From the Kickstarter page:
The Past: Humanity has left Earth centuries ago on a one-way trip in search of new life, to start over on a new world. Most of the travelers did not survive, but those who lived, found a new home on a massive, alien world. They named it Westward, as it spins in a polar opposite direction of Earth…
Now! This is when you arrive on Westward. Three hundred-forty three years after the first colonists crash-landed, Westward is rife with hostilities, from dangerous wildlife to scant resources. While the colonists started with advanced technologies, they quickly realized the need to reverse engineer their ideas to adapt to a new world. Despite all their technological knowledge, much of Humanity lives in rural and badland settings. Everyday, these people struggle for survival and are barely able to produce enough food.
A dependency on steam power emerged with advances in manipulating the unique properties of water. To keep the peace, the Central Council hired Marshalls to work with local towns. Due to the disparate layout and distances between towns, the law of the gun became the common law, where the Marshalls arrested, tried, and convicted most criminals on their own.
With an inherent reliance on steam and bullets, Westward is a fast-paced and cinematic Steampunk Western setting. With deep roots in telling a story that holds the elements of both the Steampunk and Western genres, the game focuses primarily on Humans as a species divided, competing for the very necessities to stay alive.