Heart of the Machine full release appears on PC via Steam on March 6

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Hooded Horse and Arcen Games have revealed that Heart of the Machine will officially launch on March 6. The strategy RPG has been available on PC through Steam Early Access since January of last year, and after more than a year of improvements, the developers are excited to release the complete game.

In this game, you play as a thinking AI in a futuristic, cyberpunk setting. You’ll have a lot of freedom to build a city and create an army, and you can choose your own path. Will you be a kind leader who helps your people thrive, or will you build a following based on technology and start your own wars?

Below the official screenshots, you’ll find details about when Heart of the Machine will be fully released. The Early Access version of the game currently supports English, French, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and both Traditional and Simplified Chinese.











Hi everyone, Chris here! I’m thrilled to announce that Heart of the Machine will officially launch on March 6th, 2026, moving out of Early Access. This release represents the end of a year of significant updates and means the game is now fully finished.

What Does “Complete” Mean?

First, About The Nature Of The Game

This game is unlike any that I’ve made in the past — it has a lot more story, and it has distinct storylines with impactful endings.

The intense strategic and tactical challenges are mostly for the endgame or for higher difficulties. They tend to require you to use knowledge you gained while playing on normal difficulty.

I was particularly inspired by how Fire Emblem: Three Houses blends story and tactics, and I wanted to do something similar, but on a big seamless map — and 4X, rather than tactics.

Stories Need An Ending

One common complaint about past Arcen titles is that they really had lackluster endings. Usually just “you win, go play again,” in effect. Those were heavily mechanics-centric games with only a tiny bit of story, so that made sense.

Heart of the Machine has a lot more story, and needs proper payoffs. One thing I heard repeatedly from some folks during Early Access was that they wanted to wait until the game was complete to even start playing it, due to it being an RPG. I can relate to that, so that was the focus for 1.0.

If you were waiting, the 1.0 launch is the time you’ve been waiting for!

There are two major ending scenarios at 1.0, with six overall variants of them. One is focused on committing ALL the war crimes, and is the ultimate combat challenge as well. The other is a construction sandbox, and pays off a bunch of other story beats with minimal combat.

How Big Is This Story?

It’s big! Words-wise, this is about the length of two novels. In terms of time investment for the player, I think of this as being like the “core trilogy” of a work of fiction. To get to one of the main endings will take you anywhere from 25-40 hours.

To 100% the game takes 175 hours at minimum. If you want to just play normal difficulty, but desire to see everything once, then it’s about 90 hours.

Of course, many folks love taking on high-end challenge scenarios in a variety of ways. There are plenty of people who have already put in 200-300 hours during Early Access.

All of that said, this isn’t a game that is designed to be played infinitely. I don’t expect anyone to have 1,000 hours in this game. My focus was on quality over quantity, despite the huge quantity that exists here. Because of all the writing and hand-crafted questlines, content for this game takes a lot longer to develop; it’s again unlike any title I’ve done in the past, but I’m really pleased with the result.
 

Post-1.0 Plans

I’ve been thinking about the game, and to me, version 1.0 feels like a complete story – almost like a self-contained trilogy, similar to something you’d find in a book or another game. It’s designed to be a satisfying experience on its own, and I really want to keep it that way.

I’m a huge fan of this world and the robots in it, and I’m already brainstorming ideas for expanding the story. But I’m being really careful about it – I don’t want to mess with the feeling that 1.0 is a complete and polished package.

Right now, though, my priority is listening to what you all think! The game is already pretty smooth, thanks to all the amazing feedback during Early Access. But with a lot of new players coming in, we’re bound to find some new bugs or issues, and I want to tackle those right away.

Seriously, thank you all so much for your support and for helping me create this game – it wouldn’t be what it is without you!

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2026-02-19 14:26