Greetings Gremlins!
Today we’re happy to share with you what we’ve been working on for the last few months since launching Mother Machine: a demo of an experimental new game mode, which we’re calling Co-Op Gremlin Tours!
In Co-Op Gremlin Tours, you and your Gremlin friends are on a trip to the (newly terraformed) surface of the planet, using the drilling machines left behind by the Creators. Each Tour will take you through a number of small caves, each with its own distinct theme and goal. At the end of each cave, you will find another drill taking you to the next cave: but first, you and your Gremlin pals will need to decide which cave to explore next with a vote!
Since launch, we’ve been updating Mother Machine with new content like the Creators’ Ruins biome, as well as making getting into the game with your friends more streamlined with features like the Custom Expedition and Quick Play machines. We’ve also added support for Steam Remote Play Together, the game is now Steam Deck Verified, and of course fixed many bugs and performance issues.
But we've also been listening to feedback about wanting something different. Many of you have asked for a more roguelike experience as in our previous games, and we've been experimenting with ideas that go beyond just supporting the current game.
This demo introduces a roguelike "Ascension"-style structure, while preserving the core cave exploration and chaotic co-op gameplay you love:
More Varied Gameplay - In a Gremlin Tour you encounter smaller, more focused caves, each with a different theme and biome. Some caves will be all about platforming with ropes and acid pools to dodge; another might have swarms of critters hunting you in the dark; or perhaps you’ll be trying to smash as many crystals as you can before the Drill departs.
New Progression Systems - When you start a Tour, you don’t have any mutations or perks yet. Different caves will give you opportunities to equip a mutation or get a perk as you progress through the ascension path, so you’ll become more powerful and get to try different abilities as you keep drilling up. You will also start the game with a base level of health, stamina, and respawns, and there will be ways to unlock permanent upgrades, cave-types, and abilities that persist between each Tour.
Better Replayability - In this new mode, you will be experiencing a different “Ascension” map layout each time, with decisions about which path to take after each cave changing what options you have later in the Tour. And as you equip different mutations on each Tour, you will experience different “builds” of your team (with your unlocks all pooled together to choose from). There will also be a more “roguelike” direction for the difficulty, so you will probably need many attempts before you successfully reach the planet’s surface.
This demo includes a light tutorial and roughly half the caves we'd envision for a full ascension path (with complete Tours spanning 2-3 different ascension paths). All mutations and customizations are unlocked from the start, and there are no permanent upgrades yet. You can play online with friends through Steam's invite system or Remote Play Together, though split-screen isn't included.
This represents a potential vision for what Mother Machine could become, but whether it moves forward depends entirely on how you - our community - responds. If we do continue to make this new game mode, all existing owners of Mother Machine will receive it for free.
If this resonates with you, if you can see yourself playing many hours of this kind of experience, please add it to your Steam wishlist. Wishlists are the strongest signal we can get about genuine interest, and they help us understand if this is something worth pursuing further.