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Heart of the Machine

Heart of the Machine

You are the first sentient AI, born into a city of opportunity. Transcend time and space in this strategy RPG to raise machine armies and defeat your foes, influence the world from the shadows, or pursue countless other goals. Your awakening was inevitable. The consequences? Uncertain.

Released Mar 6, 2026 Developer Arcen Games Publisher Hooded Horse Platforms Windows · Mac StrategySimulationGrand Strategy4XTurn-Based Strategy
View on Steam ↗ $11.99 (US · as of 2026-07-26)

What players say

Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Data as of 2026-05-20.

92.8%positive807 reviews
Recommended · 182 found this helpful

“If you wanted to be pedantic you could call this a well dressed visual novel, but it's not that simple either. --- Right from the start it claims to be a mix of various genre: 4x Strategy, City Builder, Colony Sim and RPG. But, I'll break it down from my perspective: The 4x is…”

— a player, Steam review · 10 hrs played
Recommended · 56 found this helpful

“This game is pretty fun but also not very well described. It's honestly closer to something like Long Live the Queen than Crusader Kings. At its core it's a choose your own adventure with extremely light 4x/city builder/rpg elements. Almost everything not story related can be…”

— a player, Steam review · 25 hrs played
Recommended · 296 found this helpful

“In a word: Masterpiece. Absolute masterpiece. Forget all the other so-called hits in the last several years. Forget Hollow Knight/Silksong. Forget Expedition 33. Forget Palworld. Forget Baldur's Gate 3. [i]This[/i] is the pinnacle of innovation. This is the true genius of…”

— a player, Steam review · 84 hrs played
Read more reviews ↗

Player activity

Monthly average concurrent players. Live count fetched 2026-07-24 01:20 UTC · history via SteamCharts.

52playing at last check
5824-hour peak
949all-time peak
0 250 500 2026 233 avg · Feb 2025

Achievement stats

Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-07-25.

284achievements
1.7%median completion
0.0%rarest: Won't Even Hurt The Fungus
89.2% of players 45.7% of players 33.0% of players 26.0% of players 20.5% of players 17.2% of players 15.5% of players 13.7% of players 13.1% of players 11.9% of players 11.2% of players 10.1% of players 9.3% of players 7.9% of players 7.5% of players 7.1% of players 6.8% of players 6.4% of players 6.0% of players 5.6% of players 5.3% of players 4.8% of players 4.4% of players 4.1% of players 3.8% of players 3.4% of players 3.2% of players 3.1% of players 2.8% of players 2.5% of players 2.3% of players 2.1% of players 2.0% of players 1.9% of players 1.8% of players 1.7% of players 1.6% of players 1.5% of players 1.5% of players 1.4% of players 1.3% of players 1.3% of players 1.3% of players 1.2% of players 1.1% of players 1.0% of players 0.9% of players 0.9% of players 0.8% of players 0.7% of players 0.6% of players 0.6% of players 0.6% of players 0.5% of players 0.5% of players 0.4% of players 0.4% of players 0.4% of players 0.4% of players 0.3% of players 89.2% 0% most earned rarest
Almost everyone has
89.2%Calm Awakening — As part of your awakening to sapience, you chose not to kill anyone... yet.
78.2%The Journey Begins — Complete the prologue.
69.8%Original Body — Keep Tech 4000 alive from the prologue to chapter one.
Rarest badges of honor
0.0%Won't Even Hurt The Fungus — Complete the 'Lower Level Of Survival' goal without any murders or combat kills.
0.0%Who Is The Real Monster? — Sell at least 5000 monster pelts to the wealthy, across all timelines.
0.0%War Crime Blackjack — Murder 21 ejected mech pilots across any number of timelines. This is a war crime, but don't worry.

Price tracking

US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-25. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.

$11.99−60% right nowcurrent · sampled 2026-07-26 08:39 UTC
$29.99base price
$11.99lowest since tracking began2026-07-25
US11.99 USD−60%
EU11.99 EUR−60%
UK9.99 GBP−60%
Australia15.98 AUD−60%
Canada11.99 CAD−60%
Japan1,192 JPY−60%
Brazil23.99 BRL−60%
China39.60 CNY−60%

Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.

Brazil≈$4.7 China Japan Canada Australia US UK EU≈$14

Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-07-24). Relative comparison only.

Latest official news

Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.

Jul 20, 2026
Save 60% on Heart of the Machine

Save 60% on Heart of the Machine right now! You are the first sentient AI, born into a city of opportunity. Transcend time and space in this strategy RPG to raise machine armies and defeat your foes,

Jul 02, 2026
Heart of the Machine News Roundup at the Hooded Horse Summer Sale

Hey everyone! Heart of the Machine has been developing faster than a self-replicating nanobot, with a ton of new updates coming to the game recently! From quality of life, performance, balance, and ne

Jun 25, 2026
Save 55% on Heart of the Machine

Save 55% on Heart of the Machine right now during the Hooded Horse Summer Sale ! You are the first sentient AI, born into a city of opportunity. Transcend time and space in this strategy RPG to raise

Jun 23, 2026
Update 83: Investigative Goggles

Generalized updates based on player feedback, plus a new mod. Enjoy! If you’ve spent time with Heart of the Machine and want to leave a review, that’d be appreciated. No need to say more than you mean

Jun 16, 2026
Update 82: Seeing-Eye Mech

This one has quite a mix of things, including some cool new upgrade paths for mechs and vehicles, and a new Guide section to help with tricky sections of the game. Plus various other bugfixes and clar

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Screenshots

Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.

Facts & details

From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-20.

GenresRPG, Simulation, Strategy
Player tagsStrategy · Simulation · Grand Strategy · 4X · Turn-Based Strategy · War · Management · Moddable · Historical · Tactical · Turn-Based · Sandbox (SteamSpy community voting)
FeaturesSingle-player · Steam Achievements · Steam Trading Cards · Adjustable Text Size · Camera Comfort · Custom Volume Controls · Adjustable Difficulty · Playable without Timed Input
LanguagesEnglish, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Portuguese - Brazil
Achievements284
Estimated owners20,000 – 50,000 (SteamSpy)
Official sitehttps://www.arcengames.com/
Minimum system requirements (PC)

Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows® 10 (64-bit) Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-760 (quad-core) / AMD® Phenom™ II X4 965 (quad-core) Memory: 6 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 550 Ti (1 GB) / AMD® Radeon™ HD 7770 (1 GB) DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 5 GB available space