PAPERHEAD from developer Paperhead te4m and publisher HypeTrain Digital is out now on Steam. It’s a fast-movement boomer shooter mixed with adventure horror, set in a cute cardboard world where something has gone badly wrong. You explore an abandoned research facility to find out what happened, and why a world made of cardboard has started to bleed.
This trailer shows the original September 18 date. The game launched on October 9.
How It Plays
Combat is built on speed and improvisation. Your tools are a shotgun, various other weapons, your boots, and the game’s signature item: a magical pencil.
A good old-fashioned way to blast cardboard enemies to pieces.
Kicks and head-stomps are real attacks. You can launch enemies into the air and land on them platformer-style.
A weapon and a tool. Sketch bombs and kick them at enemies, draw doors to kick down, and scribble on the walls.
Exploding barrels are ammo too. Kick them straight into a crowd.
The pencil is what makes PAPERHEAD stand out. It isn’t just a gimmick weapon. You use it to change the level itself, drawing your way through doors and creating your own explosives on the fly. In a genre built around finding the fastest way through a room, being able to draw your own door is a smart twist.
Cute… but Scary
The art style is the hook. The world is soft, friendly cardboard, and then it starts bleeding. The Steam page describes it as a charming cardboard world “with more meat than expected,” and working out why is what pulls you deeper into the research facility.
The Road to Release
| When | What Happened |
|---|---|
| November 2024 | The free prologue, PAPERHEAD EP.0, launches on Steam and goes on to earn more than 3,700 reviews, rated Very Positive. |
| October 2025 | The EP.0 soundtrack arrives as a free download for Halloween. |
| February 2026 | A new Steam Next Fest demo adds a whole level from the final game, plus new mechanics, new enemies and controller support. |
| June 2026 | A September 18 release date is announced. |
| July 2026 | Launch moves to October 9 for extra polish. |
| September 24, 2026 | EP.0 is removed from sale. Anyone who claimed it keeps it in their library. |
| October 9, 2026 | The full game is out now on Steam. |
An Industrial Soundtrack From Joonas Turner
PAPERHEAD’s music comes from Finnish composer and sound designer Joonas Turner, whose credits include Cult of the Lamb, Noita and CARRION. The Steam page promises an industrial soundtrack built to keep the pace high, which suits a boomer shooter. The full PAPERHEAD Soundtrack is available as DLC for $7.99, and it’s 10% off ($7.19) at launch.
PAPERHEAD at a Glance
| Genre | Fast-movement boomer shooter · adventure horror |
| Players | Single-player |
| Steam Deck | Verified |
| Controller | Full controller support (Xbox and PlayStation) |
| Achievements | 25 |
| Languages | 11, including English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese |
| Minimum PC | Windows 7 64-bit or later · 2 GB RAM · GeForce 9800GT or equivalent · DirectX 9 · 2 GB |
| Recommended PC | Windows 10 64-bit · 2.4 GHz quad-core · 4 GB RAM · GeForce GTX 460 or equivalent · DirectX 11 · 3 GB |
Those specs are about as light as modern PC games get, so almost any machine (and every Steam Deck) can run it. HypeTrain has also announced PAPERHEAD for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
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