Built using Unreal Engine 5, Mother Machine is a roguelike, featuring mutant gremlins, their defective robotic mother, and a new frontier in procedurally-generated co-op action gameplay

Players control one of many grotesquely adorable “chaos gremlins” who are endlessly sent to death, then revived by their malfunctioning robot mother in search of resources, technology, and the answers to the planet’s darkest mysteries.

Set thousands of years in the future, Mother Machine takes place on a distant planet once colonized by humans but since abandoned. Left behind by her creators, an Artificial Intelligence faced a problem: without a purpose, she needed to find a way to protect her digital mind from breaking under the burden of being forever alone. Her solution was to create a creature that she could take care of.

True rascals, with an affinity for mischief and chaos, these little gremlins were bioengineered by their mother to withstand and survive a harsh alien environment. 3D-printed from organic filament by their godlike Mother Machine, these creatures are tasked to collect and explore a vast cave network of a mysterious alien planet, brimming with biodiversity and peculiar life-forms — but the further the gremlins venture, the more they find out about the dark secrets of the planet’s history, and the true ambitions of their mechanical mother.

Maschinen-Mensch has announced an Open Beta Playtest for Mother Machine.

Beginning on Friday, November 22nd at 10:30am CET and lasting until the same time on Monday, November 25th, a work-in-progress build of the game will be made open to the public for the purposes of optimizing and fine-tuning core mechanics and online multiplayer functionality.

Players interested in participating in the playtest can do so by visiting the game’s Steam page once the playtest goes live on November 22nd!

This beta playtest will feature multiple levels for players to explore, each of which is set across a different biome, as well as a central Hub to connect with other players and level up their gremlin of choice. There will be limited customization options available, but necessarily won’t carry over for players who return for future playtests.

This playtest will offer several new features not available to participants of past playtests, including mouse & keyboard support, new UI animations & icons, enhanced visual and audio effects, and more! This playtest will have no player cap, and will be available on Steam.

Key Features:

• Control a colorful chaos gremlin capable of seamlessly running, climbing and leaping through intricate procedurally-designed alien caves, where no one playthrough is the same
• Extend and deepen the active abilities of their gremlins with a vast range of mutations, altering gameplay to suit their preferred playstyle and desired difficulty
• Join games at any time with easy drop-in multiplayer for up to four players, increasing the levels of both chaos and competition
• Share the experience with friends of all skill levels, as the game’s balanced co-op mechanics allow expert players to join together with novices, making the mania more accessible
• Enjoy a silly, soulful world and an engaging narrative about the limits of technology, the nature of loneliness & the power of family
• Experience unique & personal moments created by emergent gameplay, endlessly replayable generative levels & satisfying progression

Mother Machine is in development for PC (Steam) and consoles in Q1 2025.