisted open-world roguelike WANDERBURG, with a surprise playable demo launching today as part of Steam Next Fest.
WANDERBURG landed with a bang during its breakout reveal at the 2025 PC Gaming Show, with a trailer that has since racked up over 470,000 views. The game has since received over 250,000 wishlists and saw 126,000 participants during the recent closed playtest.
Demo available HERE as part of Steam Next Fest (February 23 - March 2)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3624140/Wanderburg/
Inspired by Mortal Engines and Howl’s Moving Castle, WANDERBURG is a minimalist open-world roguelike in an ecosystem of Castles on Wheels. Consume, grow bigger, upgrade your modules, and survive! Unlock new weapons, build your castle, and discover a procedurally generated map.
Key Features:
Drive a Castle That Devours Everything: Control a mobile fortress and consume everything in your path, from rival castles to entire villages.
Dynamic, Action-Rich Gameplay: Master vehicle handling, time your abilities, and outmaneuver enemies in fast-paced battles.
Build Your Fortress: Equip and upgrade modules like flamethrowers, cannons, wizard towers, and explosive mines in a Survivors-style progression system.
Grow and Evolve: Defeat bosses to expand your castle and unlock new vehicles, weapons, and playstyles between runs.
Explore a Rolling World: Travel through diverse biomes in a bizarre medieval ecosystem full of predatory machines.
Anachronistic Tech & Fantastical Machines: Inspired by Mortal Engines and Howl’s Moving Castle, the world blends fantasy with absurd technology.🕹Multi-Input Friendly: Play with mouse, keyboard, controller, or touchscreen.
Ready-For-Potato: Runs smoothly even on low-spec PCs and handheld devices, with an art style designed to be readable at any screen size."We can’t wait to share Wanderburg for the first time publicly during the upcoming Steam Next Fest. It’s a major milestone for us, and we’re excited to see how the community reacts!" - Till Freitag, Co-Founder Randwerk
"The massive player response during the December playtest was a clear signal that the game is building real momentum. We're excited to help WANDERBURG reach its full potential, supporting this unique vision and seeing the charm of a growing castle on wheels come to life for players worldwide.” - Melvin Frank, Co-CEO & Co-Founder, Sidekick Publishing
Wishlist now and follow Randwerk for updates:
Website: wanderburg.com
Steam: WANDERBURG on Steam
Instagram: @Randwerkgames
TikTok: @randwerk
YouTube: Randwerk on YouTube
Bluesky: @randwerk.com
About Randwerk
Randwerk is the first German worker-coop Game Studio. The founders Till, Friedrich and Johannes met in University, where they worked together on a project that became their first commercial game: “ABRISS – Build to Destroy”. The game went on to sell on Steam, Playstation and Xbox and won the German Computer Game Award for best Graphics in 2023. Now that they’re finishing up their studies, the trio is working on WANDERBURG. Randwerk is supported by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg Media Fund and the DE:HIVE Institute Berlin.
About Sidekick
Sidekick Publishing is an indie game publisher from Germany, born out of creative agency INSTINCT3. Drawing on deep roots in gaming culture, community building, and influencer marketing, Sidekick blends traditional publishing expertise with a creator- & community-first approach.
The team focuses on bringing unique indie titles to market with tailored strategies that integrate community engagement, influencer collaborations, and bold creative campaigns from day one. In its first year, Sidekick has already delivered multiple successful launches and continues to expand its portfolio with a commitment to both creative excellence and creator & community-first approach. Sidekick’s publishing portfolio includes: Deadly Days: Roadtrip, Dwarves: Glory, Death and Loot, Gambonanza, 9 Kings, Megaloot, Die in the Dungeon, Terrascape, Asgard's Fall and Wanderburg.
