Iron Curtain Call press kit
A fast-paced cartoon-noir first-person shooter set in an absurd alternate 1965. Dash, grapple and parry through a wind-up robot army, turn enemies into health and ammo, and bring down theatrical bosses with an arsenal of very undiplomatic weapons.
Free demo on Steam 28 October 2026Release 11 March 2027Windows · macOS
Everything on this page may be used in coverage of Iron Curtain Call. Streaming the demo? See the streamer guide. Questions and interview requests: contact@whaledevstudios.com.
The paperwork.
- Title
- Iron Curtain CallSubtitle: World War III: Third Time's the Charm
- Developer and publisher
- Whale Development StudiosSelf-published, independent
- Release date
- 11 March 2027On Steam
- Free demo
- 28 October 2026Mission 1, "Welcome to Rubbleton", about 15 to 20 minutes, free on Steam
- Platforms
- Windows, macOSAs listed on the Steam store page
- Genre
- First-person shooterAction, single-player campaign, comedy
- Engine
- Godot 4.7Voices made with ElevenLabs, some art with Higgsfield
- Languages
- English, full voiceInterface and subtitles also in Spanish (Spain and Latin America), Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Hindi and Turkish, as listed on Steam
- Content
- Cartoon violenceAgainst tin robots. They burst into bolts, springs and scrap. No blood, no gore.
- Steam
- Store pageApp ID 5417460
- Website
- ironcurtaincall.comPress kit: ironcurtaincall.com/press/
- Press contact
- contact@whaledevstudios.comWhale Development Studios
World War Three. Third time's the charm.
In one breath
WW3: Third time's the charm! A fast-paced cartoon-noir FPS set in an absurd alternate 1965. Dash, grapple and parry through a wind-up robot army, turn enemies into health and ammo, and bring down theatrical bosses with an arsenal of very undiplomatic weapons.
The longer version
Iron Curtain Call is a fast, sarcastic, cartoon-noir first-person shooter. It is 1965, World War III is in its third year, and the enemy is an army of wind-up tin robots run by the Supreme Chancellor, a customer-service engine that was handed a country. You are Corporal Punishment: silent, delivered like cargo, and the only soldier Allied Command has left.
Every fight is a juggling act. Punch a stunned robot and it gives up health. Open a small one like a can and it gives up ammo. Set one on fire and it drops armor. Parry the pink attacks, keep moving with the double jump, the air dash and the grapple, and bring the house down with the Encore. Twelve chapters, each with its own stage and its own theatrical boss, from a burning town and a robot factory to a frozen closed city, a world's fair, a zeppelin summit, the Moon and a department store.
It looks like a 1930s rubber-hose cartoon put on in a theatre: ink lines, newsreels, a swing-noir score, bosses who take a bow. Robots burst into bolts, springs and scrap. There is no gore. Every line is voiced.
The premise
1965, year three of World War III. Humanity ran out of soldiers. The Directorate's army is wind-up tin robots, run by the Supreme Chancellor. Allied Command called for its finest soldier. He was on vacation. So they sent Corporal Punishment, by post, second class.
I'd send backup, but you are the backup.Colonel Panic, on the radio
The demo
Free on Steam from 28 October 2026: Mission 1, "Welcome to Rubbleton", about 15 to 20 minutes. A crashed cargo plane, the 6:15 express (a train with teeth), the rooftops, the Hotel Majestic and the first boss, Major Disaster: seventeen medals, all self-awarded. Missions 2 to 12 show on the board as CLASSIFIED.
Your free trial of World War Three has expired. To continue hostilities, please upgrade to the full war.The Supreme Chancellor, at the end of the demo
The campaign line writes itself: World War III now has a free trial. The demo is the trial; a wishlist is the upgrade.
Keep moving. Keep punching.
- The loop. Knuckle Sandwich: punch a flashing robot for health. Can Opener: pop a small one for ammo. Hot Take: a shoulder flamethrower that makes burning robots drop armor. Parry the pink attacks. Save up the Encore.
- Movement. Double jump, air dash, the Hook (a boom-mic grapple), the Brolly to glide and the Moon Boots to slam. Standing still is how statues are made.
- Eleven guns, zero manners. The Diplomat (shotgun), the Typewriter (SMG), the Care Package (rocket launcher), the Telegram (chain lightning), the Filibuster (rotary gun), the Veto (revolver), the Party Line, the Lobbyist, the Pink Slip, the Whistleblower and the Bailout. Plus the Snow Globe, a freeze grenade.
