Halloween decorations, new building options, fresh quests and quality-of-life-enhancements bring new life to the frontier
Oberhaching, Germany, October 30, 2026 – The first townships have been built. The expansion of the frontierlands in the American west of the 19th century is moving forward. It has been a little over a month since the classic city-builder Wild West Pioneers launched into Early Access to players’ and critical acclaim alike.
And the world of Wild West Pioneers keeps getting bigger: Development team EmpireCraft Studios and German indie publisher Toplitz Productions announce the release of the first major content update, available now on PC via Steam.
Aptly named “The Frontier Grows”, the update adds plenty of content throughout all gameplay areas. For example the church and chapel are now fully functional as buildings and can grant temporary boosts to the settlement, with the chapels acting as range extender for the church’s sphere of influence, which will also apply to settler whims.
With new Level 2 upgrades for a variety of buildings, including the Logistics Center or the Dynamite Workshop as well as new visuals for existing house variants, your Wild West town will show more variety than ever.
In keeping with the season, nearly 30 Halloween decorations have been added to give your settlements a spooky appearance, while the decoration placement & removal system was overhauled to improve usability.
EmpireCraft Studios also took care of bugfixes, added three more missions and introduced quality-of-life improvements like significantly increasing the resource storage cap or the resident limit, as well as adding the ability to send residents to other settlements via the Logistics Center.
“The Frontier Grows” Update for Wild West Pioneers is available now for the Early Access version of the game via Steam. For more details, visit the official store page or join the official Discord server to stay up to date on all upcoming releases.
About EmpireCraft Studios
EmpireCraft Studios is a game development company established in 2024. The studio brings together a team of seasoned developers who have previously worked on titles like Aztecs – The Last Sun. EmpireCraft Studios specializes in creating city-building games with survival elements. With a strong foundation in the genre, the studio aims to deliver immersive and challenging experiences that blend strategic city management with survival mechanics, appealing to both hardcore and casual players.
About Toplitz Productions
The German-Austrian publisher, whose name originates from the mysterious Toplitz Lake in the heart of Austria, develops and publishes games with “heart & soul” for all platforms. The company consists of a healthy mix of experienced industry veterans and young talents, all of whom are passionate gamers. They enjoy working with creative developers on many exciting titles, such as those from the “Dynasty” and “Giant” series.
