Mother Machine brings Oddworld-inspired co-op chaos

Indie developer Maschinen-Mensch revealed its latest game, Mother Machine. Planned to release on PC and unspecified consoles, it’s a colorful, chaotic platformer with an emphasis on co-op play. Digital Trends got an early look at the title ahead of today’s reveal, which showcased its oddball energy.

Maschinen-Mensch is best known for its work on the Curious Expedition series, a pair of story-driven roguelikes that hinge around procedurally generated content. Mother Machine takes the learnings from those games to the next level by placing them in a one-to-four-player co-op platformer built in Unreal Engine 5.

The story takes place on an abandoned planet a thousand years in the future. Humans have disappeared and left behind a powerful artificial intelligence that becomes a mother to local “chaos gremlins.” That sets the stage for a run-based platformer where the little critters set out to complete objectives for the Mother Machine.

I saw a bit of Mother Machine in action during a hands-off demo session ahead of today’s reveal. During it, three developers navigated a sprawling 2D cave in search of a specified exit. Each one chose a specific power that affected the way they could interact with that environment. One selected a power that let them shoot spikes that could kill enemies, while another equipped a healing fart. It’s a bit similar to KarmaZoo, another indie co-op game with a similar premise, but filtered through the gross-out humor of the Oddworld series.

Runs see players working together to collect crystals, which can be used to buy stat boosts during the run. Players must choose their powers wisely to make sure they can cover one another’s weakness, though Maschinen-Mensch stresses that the game isn’t structured like a Metroidvania with gear-gating. The more players complete missions, the more they unlock new objectives and narrative cutscenes.

Based on what I’ve seen so far, Mother Machine has potential as a chaotic co-op game for platforming fans. It has a