- Twelve chapters, twelve theatrical bosses. A general who awards himself medals, a factory with a mother complex, a 24-hour news anchor (two of him), a senator who cannot be hurt while he is talking, and so on up to the Moon and back to the returns desk.
- A cast of workplace stereotypes turned into machines. Tin Grunts who salute first and think never, Tick-Tocks who want a hug and are a bomb, critics on stilts, paper pushers behind their forms.
- Cartoon noir, 1930s rubber-hose style. Ink lines, newsreels, a swing-noir score, bosses who take a bow. Robots burst into bolts and springs; no gore.
- Every line voiced. Colonel Panic on the radio, the Chancellor on every television, and a boss who will not stop pitching.
- Made with Godot 4.7. Voices with ElevenLabs and some art with Higgsfield, credited in the game and on the store page.
The cast
- Corporal Punishment. You. Silent. Delivered like cargo.
- Colonel Panic. On the radio, sending backup, which is you.
- The Supreme Chancellor. A customer-service engine that was handed a country.
- Major Disaster. The first boss. Seventeen medals, all self-awarded.
- Tin Grunts. The foot soldiers. Arrive in rows, in crates and in a mild panic.
- Tick-Tocks. Want a hug. Are a bomb.
- The Motherboard. The chapter 2 boss. Loves her production run more than her children.
The twelve chapters
- Rubbleton
- Factory Reset
- Dead Air
- Landslide
- Kelvingrad
- Expo '65
- Friendly Fire
- Nothing to Hide
- Trickle Down
- One Small Step
- Please Hold
- Curtain Call
The trailer.
Story trailer on YouTube (2:49) Trailer on Steam Story and gameplay trailers on the site, English and Turkish
Short subjects
Four vertical films from the war, each under a minute. The MP4s below are the site's own copies (720 × 1280, under 10 MB each).
- Patch Notes 3.00:39
Colonel Panic types up the war's latest patch. Punching robots now restores health. Doctors hate this.
YouTubeMP4 - World War 3 Customer Service0:40
Your war is important to us. Press 5 to surrender. Surrender is not available in your region.
YouTubeMP4 - Now Hiring0:41
A 1950s recruitment film. Salary: none. Manager: Major Disaster. You were not our first choice.
MP4 - The Reviews Are In0:42
The Critic says "Derivative." Major Disaster gives it seventeen stars, all to himself. Critics agree: it's a war.
MP4
Caught on camera.
Click any picture for the full-size file. Stills are real gameplay frames rendered in-engine with the HUD hidden; the comic text in them is the game's own.
Logo
Key art
In-game stills
26 stills from all twelve chapters, 1920 × 1080, in the order the Steam page shows them. The zip holds the full set with a shot list.
Character cards
Six cards in the game's poster style, 1792 × 2240, each with an empty plate at the bottom for your own caption.
Campaign posters
"World War III now has a free trial" is the demo's own closing joke, turned into the launch campaign.
Play the demo on stream.
For YouTube and Twitch creators. Anything not answered here: contact@whaledevstudios.com
The demo
- What: Mission 1, "Welcome to Rubbleton", the full game's first mission, about 15 to 20 minutes. A crashed cargo plane, the 6:15 express (a train with teeth), the rooftops, the Hotel Majestic and Major Disaster, the first boss. Missions 2 to 12 sit on the mission board stamped CLASSIFIED. Stay for the ending.
- When: free on Steam from 28 October 2026. The full game (12 chapters) follows on 11 March 2027.
- Platforms: the Steam page lists Windows and macOS.
- Before the 28th: e-mail contact@whaledevstudios.com and ask for a key.
- Monetization: you're free to monetize anything you make with it.
Music, content, AI
- Music on streams and VODs: safe to use. The game has no third-party music. The score was made for it, rendered with FluidSynth plus a few cues made with ElevenLabs (the in-game credits say so). MUSIC VOLUME turns it down on its own.
- Content: cartoon robot violence. Robots burst into bolts, springs and scrap; no gore, and no human enemies on screen. REDUCE FLASHING softens the full-screen flashes of hits and blasts.
- AI tools: the voices and a few music cues were made with ElevenLabs and some of the art with Higgsfield, as the demo's credits say. The Steam page lists AI-assisted character voices, 2D art and illustrations and cinematic video clips, plus some store text and translations; no generative AI runs during play and the game connects to no AI service. Made in Godot 4.7.
