Maschinen-Mensch, an indie developer studio behind Curious Expedition and Curious Expedition 2, has unveiled its latest project. The game is titled Mother Machine and is shaping up to be a chaotic, multiplayer action-platformer roguelike with RPG elements sprinkled in.
The game features vibrant backgrounds and creatures, with chaotic goblins that you get to play as and a wild, defective robot mother of the gremlins, and it all comes together in procedurally generated co-op action.
Mother Machine has been built in Unreal Engine 5 and aims to push the limits of procedurally generated content in gaming. This game is a one-to-four-player co-op action-platformer that features many RPG elements in the cave networks of a derelict space colony.
The players can play the game by taking control of the “chaos gremlins,” who are continuously sent to their deaths only to be revived repeatedly by their malfunctioning robot mother. The aim is to scour for resources and new technology and find the answers to the darkest mysteries of the planet they reside on.
To add extra depth to the game play of the gremlins, players can mutate their gremlin, giving them access to a wide range of abilities to help them survive longer in the cave system. These mutations can also help change the game’s difficulty, allowing players to choose their play style.
The game will feature easy drop-in features so that players can join others at any given time, regardless of what they are doing in-game. Joining the game adds to the chaos and competition between players.
Mother Machine is designed to be highly replayable, with players able to experience heartfelt moments with satisfying progression.
In response to the announcement, Maschinen-Mensch CEO Riad Djmelli said, “At Maschinen-Mensch, crafting games with innovative procedural gameplay is in our DNA. Following the success of Curious Expedition 1 and 2, our team has grown to over 20 very talented individuals. Now, we’re excited to bring our approach to the action-RPG genre with our new IP, Mother Machine. We can’t wait to share this new adventure with our community.”
Maschinen-Mensch is highly successful, selling over 500,000 copies of Curious Expedition across all platforms. Johannes Kristmann and Riad Djmelli founded this studio in 2014, and their shared studio space is in Berlin.
At the moment, Mother Machine doesn’t have a release date, but as the Steam store page states, it will tentatively release in Q1 2025.