Settings worth knowing
- Audio: separate MASTER, MUSIC, EFFECTS and VOICE volume. SUBTITLES are on by default, with SUBTITLE SIZE (up to HUGE) and SUBTITLE BACKING. CORPORAL'S REMARKS turns off his commentary between fights.
- Controls: mouse and gamepad SENSITIVITY, INVERT LOOK, FIELD OF VIEW (80 to 120, horizontal; default 103), AIM ASSIST for gamepad and for mouse (OFF to HIGH; on by default).
- Display: LANGUAGE (menus, subtitles and signs; the voices stay in English), SCREEN SHAKE, REDUCE FLASHING, FILM GRAIN, a black-and-white 1930s FILM FILTER, PERFORMANCE MODE for weaker PCs.
- HUD: scale, opacity, crosshair, COLOUR-BLIND PINK, THE CRITICS & MEDALS (off for a quieter HUD).
- Difficulty is picked at the start: CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR (easy), CANNON FODDER (normal), CORPORAL PUNISHMENT (hard). Every area has a checkpoint; CONTINUE on the main menu picks up where you quit.
Controls (keyboard and mouse, or a gamepad)
| Action | Keyboard and mouse | Gamepad |
|---|---|---|
| Move / look | WASD or arrow keys / mouse | left stick / right stick |
| Jump (again in the air: double jump) | Space | A |
| Dash | Shift | B |
| Fire / reload | left click / R | RT / X |
| Punch: a flashing robot drops health | F or E | R3 |
| Can Opener: ammo | C or right click | Y |
| Hot Take flamethrower: armor | G | LB |
| Weapons | number keys, mouse wheel, Q last weapon, Tab wheel | RB (hold: wheel), D-pad |
| Salute (some robots salute back) | T | Back |
| Pause | Esc or P | Start |
| Fullscreen | F11, Alt+Enter (Mac: Ctrl+Cmd+F) |
Keys rebind in Settings > KEYS; the gamepad layout is fixed. The grapple, parry and Encore on the Steam page come from Chapter 3 of the full game: the demo runs on the punch, the Can Opener and the Hot Take.
The 60 seconds to show: the 6:15 express
Where: the Rail Yard, the sixth of the mission's nine areas (after the Town Square and the Supply Depot; the rooftops, the Hotel Majestic and Major Disaster come after it).
What triggers it: the yard's gate shuts behind you and the station clock stands at 6:14. Clear the guards and the game asks you to SHOOT THE SIGNAL LEVER! You pick the moment, so reload and heal first. Wait 20 seconds and it goes over by itself, with the Major on the PA: "The Punctual waits for no one! Not even a red signal!"
What happens (about a minute, lever to blast): the train bursts out of the tunnel (ALL ABOARD!), the clock clunks to 6:15 and a robot crew pours out of the first boxcar. Then the Punctual fights back: the car nearest you hisses (PSSST!) and blows a jet of steam sideways that scalds robots too, so lure them in, and at half health the engine bucks back toward the tunnel. Shoot its wind-up key, get clear, and the cars go up in a chain: EXPRESS DELIVERY!
Runner-ups
- Major Disaster's entrance (the parade ground, straight after the Hotel Majestic): the doors slam behind you, searchlights, fireworks, HERE COMES A MAJOR DISASTER!, "I have seventeen medals! I gave them all to myself!", and he leaps off the stand at you. His exit is a clip too: the medals burst off his chest, he salutes, and his head pops off.
- The ending reel (beat the Major, press NEXT MISSION on the victory paper): previews of the full war, the film jams and burns, and the Chancellor cuts in: "Your free trial of World War Three has expired. To continue hostilities, please upgrade to the full war." Holding a key skips it, so hands off.
- The cold open (the first seconds): your cargo plane, the LUCKY 13, is shot down over Rubbleton while the Colonel revises "light resistance" to heavy.
Whale Development Studios.
Whale Development Studios is an independent game studio, and Iron Curtain Call is its cartoon-noir shooter about the third world war and the one Corporal sent to end it. The game is built in Godot 4.7. Its models, music and sound effects are the studio's own; some art, animation clips and voices, in the game and on the site, were created with generative AI tools (Higgsfield, Kling and ElevenLabs) and directed by the team. The credits and the Steam page say so.
Iron Curtain Call and WW3: Third Time's the Charm are works of satire. Any resemblance to real wars, committees or customer-service lines is entirely intentional.